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Scott Thomas Beauchamp controversy

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The Scott Thomas Beauchamp controversy concerns the publication of a series of diaries by Scott Thomas Beauchamp (b. 1983 East St. Louis, Illinois) - a private in the United States Army, serving in the Iraq War, and a member of Alpha Company, 1/18 Infantry, Second Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division.

In the The New Republic, under the pen name "Scott Thomas", Beauchamp posted three entries about serving at FOB Falcon, Baghdad. These entries concerned misconduct by soldiers, including Beauchamp, during the US post invasion Iraq involvement.

Several conservative publications and bloggers questioned Beauchamp's claims. The New Republic investigated and concluded the claims were true, excepting the setting of one that was later said to have occurred prior to combat in Kuwait rather than during combat in Iraq. The U.S. Army investigated and concluded the claims were false. As of August 2007, both parties were sticking to their respective conclusions.

"Shock Troops"

In a diary entry in The New Republic, Beauchamp described how he ridiculed a woman in Iraq whose face had been severely burned: "I love chicks that have been intimate with IEDs" (improvised explosive devices), Beauchamp quotes himself as saying, loudly, to his friends in the chow hall. "It really turns me on -- melted skin, missing limbs, plastic noses," he recounted. "My friend was practically falling out of his chair laughing...The disfigured woman slammed her cup down and ran out of the chow hall."

Next, he described finding the remains of children in a mass grave uncovered while his unit constructed a combat outpost: "One private...found the top part of a human skull... As he marched around with the skull on his head, people dropped shovels and sandbags, folding in half with laughter...No one was disgusted. Me included."

Finally, Beauchamp described another soldier "who only really enjoyed driving Bradley Fighting Vehicles because it gave him the opportunity to run things over. He took out curbs, concrete barriers, corners of buildings, stands in the market, and his favorite target: dogs." Beauchamp described how the soldier killed three dogs in one day: "He slowed the Bradley down to lure the first kill in, and, as the diesel engine grew quieter, the dog walked close enough for him to jerk the machine hard to the right and snag its leg under the tracks."

"Baghdad Diarist"

After the publication of "Shock Troops", The Weekly Standard, and The National Review questioned the veracity of Beauchamp's claims. As the controversy continued, The Washington Post reported that Beauchamp did not provide documentation for his three published columns.

Michael Goldfarb's source was revealed to be milblogger and reporter Matt Sanchez, a fact that created more controversy and criticism from a left-leaning publications.

In a follow-up posting on The New Republic, Beauchamp objected to claims of falsification: "It's been maddening...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."

New Republic editor Franklin Foer disclosed that Beauchamp is married to Elspeth Reeve, a New Republic reporter and fact checker, and that his relationship with Reeve was "part of the reason why we found him to be a credible writer." Accused of insufficient fact-checking, the magazine had, according to Foer, planned to "re-report every detail", but the magazine later stated that their investigation was "short circuited" after the Army severed Beauchamp's communications with anyone overseas.

The Weekly Standard writer Michael Goldfarb emailed Col. Steve Boylan asking for whatever information he could provide regarding the status of the investigation of Scott Thomas Beauchamp. Here is his response: "We are not preventing him from speaking to TNR or anyone. He has full access to the Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) phones that all the other members of the unit are free to use. It is my understanding that he has been informed of the requests to speak to various members of the media, both traditional and non-traditional and has declined. That is his right. We will not nor can we force a Soldier to talk to the media or his family or anyone really for that matter in these types of issues."

New Republic investigation

In an August 2 statement, after an internal investigation, editors for The New Republic defended Beauchamp's claims, with one exception - that the conversation about the disfigured woman had occurred at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, not Iraq, an error for which The New Republic apologized to its readers. According to the statement, five anonymous members of Beauchamp's company had also confirmed the other aspects of Beauchamp's entry.

