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Scott Thomas: Fact or Fiction?
By John
Some of you may be familiar with Scott Thomas and his New Republic dispatches. Thomas, who writes under a pseudonym, claims to be an American soldier serving near FOB Falcon near Baghdad. His writing -there have been a total of three pieces- is controversial and levels some serious, Jesse MacBeth-esqe charges against his fellow soldiers. Here is a sample:
About six months into our deployment, we were assigned a new area to patrol, southwest of Baghdad. We spent a few weeks constructing a combat outpost, and, in the process, we did a lot of digging. At first, we found only household objects like silverware and cups. Then we dug deeper and found children’s clothes: sandals, sweatpants, sweaters. Like a strange archeological dig of the recent past, the deeper we went, the more personal the objects we discovered. And, eventually, we reached the bones. All children’s bones: tiny cracked tibias and shoulder blades. We found pieces of hands and fingers. We found skull fragments. No one cared to speculate what, exactly, had happened here, but it was clearly a Saddam-era dumping ground of some sort.One private, infamous as a joker and troublemaker, found the top part of a human skull, which was almost perfectly preserved. It even had chunks of hair, which were stiff and matted down with dirt. He squealed as he placed it on his head like a crown. It was a perfect fit. As he marched around with the skull on his head, people dropped shovels and sandbags, folding in half with laughter. No one thought to tell him to stop. No one was disgusted. Me included.
The private wore the skull for the rest of the day and night. Even on a mission, he put his helmet over the skull. He observed that he was grateful his hair had just been cut—since it would make it easier to pick out the pieces of rotting flesh that were digging into his head.
If the bit sounded a little fishy to you, you're not alone. Michael Goldfarb at the Worldwide Standard (and a great friend of the milblogging community) is taking the New Republic to task over this dubious whistleblower, see link here. Mike writes:
...we believe that the best chance for getting at the truth is likely to come from the combined efforts of the blogosphere, which has, in the past, proven adept at determining the reliability of such claims. To that end we'd encourage the milblogging community to do some digging of their own, and individual soldiers and veterans to come forward with relevant information--either about the specific events or their plausibility in general.
Mike lists a few other examples of Scott Thomas' dispatches, all equally suspicious. The skull-hat tale raised some mental red flags on my end, simply because of the Thomas' timeline. The thought of a soldier (a) so grossly and openly violating the UCMJ and (b) wearing human remains for the better part of the day without an NCO or an officer spotting him is absolutely unbelievable.
But that's on the micro level. On the macro, my suspicions rest on a trinity of facts:
1) Recent examples of warzone whistleblowing have turned out to be false (Jimmy Massey, Jesse MacBeth, Daniel Coburn) and driven by an agenda.
2) The dispatches fit a narrative.
3) The New Republic has a proven, historical susceptibility to fake journalism.
Anyway, if you have served in Iraq and can offer some additional insight, even validation, of Scott Thomas' claims, please send them along to the Worldwide Standard. Fact or fiction, you'd be doing the Armed Forces an enormous favor.
If fiction, because it would (once again) clear our name. If fact, because it would enable the Army to launch the appropriate investigation and address these accusations through proper channels.
Others covering:
Blackfive
The Corner
Ace
Hot Air
Dean Barnett
Powerline
The Tank
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Comments
"As he marched around with the skull on his head, people dropped shovels and sandbags, folding in half with laughter. No one thought to tell him to stop. No one was disgusted. Me included.
The private wore the skull for the rest of the day and night."
Sorry, as a former NCO and combat veteran I call BS. No one told him told him to stop!! Not one NCO or officer??
There was also his story of he and his buddies picking on a female that was an IED victim and scarred. He says they were loud enough for her and several other tables to hear them. And a severe beat down didn't occur?? No NCO's or officers around to snatch them up by the short hairs????
The whole piece really smells....
This story is BULLSHIT!!! I just finished up a year+ deployment, 75% of which was spent in or around Falcon. The chow hall ain't exactly huge. A woman like that would have been noticed. Oh and excuse me, but I've seen my share of IED injuries and I've yet to come across one that "melts faces." IEDs don't do that, even the gas ones. Even if they did, soldier's don't make fun of that shit especially at Falcon where everyone has a buddy who was hit by an IED. This story wouldn't even be believable if it were a bunch of us sitting around drinking beer and shooting the shit, so why the hell would a newspaper print it?
"If fiction, because it would (once again) clear our name. If fact, because it would enable the Army to launch the appropriate investigation and address these accusations through proper channels."
The names of our volunteer service members do not need to be cleared, whether the stories from Scott Thomas are true or not. Criminal behavior by a few soldiers does not taint all soldiers, except in the small minds of a few on the extreme left.
