Posted on 07/27/2007 4:53:26 AM PDT by Renfield
Scott Thomas came out of the closet today. His real name is Scott Thomas Beauchamp and he's serving with Alpha Company, 1/18 Infantry, Second Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division in Iraq:
It’s been maddening, to say the least, to see the plausibility of events that I witnessed questioned by people who have never served in Iraq. I was initially reluctant to take the time out of my already insane schedule fighting an actual war in order to play some role in an ideological battle that I never wanted to join. That being said, my character, my experiences, and those of my comrades in arms have been called into question, and I believe that it is important to stand by my writing under my real name.
Meanwhile, The New Republic continues to backcheck their fact checkers to try and find out the truth in Beauchamp's allegations of bad behavior by American forces:
As we’ve noted in this space, some have questioned details that appeared in the Diarist “Shock Troops,” published under the pseudonym Scott Thomas. According to Major Kirk Luedeke, a public affairs officer at Forward Operating Base Falcon, a formal military investigation has also been launched into the incidents described in the piece.
Although the article was rigorously edited and fact-checked before it was published, we have decided to go back and, to the extent possible, re-report every detail. This process takes considerable time, as the primary subjects are on another continent, with intermittent access to phones and email. Thus far we’ve found nothing to disprove the facts in the article; we will release the full results of our search when it is completed.
Beauchamp also has a My Space page with some revealing anecdotes:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=20102767
And Michelle Malkin found another blog written by Beauchamp:
http://ghostsonfilm.blogspot.com/
Here’s a blog authored by a “Scott Beauchamp,” titled “Sir Real Scott Thomas,” last updated in September 2006. Same bloated writing style. Here’s a post from April 2006 on his plans: ” ill return to america an author.”
The real problem will be in trying to decide whether Beauchamp has been exaggerating or not. Given his overheated rhetoric found on various sites he contributed to, legitimate questions still need to be asked about his service and what exactly he saw in Iraq.
Update:
Ray Robison has found a blog post by Scott Thomas Beauchamp that may admit he was a liar. or it may be a rough version of literature. It's hard to tell because the post has been removed. Ray seels soeone witht he skills to find a cached version.
http://ghostsonfilm.blogspot.com/
(Caution: lots of gratuitous vulgarity in the quotes from Beauchamp and his friend.)
OOps, that link was supposed to read,
http://rayrobison.typepad.com/ray_robison/2007/07/need-help-from-.html
This seems to have been a setup from the gitgo. The New Republic apparently knew this guy’s political orientation going in. Beauchamp is engaged to a TNR staffer; her imput in getting him hired? TNR so far hasn’t said.
Beauchamp while a student at the University of Missouri was a Howard Dean man. According to his own words he entered the military to give himself a certain credibility. Apparently like John Kerry’s Winter Soldier routine.
And you know, he’d gotten away with it but for the internet. The Old Media just can’t willy-nilly make up stuff anymore.
Kind of like a little Norman “Kingsly” Mailer.
Plame/Wilson...
I think at this point they can just go ahead and change the name of the magazine to “The Untrue Republic”.
Since he is a long-time and publicly committed leftist, his purported 'disdain' for joining ideological battles is more than a bit disingenuous, to say the least. If that statement limns his commitment to truth, one can feel free to completely disregard anything he says.
Pretty limp-wristed response to a challenge of a man's honesty. Where's the unequivocal, straightforward assertion of the accuracy and truth of the article?
Truth stands on its own. It's fiction that needs to be plausible. And apparently even Scotty knows the difference.
I want to know how many ears he cut off and how many generators he wired up to testicles... Maybe he can run for Kerry’s seat when he retires.
The anti-war Left has done this before.
According to the TNR masthead, she’s a reporter-researcher for the magazine."
http://michellemalkin.com/2007/07/26/scott-thomas-steps-out-of-the-shadows/
Why does the left even bother. We catch them in lies so much. This guy sounds like a real mental case.
As for marriage, maybe they married so she couldn’t testify against him when the you know what hits the fan.
Good point.
Yes, we've had plausible deniability now we got plausible assertion.
I would argue that the employees of TNR approved the use of the limp-wristed word.
H/T Laughing Wolf
bookmark
Since he joined the military AFTER the invasion in Iraq, he knew that going there was in the cards. From what I read, HE was the one who encouraged making fun of the woman in the tent....I foresee the military checking up on his guy..and HE will make a big deal about it when they do. I have a feeling he doesn’t like Iraq anymore and is hoping that his writings will get him in trouble so that he can build it up into something even bigger. If I were in his unit, I wouldn’t put my life in his hands...
He’s gotta work on getting those purple hearts first.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.