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Shocker: Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp Recants

From The Weekly Standard:

Beauchamp Recants

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?

Of course it sounds like he “recanted” just as the military investigation was about to “recant” for him.

Alas, it was ever thus with our “heroes” of the left.

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 10:03 pm. You can leave a response.

12 Responses to “Shocker: Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp Recants”

  1. rakkasan
    August 6th, 2007 at 11:12 pm

    Normally I would say that his dreams of becoming a journalist are dead. However, chances are pretty good he can get hired with his credentials as a leftist traitor. I bet he is sitting alone in the mess hall these days.

  2. BigOil
    August 6th, 2007 at 11:35 pm

    “New Republic’s editors complained that the military investigation was “short-circuiting” TNR’s own fact-checking efforts”

    I wonder what ’short-circuited’ their thorough fact-checking before they printed these lies?

    Maybe the New Republic’s editors missed that day in Journalism 101.

  3. BillK
    August 6th, 2007 at 11:36 pm

    This is at least the second time the left has found a soldier who has “vigorously defended” their account of events only to have them proven to be gross exaggerations of the truth or in fact pure fabrications.

    In a just world, John Kerry would recant as well and “swift boating” would no longer be a synonym for a “dirty attack” but would instead refer to an attempt to expose the truth.

    Alas, I won’t hold my breath for that.

  4. The Redneck
    August 7th, 2007 at 7:54 am

    As far as I’m concerned, “Swift-Boating” does mean an attempt to expose the truth. You’ll note liberals only use the term when liberal lies are exposed…

    His fellow soldiers no longer feel comfortable communicating with reporters.

    Really? I wonder why that might be….

  5. RightWinger
    August 7th, 2007 at 10:52 am

    Is Loser First Class Scott Beauchump related in any way to the former New Republic reporter Stephen Glass? Or did Beauchump watch the movie “Shattered Glass” and was so inspired by the way Glass could lie in his stories, he wanted to continue that tradition at the New Republic?

  6. wardmama4
    August 7th, 2007 at 10:56 am

    Everyone (left) got what they wanted - Beauchamp got his name in print in a ‘known’ media source, tnr got it’s anti-war ’soldier’ drivel with which to bash any and all military as ‘moral retards’ (A. Whitney Brown on Daily Kos) and the military comes out looking like its trying to hide/cover up again. A real leftist win.

    While I do not subscribe to the leftist requirement that you must ‘have suffered my pain/served/done/etc) to respond/discuss/or disagree with me’ crappola - my guess is that the people who wantonly trash the military and/or say such stupid and hateful things - do not know anyone who served at all. As Beauchamp was on his way into Iraq - and a PVT - his military standing to me is less than his leftist standing - as his ‘bio’ shows he met his tnr girlfriend as a volunteer for Howard Dean - so that is more than 3 years ago - and he has how long in the Army? And no Combat Zone experience before he starts writing his ‘war’ diaries?!?

    But we are talking about a group of people who use fake soldiers to push their agenda - so a new real one is just as good. And sadly they get believed with these lies and liars.

  7. 1sttofight
    August 7th, 2007 at 11:37 am

    WM4,
    It is called Pre-Combat Distress Disorder ;)

  8. SG
    August 7th, 2007 at 1:05 pm

    An update from the New Republic’s Plank:

    A STATEMENT ON SCOTT THOMAS BEAUCHAMP:

    We’ve talked to military personnel directly involved in the events that Scott Thomas Beauchamp described, and they corroborated his account as detailed in our statement. When we called Army spokesman Major Steven F. Lamb and asked about an anonymously sourced allegation that Beauchamp had recanted his articles in a sworn statement, he told us, “I have no knowledge of that.” He added, “If someone is speaking anonymously [to The Weekly Standard], they are on their own.” When we pressed Lamb for details on the Army investigation, he told us, “We don’t go into the details of how we conduct our investigations.”

    –The Editors

    http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank

    And we believe you. Sure we do.

  9. low profile
    August 7th, 2007 at 5:12 pm

    In the old days, war stories were confined to bars and men’s magazines. Nobody believed these alcohol-fueled fabrications because enough people had “been there, done that,” and were willing to take the liar outside for some physical counselling. There is no punishment for lying, but there are rewards. Even lousy liars are rewarded.

    You expected something else?

  10. SG
    August 7th, 2007 at 11:33 pm

    More proof of what liars they are at New Republic, from the New York Times, no less:

    Army Says Soldier’s Articles for Magazine Were False

    By PATRICIA COHEN
    Published: August 8, 2007

    An Army investigation into the Baghdad Diarist, a soldier in Iraq who wrote anonymous columns for The New Republic, has concluded that the sometimes shockingly cruel reports were false.

