He Said, She Said

By John

Conflicting reports from both the Army and The New Republic. Our own Richard S. Lowry fired off an email to Col. Steve Boylan this morning and got this response:

Hi Richard,

An investigation of the allegations was conducted by the military and
found the allegations were false. In addition, members of Thomas'
platoon and company were all interviewed and no one could substantiate
his claims.

The rest of will or won't happen is to be handled internally within the
unit and are not discussed publicly.

Best,

Steve

Steven A. Boylan
Colonel, US Army
MNF-I CG, PAO

Basically, that's same reply that The Weekly Standard received from Major Steven L. Lamb.

However, The New Republic is challenging The Weekly Standard's anonymous sourcing

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.”

Yeah, but.....does it matter? TNR's defense seems to ride solely on whether or not Beauchamp signed paperwork, which neither Lamb nor Boylan will admit is true, arguing that such information is part of an internal investigation.

But they both state that Beauchamp was lying, as fact.

That's telling. In the Army's mind, this whole affair has already been put to bed. Beauchamp lied. He'll be punished. Any other details are unit-specific and not subject to release.

As for TNR's anonymous sources, they're lying to the Army or they're lying to TNR.

*Update* McQ:

Obviously Lamb isn't denying anything about what has been determined concerning Beauchamp, he's instead saying he has no knowledge about the source of the anonymous quote the Weekly Standard has used.

That's it. That's all this statement says. Well, except TNR is standing by their anonymous sources in the face of the Lamb announcement and trying to begin a "the Army is secretive about their investigation" paint job which I'm sure will emerge as their new attempt to save themselves from charges of journalistic misconduct.

*Update 2* Goldfarb replies:

Three points:

(1) They neglected to report that the Army has concluded its investigation and found Beauchamp's stories to be false. As Major Lamb, the very officer they quote, has said in an authorized statement: "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."

(2) Does the failure of the New Republic to report the Army's conclusions mean that the editors believe the Army investigators are wrong about Beauchamp?

(3) We have full confidence in our reporting that Pvt Beauchamp recanted under oath in the course of the investigation. Is the New Republic claiming that Pvt Beauchamp made no such admission to Army investigators? Is Beauchamp?

I think all three of those questions can be answered by Hugh Hewitt's plank theory.

August 7, 2007 11:29 AM News From Iraq

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Comments

These people are just diggin in their heels here. At some point you've got to just admit you were wrong and apologize. Are we gonna see that?

Mark E. · August 8, 2007 10:53 AM

John, I'm just a grumpy old vet. May I make a suggestion? I have been known to get that "misplaced wild hair myself". But equally true, there is a time to just let it go and let the military deal with it themselves. This individual appears to be a perfect candidate for snow removal at Thule, Greenland, by hand. I believe it is time to let it go.

Have a great week and weekend,
Grumpy

Grumpy · August 8, 2007 09:11 PM