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Army Private Discloses He Is New Republic's Baghdad Diarist
washingtonpost.com ^ | July 27, 2007 | Howard Kurtz

Posted on 07/27/2007 3:35:43 PM PDT by kellynla

The New Republic's anonymous "Baghdad Diarist" identified himself yesterday as Scott Thomas Beauchamp, an Army private in Iraq, and disputed as "maddening" accusations that he had invented his accounts of cruelty by American soldiers.

The magazine's editor, Franklin Foer, disclosed in an interview that Beauchamp is married to a New Republic staffer, and that is "part of the reason why we found him to be a credible writer." Foer also said Beauchamp "has put himself in significant jeopardy" and "lost his lifeline to the rest of the world" because military officials have taken away his laptop, cellphone and e-mail privileges.

As both the military and the magazine investigate Beauchamp's allegations, a personal blog surfaced in which Beauchamp said last year that each morning he feels "retarded for joining the army," "a little more liberal than the day before" and "a tool for global corporations."

In a statement posted on the New Republic's Web site, Beauchamp said his columns for the magazine, written under the name Scott Thomas, were "one soldier's view of events in Iraq" and "never intended as a reflection of the entire U.S. military."

"It's been maddening, to say the least," he added, "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."

Beauchamp did not provide any documentation for his three published columns.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: diarist; iraq; scottthomas; tnr; war
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68
“Army Private” makes him an E-2 or even E-1.

If memory servers me correctly, you come out of "Basic" as an E-2. If not "Basic" then AIT. Seems to be a loser.

21 posted on 07/27/2007 4:15:33 PM PDT by Road Warrior ‘04 (Soon to be Fredbacker1)
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To: LongElegantLegs

“I bet he’s got a ‘counseling’ sheet as long as my arm.”

Dunno about that.....in my day ‘counseling’ was a trip out back or a blanket party.....methinks one could call it peer pressure


22 posted on 07/27/2007 4:17:06 PM PDT by Vn_survivor_67-68
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To: kellynla

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478134/

Check out this magnum opus. It is the start of Hollywood’s Fall offensive...and I mean TRULY offensive. I heard about it on Neil Cavuto today.

F


23 posted on 07/27/2007 4:17:26 PM PDT by Frank Sheed (Fr. V. R. Capodanno, Lt, USN, Catholic Chaplain. 3rd/5th, 1st Marine Div., FMF. MOH, posthumously.)
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To: MizSterious

Well that surely convinces me his heart was in the right spot.

And the media in our nation goble this stuff up and regurgitate over the airwaves.

I’ve been off for a few weeks and I have seen countless damning shows on our Iraqi efforts and not a single on the good we have done.

Our media is in need of a good ASS-KICKING.


24 posted on 07/27/2007 4:18:03 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Victory will never be achieved while defining Conservatism downward, and forsaking it's heritage.)
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To: kellynla
Jack Kelly says;

"That he is Pvt. Beauchamp suggests this is not his first brush with the UCMJ. He called himself PFC Beauchamp on his Web site last September, which indicates he's been busted a stripe. He's been in the Army long enough to be a Spec 4."

On his blog (Sir Real Scott Thomas), Pvt. Beauchamp indicates he's an aspiring writer who joined the Army to establish credentials for voicing his liberal political opinions.

"I know that NOT participating in a war (and such a misguided one at that) should be considered better than wanting to be in one just to write a book," he wrote May 18, 2006. "But...maybe I'd rather be both."

But is Pvt. Beauchamp telling the truth about what he sees in Iraq?

In a blog entry for May 8, 2006, Pvt. Beauchamp describes an atrocity:

''Put a 556 in his head.' (The caliber of an M-16 rifle is .556 millimeters.) On the street below, the man's brown face dissolves in a thick red mist. The lights in the city's houses shut off in unison. Electricity rationing. Water rationing too. You ever tried to survive for more than a few hours in 120 degree weather?"

On May 8, 2006, Pvt. Beauchamp was in Germany, where temperatures rarely reach 120 degrees, and the electricity and water work just fine.

If what Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp wrote in the New Republic isn't true, he's in trouble, and so is the magazine.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/07/pvt_beauchamp_in_big_trouble_e.html

25 posted on 07/27/2007 4:22:15 PM PDT by anglian
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If what Pvt. Beauchamp wrote IS true, he's in bigger trouble, because he and his buddies have broken so many articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that I haven't space to list them all.
26 posted on 07/27/2007 4:24:07 PM PDT by anglian
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68

They don’t deal with stuff in-house like they used to...Now they give you a papertrail that follows you from duty station to duty station.

I blame the wimmins.


27 posted on 07/27/2007 4:25:35 PM PDT by LongElegantLegs (<--- "Crazy Aunt" Conservative)
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To: Frank Sheed

Looks like it will be the usual Hollyweird pantload of hate-the-military excrement. Oh, but leftists “support the troops” — even as they create anti-American propaganda seeking to undermine support for them.


