Matt takes on the lying dogs of war, and more

In The lying dogs of war, Matt Sanchez addresses Franklin Foer's article on how the New Republic lied on their "Baghdad Diarist" series. Foer managed in his article to work in a personal dig at Matt,

On August 1, six days after the "skulls on their head in sector" meeting, the Army concluded its investigation. Two days later, a public affairs officer announced that Beauchamp's piece had been "refuted by members of his platoon and proven to be false." The Army didn't announce this to The New York Times or even The Weekly Standard, let alone in a public report. It first gave the story of Beauchamp's supposed fraudulence to a former porn actor turned blogger named Matt Sanchez.

Where to start?

First of all, Foer is defending a lie. Not just any lie, but a lie that he personally tried to maintain for weeks to no end. No matter who the Army first gave the story to, the story was a lie.

In second place, the Army gave the story to Matt because Matt was there. As you can appreciate by browsing through Matt's website, he's been with the troops in Iraq reporting the truth.

And then, as I have previously stated, it's not the conservatives who have psycho-sexual issues. Foer may dismiss Matt's writing because of his past, but wouldn't the same standard apply to often-married former brothel madam Maya Angelou?

But never mind that; as Matt says,

Foer, never the shrinking violet, asserts his detractors weren't professionals, just conservatives, bloggers and pornstars. Franklin may have learned this haughtiness from his time at Columbia University where the righteousness of one's leftist cause is always beyond reproach.

In frustration, Foer writes that Gen. David Petraeus' spokesman, Col. Steven Boylan, took forever to get back to him, because he apparently didn't realize that a call from the New Republic in Washington was far more important than all that silly surge stuff going on in Baghdad.

No one had a problem contacting Maj. Luke Luedeke, public affairs officer at Forward Operating Base Falcon, the home of the Baghdad Diarist. In fact, when I returned to FOB Falcon, Luedeke told me he was swamped by major media requests. I specifically asked if Franklin Foer or someone from the New Republic had been in contact. Luedeke replied, "They called once, a couple of days ago and haven't called back since." This is what Foer called "pleading with the Army" for information.

Once at Falcon, I just spoke to the public affairs officer and proceeded to execute what is commonly referred to as reporting.

The higher-ups at FOB Falcon said Beauchamp quickly recanted his Baghdad Diarist stories. I asked the Army if I could talk to the private and was told Beauchamp did not want to speak to any more media. As anyone who has been around the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan knows, there are plenty of jokes and rumors told just to pass the time, or as the editor-in-chief of the New Republic likes to call them, an opportunity to give his liberal readers the kind of imagery they need to justify those long therapy sessions and costly anti-depressants.

Read it all.

Matt has another article, Kicking out the Taliban
Huge Pearl Harbor Day air assault on Afghanistan

Also don't miss his post Trauma, shrapnel, and the fight for life.

Matt has been my podcast guest twice: when he called from Iraq,and when he called from Germany prior to going to Afghanistan. Go listen.


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So long, "Scott Thomas" story....

Via Matt Sanchez, Beauchamp Recants
New Republic author tells U.S. Army investigators under oath that he made up stories.

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.

Separately, we received this statement from Major Steven F. Lamb, the deputy Public Affairs Officer for Multi National Division-Baghdad:

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.

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 go to Matt's blog and see for yourself a video of what's going on in Dora, Baghdad and the 1-4 Cavalry

After that, Michael Yon's latest dispatch will bring you some more information.

And if you haven't yet, read Michael Totten's article.

And Laughing Wolf's on his way to Iraq, too.

Prior post: The Beauchamp story

Round-ups
Instapundit and Michelle Malkin
... and then there's Ace.
Dr Sanity has BEAUCHAMP AT THE BAT

While we're at it,
Number of Civilians Reported Killed In Airstrike On Taliban: 200-300
Actual Number: Zero



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The Beauchamp story

The New Republic has published an article saying,

All of Beauchamp's essays were fact-checked before publication. We checked the plausibility of details with experts, contacted a corroborating witness, and pressed the author for further details

I do have a few questions myself on the Beauchamp accusations, as to how did he know the woman's burns had been caused by an IED attack, how does he know that the bones found were children's bones, etc., but those are issues that TNR hasn't addressed, either.

For starters, TNR editor Franklin Foer had previously confirmed that

The first incident--the scarred woman--took place on Forward Operating Base Falcon

Beauchamp didn't even get the country straight. It wasn't Iraq. It was Kwait.

Wake Up America has a detailed post on the story.

TNR is going on vacation while the story goes on. Laughling Wolf is spending his vacation at FOB Falcon.

It so happens that Matt Sanchez is at FOB Falcon in Iraq and is taking issue with Beauchamp's allegations. Today Matt posted that the Army's investigation has concluded the Beauchamps accusations are false.

If you go read Matt's blog, an excellent blog which I highly recommend, you will find that Matt:
1. reports directly from the sites he mentions
2. fully discloses his sources.
As you can read for yourself, he explains clearly where he is and who he is interviewing: Matt's not relying on anonymous sources. He's got the video, the audio, and the photos backing up the information in his posts.

Of course, Matt's being discredited because of his past as a a gay p_rn star, a subject I posted about last March. I find it absurd that Matt's past keeps getting dragged up by the Left, which are supposedly so "inclusive", "open minded" and "non-judgemental". After all, Matt was an adult, participating in actions with other adults, freely and out of their own volition.

To the Left, Matt is not credible, while Beauchamp is credible because he's in the service. Hot Air asks,

given how deeply and fragrantly they love the troops, as they never fail to remind us, does Sanchez's status as a Marine reserve do anything to rehabilitate the credibility he allegedly lost when he did porn?

But this is a side issue; the real issue is TNR's credibility.

Via LGF, Confederate Yankee has also been doing some fact-checking on his own:

I've also attempting to get verification form a total of five PAOs in Kuwait to see if they have any record of Franklin Foer or any other reporter or editor from The New Republic attempting to contact them prior to publishing the revised Camp Buehring claim to see if TNR made a good faith effort to verify that a contractor matching this woman's description was based in U.S. military bases in Kuwait.

My opinion is that, IF any of these acusations are true, the witnesses involved have the moral obligation to come forward and on the record, not anonymously, bear witness to whatever has taken place in their presence.

Where are they?

Until that happens, any further allegations as to Beauchamp's credibility are to be dismissed.

Ace is all over this story like white on rice. Go to his blog and scroll down.

UPDATE
Of Matt Sanchez and Redemption

Some sectors of the Left believe that humanity is perfectible on its own--an idea that is in direct opposition to the idea that mankind is perfectible only by accepting the Sacrifice and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This concept is what many scorners of Christianity fail to grasp--via ignorance, willful or otherwise. What did JC say, time and time again, to those whom He healed? "Go and sin no more."

I think that the Left is ticked not only at Sanchez for the reasons specified above, but at conservatives and Christians because, in our reaction to Sanchez and others like him, we failed to live "up" to the caricatures which they hold about the Right and about Christians.

UPDATE, Sunday 5 August
It's Official: Beauchamp's Claims Debunked by Army Internal Investigation
Commander's Initial Reaction to Beauchamp Allegation