    “We are not going into the details of the investigation,” Maj. Steven F. Lamb, deputy public affairs officer in Baghdad, wrote in an e-mail message. “The allegations are false, his platoon and company were interviewed, and no one could substantiate the claims he made.”

    The brief statement, however, left many questions unanswered. Just last week The New Republic published on its Web site the results of its own investigation, stating that five members of the same company as Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, who had written the anonymous pieces, “all corroborated Beauchamp’s anecdotes, which they witnessed or, in the case of one soldier, heard about contemporaneously. (All of the soldiers we interviewed who had first-hand knowledge of the episodes requested anonymity.)”

    Private Beauchamp had revealed his identity after The Weekly Standard online and conservative bloggers expressed doubts about their veracity. As the Baghdad Diarist, he wrote that one soldier had jokingly worn the remnant of a child’s skull on his head. In another issue, he said he and a soldier had mocked a terribly disfigured woman sitting near them in the mess tent. Franklin Foer, editor of The New Republic said that after Private Beauchamp revealed his identity, the Army severely curtailed his telephone and e-mail privileges.

    Private Beauchamp is married to a reporter-researcher at the magazine, Elspeth Reeve.

    Michael Goldfarb, the online editor at The Weekly Standard who had initially raised doubt about the columns, wrote yesterday that The Standard had learned from a source close to the Army investigation that Private Beauchamp “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.”

    Earlier, The New Republic had conducted its own investigation and found only one inaccuracy: the story about the disfigured woman had occurred in Kuwait before the unit arrived in Baghdad.

    Yesterday, The New Republic posted another note on its Web site saying its editors had spoken to Major Lamb and asked whether Private Beauchamp had indeed signed a statement admitting to fabrications. “He told us, ‘I have no knowledge of that.’ He added, ‘If someone is speaking anonymously [to The Weekly Standard], they are on their own.’ When we pressed Lamb for details on the Army investigation, he told us, ‘We don’t go into the details of how we conduct our investigations.’

    In an e-mail message, Mr. Foer said, “Thus far, we’ve been provided no evidence that contradicts our original statement, despite directly asking the military for any such evidence it might have,” adding, “We hope the military will share what it has learned so that we can resolve this discrepancy.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08.....ref=slogin

  11. doingwhatican
    August 8th, 2007 at 3:55 am

    fabrications containing only “a smidgen of truth,”….are, nevertheless, lies.

    “Did Scott Thomas Beauchamp lie under oath to U.S. Army investigators, or did he lie to his editors at the New Republic?”

    That, right there, is the money quote.

    He’ll just go the Dan Rather route, fake but accurate.

  12. artboyusa
    August 9th, 2007 at 7:09 am

    In the interest of providing some context to this story let’s not forget The New Republic’s former publisher, self-confessed commie spy Michael Straight (1916-2004). From Wikipedia:

    “Michael Whitney Straight…was an American magazine publisher, novelist, patron of the arts and a member of the prominent Whitney family…

    “While a student at Cambridge University in he mid-1930s, Straight became a Communist Party member and a part of an intellectual secret society known as the Cambridge Apostles. Straight worked for the Soviet Union as part of a spy ring whose members included Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby and KGB recruiter Anthony Blunt…

    “After returning to the United States in 1937 Straight worked as a speechwriter for President Franklin Roosevelt and was on the payroll of the Department of the Interior. Beginning in 1938 Straight carried on a covert relationship with Iskhak Alhmerov, the…head of KGB Illegal Operations. In 1940 Straight went to work in the Eastern Division of the US State Department.

    “He served stateside in the United States Army Air Forces beginning in 1942…at war’s end he took over as publisher of the family-owned The New Republic magazine, where he hired former US Vice Presient and future Presidential candidate Henry A Wallace as the magazine’s editor. Straight left the magazine in 1956 and began writing novels.

    “However, in 1963, in response to an offer of government employment in Washington, DC he faced a background check and decided to voluntarily inform family friend and Presidential special assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr about his communist connections at Cambridge. This led directly to the exposure of Anthony Blunt as the recruiter of the Cambridge Five spy ring”.

    Busy little rat, spy and traitor wasn’t he? and the family mag keeps that tradition alive today. His second wife was related to Gore Vidal and to Jackie Onassis, which doesn’t surprise me somehow.


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