From Michael Goldfarb at The Weekly Standard’s blog:

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. …

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.” …

Now that the military investigation has concluded, the great unanswered question in the affair is this: Did Scott Thomas Beauchamp lie under oath to U.S. Army investigators, or did he lie to his editors at the New Republic? Beauchamp has recanted under oath. Does the New Republic still stand by his stories?

TNR, as The New Republic likes to be abbreviated, is on a temporary hiatus this month, unplanned until very recently, perhaps hoping this will go away. It won’t.

TNR is to blame for publishing Beauchamp’s crap. Beauchamp is a hateful liar, to be certain, but TNR has not only proven itself to be a fraudulent journal of crap but also a tool for the spread of enemy propaganda. I call on the magazine to issue a press release of admission and apology then to cease publishing and existing.

Read the entire TWS post.

What’s on your minds?