Not withstanding the biased, agenda driven reporting from American MSM and the betrayal of our mission by the cynical democratic leadership in congress, many Americans standly firmly behind our mission in Iraq. The mission is vital to American interests in the middle east and will have long term consequences, win or lose.
The stories by Scott Thomas are of a kind pursued by John Kerry in the 70's; Shallow, anecdotal, false. The stories will be used for maximum political effect at home.
To the men and women of our armed forces I say you are doing a great job. The missions in Iraq and Afghanistan are in the best tradition of America. The liberation from tyranny of millions of people, the establishment of free and representative forms of government, the protection of the weak from the depredations of the wicked, all of these are worthy of your efforts and my unyielding support.
Keep up your good work and know that I and many Americans support you 100%.
Doug Santo
Pasadena, CA
This is really disgusting. I cannot understand how "American" media outlets can continue making these kinds of errors or going forward with these stories that will obviously damage the U.S. mission in Iraq unless they are sure they are true. In this case I don't think TNR has done anything near due dilligence.
I also have no idea why an "American" magazine would actively assist our enemies with this garbage. The only reason is that they have no desire to see a U.S./Iraqi victory in Iraq because it would embarrass their ideological brethren, the DNC. Utterly repulsive if true.
Are you kidding me? Guy's most likely posting from his parents basement.
A mongrel, of approximately 30 to 40 lbs cut cleanly in half by a Bradley? That does not work. The sheer physics don't work, to say nothing of the thought of a dog just lying there, waiting to be run over.
Do I understand correctly (civilian, no expert) that the foot-pressure of a Bradley is equivalent to a human foot? Granted, speed will make a difference, but a dog would not be cut "cleanly" in half. Reduced to a bloody smear, yes, cut in half, no. I (simple reader) call nonsense.
If all the bones were children's, how did a skull cap fit so well on an adult's head???
Strictly from an anatomical perspective, seems caudal to me.
Greetings,
Story 1 - It ain’t a ’chow hall’ in the Army. It’s a D-Fac (dining facility) or for old farts like me a mess hall. Poser.
Story 2 - The word Helmet isn’t used much any more. The common term today is Kevlar. If you have worn one, you know there ain’t nothing fitting on top of your head. The Kevlar has a crown web inside to support and spread the weight of the helmet over your entire head. Anything in it, especially pointy things like teeth, would focus the entire weight onto one point of your cranium. Painful for long time wear. Poser.
Story 3 - The bad guys hide IEDs in dead animals. How, exactly, does a sleeping dog look different than a dead one? Running over one, stupid - and does not lead to a long life. I have chased coyotes in a Hummer (non-armored) and you ain’t catching one, let alone getting close enough to run one over. Heck, I chased Jackrabbits on a motorcycle and ain’t nobody running one over. Poser.
This is winter soldier and Mr. Kerry again.
Regards,
Well where to begin: first of all as a female Marine having done my stint in the sandbox..there is no way a bunch of yokels would chase out a female civilain/or service member of any branch...without a resounding bitchslap from the nearest female NCO present. I delivered plenty of them when necessary.
Mass graves and silverware....no generally the people doing the massacres tend to take valuables and household goods.
Was the dog elderly, lame and deaf..not to have heard the Bradley comming in its direction.
and another thing, where was the Gysgt/or senior Staff NCO that inhabits the chowhall, the one that anytime of day or night is there drinking the coffee that the rest of the military uses to paint walls. There is no way in hell that something like the degrading of a female would go unnoticed by him or unpunished either. Those fools would be standing 24hr duty until they left the service.
As an Officer, I say, Why has the soldier not contacted the Inspector General on any of it. "Scott" is culpable for not reporting "war crimes" to the IG or chain of command. If one of those things were true, their would be some commanders relieved on the spot, and ton of NCOER Reliefs for Cause. I have been deployed twice now, and spent a good bit of time in the boonies and in streets of major cities, and I haven't seen shit compared to this guy I guess. Nobody has ever laughed at an IED victim EVER. Shit we all have buddies that died in them or seriously injuried by them. Any officer or NCO that had seen a mess hall incident like that would have had those guys low crawling to a summary courts martial or at least a field grade Article 15.
SO IN ESSENCE I CALL BULLSHIT!!
-Airborne Engineer Commander
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I'd call bullshit on him wearing it under his helmet. Even with those "swedish foam" helmet pads inside the MICH helmet, it's still a damn tight fit. Ten hours on patrol in the Iraqi heat and the thing's about unbearable. Trying to fit bone under there as well? Impossible.
I don't doubt "Joe" playing around with human remains. I've known a few jokers in my time who would cross the line into the "sicko" realm. That and the macabre humor of men who have been exposed to daily death for months on end.
Still, the physical aspects of it seem suspicious.