Posted on 08/06/2007 7:23:23 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned from a military source close to the investigation that Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp--author of the much-disputed "Shock Troops" article in the New Republic's July 23 issue as well as two previous "Baghdad Diarist" columns--signed a sworn statement admitting that all three articles he published in the New Republic were exaggerations and falsehoods--fabrications containing only "a smidgen of truth," in the words of our source.
Separately, we received this statement from Major Steven F. Lamb, the deputy Public Affairs Officer for Multi National Division-Baghdad:
An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by PVT Beauchamp were found to be false. His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims.
According to the military source, Beauchamp's recantation was volunteered on the first day of the military's investigation. So as Beauchamp was in Iraq signing an affidavit denying the truth of his stories, the New Republic was publishing a statement from him on its website on July 26, in which Beauchamp said, "I'm willing to stand by the entirety of my articles for the New Republic using my real name."
The magazine's editors admitted on August 2 that one of the anecdotes Beauchamp stood by in its entirety--meant to illustrate the "morally and emotionally distorting effects of war"--took place (if at all) in Kuwait, before his tour of duty in Iraq began, and not, as he had claimed, in his mess hall in Iraq. That event was the public humiliation by Beauchamp and a comrade of a woman whose face had been "melted" by an IED.
Nothing public has been heard from Beauchamp since his statement standing by his stories, which was posted on the New Republic website at 6:30 a.m. on July 26. In their August 2 statement, the New Republic's editors complained that the military investigation was "short-circuiting" TNR's own fact-checking efforts. "Beauchamp," they said, "had his cell-phone and computer taken away and is currently unable to speak to even his family. His fellow soldiers no longer feel comfortable communicating with reporters. If further substantive information comes to light, TNR will, of course, share it with you."
Now that the military investigation has concluded, the great unanswered question in the affair is this: Did Scott Thomas Beauchamp lie under oath to U.S. Army investigators, or did he lie to his editors at the New Republic? Beauchamp has recanted under oath. Does the New Republic still stand by his stories?
Not sure which is worse, writing fiction or publishing fiction as fact.
Let the editor know your thoughts.
Letters to the Editor and Press Inquiries:
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E-mail: editor@weeklystandard.com
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The black woman is actually Janet Cooke. I still don’t know who the fourth person is.
ping
...as Beauchamp was in Iraq signing an affidavit denying the truth of his stories, the New Republic was publishing a statement from him on its website on July 26, in which Beauchamp said, "I'm willing to stand by the entirety of my articles for the New Republic using my real name."I'm sure a Pulitzer is still in the cards, and maybe a Nobel for literature. My question is, will this turn out the lights on the so-called New Republic or result in the firing of its editor in chief?
But, then again, with Weekly World News ceasing publication, at least there's a hole in the supermarket checkout lane for such niche publications as The New Republic. Interesting that they would go for that market instead of exhibiting an ounce of journalistic integrity. /sarc
Glad to see the military is trying to stay on top of some of the worst lying, traitorous b@stards who's mission is to demoralize and help kill as many soldiers as possible.
God, I miss Tonk.
Liberal propaganidist bent on the destruction of the United States....
Republicans better learn quick give no quarter for none was given to you.
Ten to one nobody will be fired.
He must be Clintonian.
That’ll make it sweeter when it’s brought up at the convention keynote.
It is clear that what Beauchump was attempting was something along the lines of the vast majority of the anti-war combat novel genre - the ineluctable dehumanization of the troops, the coarsening of the human spirit, the flip acceptance of the horrifying. These are such worn themes by now that they have attained the status of cliche, a thing that 21-year-old authors might be expected to have yet to learn in mastering their craft but that any professional editor whould have sensed instantly. There was, therefore, a willing suspension of disbelief on the part of TNR's staff, a suspicion that seems to me confirmed by the cursory (if any) investigation of these charges before the stories went to print.
The question is why this embarrassing lack of professionalism? Investigations of the "incidents" subsequent to publication are ridiculous - TNR appears to be complaining that the current military investigation of what included a literal war crime is impeding the investigation that they should have completed before this thing ever went to press. That their own current investigation is a simple matter of CYA is achingly obvious.
But this wasn't fiction, however cliched. This included descriptions of real people worked into the fantasies of a hyperactive imagination, and they have every right to be outraged at a fictional description of their behavior, especially in view of the real difficulties they face on a daily basis. The line between fiction and slander is crystal-clear in this case, and all the after-the-fact moralizing about "greater truths" served by slander is pathetic nonsense.
And so this miserable wretch's literary career is born. He'll need a pseudonym, to be sure. But he'll be out there in wrinkled BDU's pretending to be a hardened vet, fawned over by a credulous anti-war clique as he recounts the battlefield horrors he witnessed from the vantage point of a rear-area barracks. They'll love him - just watch.
Odd that those alleged effects only seem to happen to the morally ambiguous or indifferent in the first place.
There are plenty of honorable, honest, caring and Christian men and women who have been plunged into the midst of the horrors of war and come out with their honor and morality and emotional health intact.
Matthew 724 ¶ Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
He's going to be in deep poop if he tries this. Supposedly Iraq "made him evil and crazy". Since he just admitted he's a leftist tool and NONE of this happened while he was in Iraq, it makes him just a garden variety home-grown POS. He was a loon before he signed up. I'd be real surprised if even the left wants to make him a martyr since he wrote about what a cruel asshole he is.
I can’t handle going to DU anymore. Too much hate. Please keep us informed. You’re way braver than me!
It sickens me that jerks like this go over there, thinking they can play both sides against the middle. How many Scott Thomas’s are out there? How many end up getting their comrades injured or killed because they aren’t there fighting for their country, but for their own self-aggrandizement?
BeauCHUMP (yes, this is grade-school behavior)obviously was there to do just that. He openly admitted in his “Sir Real” (get it, *juvenile snicker* get it?) blog that he enlisted to get military cred, so he could be some important antiwar writer. Perhaps he was even shooting for public office, ala John Kerry. He had penned a lot of his phlegm when he was still in Germany. Some of the most heinous stuff was written while he was waiting to be deployed to Iraq.
He thought he was so brilliant. What a toad.
What I am most amused by is his immediate recantation, while at the same time TNR is releasing the statement of the Baghdad Diarist standing by ALL his stories and with his real name, to boot.
They didn’t see that bus coming, did they? **grin**
“It is clear that what Beauchump was attempting was something along the lines of the vast majority of the anti-war combat novel genre ....”
Too bad for this creep that he is the Frank Burns of the anti-war combat novel genre, i.e., totally incompetent.
Absolutely. In the old days he wouldn’t have been caught so quickly. They’re fawning over Kos in Chicago but this is the real impact of the New Media. TNR says they’ve taken away his laptop, but I do hope he’s reading some of this. It’d be a humbling and thoroughly deserved experience.
“I’m sure academia will be happy to hire him...”
I heard CU had an opening.
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