NEW YORK – After an internal investigation, The New York Times said Friday it was wrong to trust a Canadian man whose account of Islamic State atrocities was a central part of its 2018 podcast “Caliphate” but could not be verified.The series had won a Peabody Award, the first ever for a podcast produced by the newspaper, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.But the Times began to reexamine the 12-part podcast after Canadian police arrested Shehroze Chaudhry, who used the alias Abu Huzayfah, for perpetrating a terrorist hoax.
His account of participating in executions and witnessing other atrocities had been included in the podcast.“In the absence of firmer evidence, ‘Caliphate’ should have been substantially revised to exclude the material.