28 posted on 07/27/2007 4:26:57 PM PDT by Enchante (Reid and Pelosi Defeatocrats: Surrender Now - Peace for Our Time!!)
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To: kellynla; MizSterious

You’re right. And thank you.


29 posted on 07/27/2007 4:29:49 PM PDT by hsalaw
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To: kellynla
“retarded for joining the army”

Actually, I think that he’d still be retarded if he hadn’t joined the Army.

My guess is that will be his only defense if he can’t back up his writings with evidence and a damn good reason for not reporting those activities he chronicles to the chain of command.

30 posted on 07/27/2007 4:30:46 PM PDT by vetsvette (Bring Him Back)
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To: anglian

Scott Treason Beauchump!

He thinks he’s John F’ing Kerry!

To be welcomed home a Liberal hero, then elected a Senator, and maybe the President.


31 posted on 07/27/2007 4:33:17 PM PDT by Stallone (War with Iran - While Bush is President and Troops are Present.)
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To: Stallone

Scott Treason Blowchunks


32 posted on 07/27/2007 4:33:47 PM PDT by Stallone (War with Iran - While Bush is President and Troops are Present.)
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To: Bushbacker1
Let me confirm that for you. He is, indeed, a loser.

One of the posts on a Military blog I read confirmed that this man was once a PFC and had been busted back at least 1 rank.

They also listed his blog's URL : http://www.blogger.com/profile/09546835379209736465 . I read it and for that blog I have his e-mail address as of September of 2006: stb5g5@hotmail.com

I have no idea if it is still active. Since he is restricted from using it at present - WITH GOOD REASON - he would not get any of our "well wishes" for some time. I still will take the time to drop him a little message wishing him... I don't know.. herpes maybe.

33 posted on 07/27/2007 4:46:49 PM PDT by Volunteer (Just so you know, I am ashamed the Dixie Chicks make records in Nashville.)
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To: LongElegantLegs
Numbnuts oughta be court martialed.

Then shot.

34 posted on 07/27/2007 4:49:32 PM PDT by dfwgator (The University of Florida - Still Championship U)
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To: kellynla
accounts of cruelty by American soldiers

Cell phone videos removed from YOUTUBE as said to anger Iraqi as depicts Inappropriate Material.

Warning: Execution of unarmed man by Iraqi fighters:

YouTube has permanently suspended my account and deleted all my videos. The reason they gave me was "repeated attempts to upload inappropriate videos." I have been receiving several angry messages from Iraqis who did not like the videos I had published of Mahdi Army militiamen blowing up Sunni mosques in Baghdad and Basrah, and from some Kurds who objected to this video, which I had uploaded two days ago before my account was blocked (mature content):

VIDEO

The cellphone video has been circulating on Iraqi websites. It is purportedly a video of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in the Iraqi Army summarily executing a young unarmed man in Mosul this month. The sound is not clear but the soldiers were speaking the Kurdish dialect of Erbil, according to some Kurds who viewed the video. The man is swearing to them that he "has nothing," and the officer is heard telling the soldiers to release him, but they enter a heated argument with the officer, ending in their prostrating the man on the street and opening fire on him. No further details are available about the video.
# posted by Zeyad (Iraqi dentist) : 7/26/2007 12:31:00 PM

Subject: Kurds, Peshmerga fighters, War In Iraq, Iraqi Army, Mosul, Mahdi Army militiamen

35 posted on 07/27/2007 4:54:29 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
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To: kellynla
The magazine's editor, Franklin Foer, disclosed in an interview that Beauchamp is married to a New Republic staffer, and that is "part of the reason why we found him to be a credible writer."

Is that one of the criteria to be a "credible" writer?

36 posted on 07/27/2007 4:58:58 PM PDT by lowbridge (A Gun A Day Keeps The Government Away)
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68
Although the article was rigorously edited and fact-checked before it was published

What a load of crap.

37 posted on 07/27/2007 5:00:52 PM PDT by lowbridge (A Gun A Day Keeps The Government Away)
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To: All
Sorry..video just removed. I had just watched it moments ago!!!
Officer tries to stop the confrontation, stands with the unarmed civilian dressed Iraqi man, finally moves away out numbered by out of control Iraqi army fighters, open fire on the man who knowing the end is goes into fetal position, then rounds fired in over kill/execution!
38 posted on 07/27/2007 5:01:55 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
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To: kellynla

What do Scott Beauchamp and Joseph Wilson have in common?

Literary flair!


39 posted on 07/27/2007 5:06:16 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: lowbridge
The magazine's editor, Franklin Foer, disclosed in an interview that Beauchamp is married to a New Republic staffer, and that is "part of the reason why we found him to be a credible writer."

"Is that one of the criteria to be a "credible" writer?"

I don't know if it makes this clown a "credible writer" but it sure as hell makes him a bona fide liberal. LOL
40 posted on 07/27/2007 5:06:49 PM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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