Beauchamp Admits to Falsehoods (UPDATED)

From Michael Goldfarb:

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. [SNIP]

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."

May we who doubted Scott Beauchamp's stories be allowed a snarky "we told you so?" Yes, I think so.

(Thanks to reader Pablo)

OTHER RESPONSES:

Ace busts out the Flaming Skull and quotes himself:

Franklin Foer Doesn't Want To Tell Ellie Reeves Her Husband Is A Liar.

(Thanks to Michelle Malkin)

Allahpundit:

The question now is how much tougher TNR wants to make things for him and the guys who corroborated his story. If they challenge the recantation and burn their sources, they’re putting six men in potential criminal jeopardy...No one cared that I’d basically figured out the whole story without talking to or emailing anyone in Iraq, or talked to anyone married to anyone at TNR, or anything. But that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Yes.

More as responses come in.

UPDATE: From one of Good Lt.'s guests (at Jawa):

of course it took several sessions of torturecrippling his mindthoughts with waterboarding while he was 'in the shit' to get him to recant...

As a matter of fact, its rumored Jack Bauer was there conducting the whole thing!

You laugh, but that's how Beauchamp's defenders will play it...for a while. (Thanks to NonParty Politics)

ArmyLawyer:

Here’s the thing, if he was lying, there’s not much that he can be charged with. At most it would be some variant of an Article 92 violation for publication without permission or something similar (presuming such a prohibition existed within his command). At most, that’ll get him 2 years if it’s a general order, more than likely it’d be violation of an “other lawful order” which is 6 months max confinement.

Now some may argue that he’s lying to investigators but he told TNR the truth. Problem there is that the penalties for a False Official Statement are far harsher (7 yrs and a dishonorable discharge). Lying to investigators is often worse than the misconduct itself. So even if Beauchamp IS lying, he sure can’t ever say so while in uniform, as that subjects him to the more serious Article 107 charge.

UPDATE:

As of 8:51 PM, PDT, no comment from The Plank, TNR's blog.

Jeff Goldstein:

[A]s I wrote earlier in response to [John] Cole’s hysterics, it does matter — and those who were instrumental in preventing Beauchamp’s fictions from becoming established “truths” should feel proud that they pestered and needled and investigated and fact-checked until the bogus tales were revealed for the opportunistic fictions that they are.

Resurrection Song:

[TNR] trusted [Beauchamp] when they ran the stories (because, yes, it made good copy and it reinforced their beliefs about the war in Iraq), and they supported him when he came under scrutiny, and they issued statements supporting the details of his writing while he continued to ensure them that, yes, it was all the truth. Pretty much. Then Beauchamp (which, is that pronounced “Beechum"--and does anyone else know why I’m asking that question?) turned around and stabbed them in their literary heart by admitting to having falsified the stories. [SNIP]

You know who else Beauchamp f*cked? His fellow soldiers, all the soldiers who have served with honor, and all the people who believed his BS. [SNIP]

Beauchamp pisses me off like you wouldn’t believe. This is on the same level of dishonor as false accusations of rape, child abuse, and racism. There is enough bad in the world that you shouldn’t have to make up horrors in hopes of aggrandizing yourself or building a new writing career. And when you throw fellow troops under the bus--inventing stories that make them look like bloodthirsty a**holes--to make a few bucks, your screwing a group of people that has already managed to shoulder more than their share of bad PR, poor pay, and sh*tty working conditions. Not, of course, to mention the grave potential of extreme bodily harm, the family sacrifices that our troops make, and those damned glasses they issue in basic training.