We...spoke with current and former soldiers, forensic experts, and other journalists who have covered the war extensively. And we sought assistance from Army Public Affairs officers. Most important, we spoke with five other members of Beauchamp's company, and all corroborated Beauchamp's anecdotes, which they witnessed or, in the case of one solider, heard about contemporaneously. (All of the soldiers we interviewed who had first-hand knowledge of the episodes requested anonymity.)

The statement continued to say that the Army's investigation had impeded their own investigation, because communication with Beauchamp had been cut off, and "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." The New Republic's Jason Zengerle was told by the Army there was no evidence of a horribly burned woman at a Kuwait base camp after the magazine published its Editor's Note on the matter.

Military investigation

An Army investigation concluded the allegations made by Beauchamp were false. Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post reported that the Army statement said "His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims."

A military official, who asked not to be identified because the probe is confidential, said no charges were filed against Beauchamp. Instead, the official said, the matter is being handled administratively, with Beauchamp punished by having his cellphone and laptop confiscated for an undetermined period.

A military official said Beauchamp had committed two violations, making false statements and not obtaining permission to publish the articles, which were written under the name Scott Thomas.

The Army statement did not specify what were described as Beauchamp's falsehoods and does not plan to make its report public.

On August 9, 2007, A spokesman for the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division clarified the results of the Army investigation in an e-mail interview with the Associated Press:

During that investigation, all the soldiers from his unit refuted all claims that Pvt. Beauchamp made in his blog.

It was revealed during an interview conducted by Bob Owens of Pajamas Media with the officer responsible for the Army investigation; that as a result of the incident Beauchamp was demoted from PFC two grades to the lowest Enlisted rank of PV-1 and that Beauchamp's Commanding Officer had considered discharging Beauchamp from the Army.

Dispute over alleged recantation

On August 6, 2007, the Weekly Standard's blog reported that Scott Thomas Beauchamp recanted under oath to Army investigators.

On August 7, The New Republic reported

"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 , 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.'"

Further developments

Michael Goldfarb and the Weekly Standard are standing by the anonymously sourced story. The Weekly Standard is reporting that one of the anonymous military experts consulted by TNR is refuting Beauchamp's allegations regarding Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

“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, platoon and company were interviewed, and no one could substantiate the claims he made.”

References

  1. "A Statement From Scott Thomas Beauchamp". The Plank. The New Republic. 2007-07-26. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Cohen, Patricia (2007-07-28). "Shedding Pen Name, Private Says He's 'Baghdad Diarist'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. Thomas, Scott (2007-07-23). "Shock Troops". The New Republic. p. 56. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Preston, Bryan (2007-07-28). "The Beauchamp story: Why we care". Hot Air. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Preston2007-07-28" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. Goldfarb, Michael (2007-07-31). "Reporting From FOB Falcon". Worldwide Standard. The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/the-weekly-standard_b_58977.html
  7. http://mediamatters.org/items/200708020003
  8. Kurtz, Howard (2007-07-27). "Army Private Discloses He Is New Republic's Baghdad Diarist". The Washington Post. p. C07. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "A Statement on Scott Thomas Beauchamp". The New Republic Online. The New Republic. 2007-08-02. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. "The Army Responds". The Weekly Standard. 2007-08-11. Retrieved 2007-08-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. Kurtz, Howard (2007-08-03). "Editors Confirm Soldier's Claims". The Washington Post. p. C02. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. John Podhoretz, The Corner, National Review, August 6, 2007
  13. ^ Kurtz, Howard (2007-08-08). "Army Concludes Baghdad Diarist Accounts Untrue". The Washington Post. p. C01. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. John Milburn and Ellen Simon (2007-08-09). "New Republic Iraq Stories Questioned". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-08-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. Pajamas Media, Army Checkmates The New Republic, September 10, 2007
  16. Goldfarb, Michael (2007-08-06). "Beauchamp Recants". Worldwide Standard. The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. Goldfarb, Michael (2007-08-07). "Beauchamp Recants: Update". Worldwide Standard. The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. Weekly Standard, August 8, 2007
  19. Weekly Standard, August 9, 2007
  20. New York Times, Army Says Soldier’s Articles for Magazine Were False, August 8, 2007

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