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.

Comments

[Tully]

I'd go with the odds-on bet that he gets a demotion back to PV1 and a general discharge. If he's REALLY stupid and fights it, OTH discharge. IF he's lucky.

There's not much demotional downside left for administrative action. He's apparently already been busted back to PV2 for screwing up before he was outed. He was on the S-list before anyone started focusing on him for his articles and blogging, and for a private it's all downhill from there.

[Neuro-conservative]

Are other kinds of administrative actions possible, aside from demotion and/or discharge?

[baldilocks]

I don't think so, but it might be better to ask Army Lawyer that question (linked to in the post).

[Wolf Pangloss]

The Fake Sir Real Scott Thomas' latest work can be found here.

“All right, what have you been up to in your own little mind, Beauchamp?”

That’s when the torture started. Those conservatives had a field day torturing me. I held out as long as I could. It must have been days. They must have waterboarded me five or six times for more then eight hours until I gave in. Finally they stuck a pen in my hand and told me to sign or they’d drown me for real. Last chance. No kidding. I signed my name where they said.

[An Army Lawyer]

I should note that a false official statement carries a 5 yr max, not 7. Typo on my part.

[daveinboca]

Let’s remember that the new Managing Editor of TNR, Franklin Foer, is the degenerate spawn of one of the farthest left “historians” on the fake-history bash-the-USA academicide front. Papa Foer has won many historical prizes for consistently unmaksing the evils in America, especially during the Reconstruction, and still presides at Columbia U., where “left” means “centrist” and “centrists” don’t exist.

Evil Poppa begets evil son who enables evil chronicler. Just connect the dots. No fault on the left, as Mark Rudd told me decades ago when I was a deluded SDS volunteer. He smoked my dope & left me with the advice, "Dare to cheat, dare to win." Could be Columbia U's motto! At least when CSJ hands out Pulitzers!

[Steve]

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