Free Republic

Acting as a stenographer on Wednesday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd parroted the Obama administration's new attack against critics of the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange: "They did not expect this backlash on Bergdahl himself. I've had a few aides describe it to me as, 'We didn't know that they were going to swift boat Bergdahl'.... MSNBC quickly seized on the "swift boat" line, with Last Word fill-in host Ari Melber declaring Tuesday night: "We're gonna look at the right-wing play book for the newly released American POW, a wounded man who isn’t even out of the hospital...

NEW YORK - A magazine gets a hot story straight from a soldier in Iraq and publishes his writing, complete with gory details, under a pseudonym. The stories are chilling: An Iraqi boy befriends American troops and later has his tongue cut out by insurgents. Soldiers mock a disfigured woman sitting near them in a dining hall. As a diversion, soldiers run over dogs with armored personnel carriers. Compelling stuff, and, according to the Army, not true. Three articles by the soldier have run since January in The New Republic, a liberal magazine with a small circulation owned by Canadian...

Surprisingly enough, there’s actually something interesting in Howard Kurtz’ characteristically lifeless rundown on the Scott Beauchamp drama. As usual, Kurtz entered the fray days late and with little to add. Nonetheless, he concluded his piece in compelling fashion by quoting GWU journalism professor Mark Feldstein. “There is a cloud over the New Republic, but there's one hanging over the Army, as well,” Feldstein noted. “Each investigated this and cleared themselves, but they both have vested interests.” Feldstein must not have gotten Franklin Foer’s memo. The Baghdad Diarists were supposed to represent one soldier’s “discrete” impressions of the war and how...

Man who lied about actions in Iraq admits faking forms By David Bowermaster Seattle Times staff reporter Jesse MacBeth stoked opposition to the Iraq war in 2006 when he spoke out about atrocities he committed as a U.S. Army Ranger serving as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. MacBeth, 23, of Tacoma, claimed to have killed more than 200 people, many at close range, some as they prayed in a mosque. He spoke at an anti-war rally in Tacoma and appeared in a 20-minute anti-war video that circulated widely on the Internet.