Not only were Scott Beauchamp’s stories fabrications, but the New Republic knew he wasn’t standing behind them. This has been claimed and suspected, but Matt Drudge now has documented proof. Transcripts of conversations and the results of the official investigation including statements from Beauchamp himself recanting his allegations.
The editors of The New Republic should now resign. There are no excuses for such behavior, they even tell Scott Beauchamp when he refused to stand behind the stories:
we just can’t, in good conscience, continue to defend the piece
The solution seems to have been to allow their previous defenses to stand, which must in the world of self serving rationalizations be a way to salve ones “good conscience” by imagining it isn’t the same as lying. Telling themselves that despite having no evidence to support the stories they technically didn’t “know” they were false. Silence however is just another way of standing by the story, if in this instance a rather pathetic one. They knew, they stood by it anyway, it is disgraceful.
Update: Ace points out something I should have made clear. This stuff likely came from the New Republic. Amidst his speculation and assertions of knowledge of where it came from (That is not to meant to sound as if I doubt him) we find this:
Beauchamp signed a document allowing a TNR lawyer to receive all relevant documents about his case from the Army. So TNR has had this stuff for a while.
UPDATE 2 [by MichaelW]: Apparently the documents are not linked at Drudge’s anymore, which is slowly sending waves of doubt through the rightosphere — perhaps worrying about a Rathergate type duping. But, Ace assures us the docs are real:
Bad Speculation: The documents are apparently down at Drudge. Allah wonders:
The Drudge link still exists but the links to the documents don’t, and he’s removed the item from the front page. The Army documents look too real to have been forged but did he get snookered on the transcript?
Answer: No.
Dude, chill. Your paranoia is off the hook since Police Captain Jamil Hussein.
Drudge may have pulled the documents due a request from the Army, as they are, technically, classified personnel information.
Or the server they’re on may be on the fritz.
TNR’s spin is that the documents “aren’t as damning” as they appear, not that they’re fake.
Seriously, chill. From what I know, and I do know all this, the documents are quite real and come from trustworthy sources. I know the direct source to be trustworthy and I know (or at least “know” to a very high likelihood) his source in turn to be trustworthy.
Since early on Ace was getting info from inside TNR, so there’s reason to lend credence to his assurances. He has more over there as well, so you may want to tool around a bit and see what you can find.
Hopefully the docs are real, since Beauchamp comes out looking as if he’s changed his attitude for the better and is putting his comrades in arms unequivocally ahead of his writing career. We’ll see.
Update 3: Here is the transcript courtesy of The Weekly Standard.
Mini-Update [MJW]: All of the documents can be found here.
[tags] Beauchamp, The New Republic, Franklin Foer, Matt Drudge, investigation [/tags]
Maybe, or maybe not:
My assumption was based on the idea that they had the ability to get the documents and therefore had gotten the documents. Ace says he thinks he knows who gave them to Drudge, and that those came from TNR, so… whatever. If the TNR had them it is disgraceful. If they didn’t have them it meant they were turning a blind eye to mount some pathetic defense of not knowing because they knew what the documents likely said.
How Bob Owens fits exactly within that cast of characters I am not sure, but I would have preferred he had gotten the scoop on his site first. He is right, he deserved it.
We probably won’t ever know how Drudge got’em, and it really doesn’t matter at this point so long as either Beauchamp was going to release them and/or the FOIA request was going to be granted.
Regarding the documents themselves, there are two things that I find fascinating:
(1) Scott Beauchamp seems to have gotten his head screwed on straight. I was wondering if the media and blogging storm surrounding his stories would serve as the impetus to get his act together. Lord knows that he wouldn’t be the first person to enter the military (or military school, etc.) with a less than stellar attitude only to emerge as a model soldier. Of course he could just be trying keep his head down and his nose clean, but as the saying goes “fake it ’til you make it.”
(2) I was blown away by the manipulative, almost Gestapo-like tactics employed by the TNR crowd. Trying to guilt Scott with things like “You owe as since we’re just trying to save your reputation.” Worst of all was throwing Scott’s mother and wife into the mix. That bit about “Ellie sent me an email to tell you that it’s the most important thing in the world for her that you say that you didn’t recant” was just creepy. It wasn’t much different than a hostage situation: “We have your wife, and she wants you know that her job, career and supreme happiness depends on giving us what we want.” That’s just sick.
Michael,
First of all, feel free to update and link in the post to other analysis. I won’t have time. You have followed this closer than I have anyway. Or put up another post if that fits what you want to say better.
Second, If you go to the Blackfive, one of their guys met Beauchamp a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed meeting him. I think you may be right about the getting his head straight and realizing the damage such things can do: Here is the post:
I see a young man who made a big mistake. I am a big believer in second chances. The Editors of TNR have squandered their chance to fix this. Scott is doing what he needs to do, I hold no grudge.