Military: Soldier-essayist's allegations of misconduct in Iraq 'are false'

[sabra]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/08/military-soldie.html

U.S. military investigators have concluded that a low-level soldier in Iraq made up allegations of misconduct that he described in a series of essays for The New Republic.

The magazine published several first-person essays by Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, all under the pseudonym "Scott Thomas." In "Shock Troops," the author described an incident in which soldiers laughed at a woman with a "melted" face in the mess hall and introduced readers to a private who used his Bradley Fighting Vehicle to kill dogs. After bloggers questioned the accuracy of this and other essays, The New Republic says it tried to verify some of Beauchamp's claims.

"Although we place great weight on the corroborations we have received, we wished to know more. But, late last week, the Army began its own investigation, short-circuiting our efforts," the magazine said in an Aug. 2 editor's note.

This morning, military officials said their review is over. "The investigation is complete and the allegations from PVT Beauchamp are false," Major Steven Lamb, a spokesman for Multi National Division-Baghdad, says in an e-mail to On Deadline. "Anything that may or may not happen from his actions are personnel related and we don't share that publicly."

[NYVet]

1. Old boy made his unit look bad

He needs to be moved out of the unit before he gets counseled by his platoon for being stupid...

[EFerrari]

2. We can believe him now -- it's been officially denied. n/t