Dropping Hammers on Beauchamp

You could see the writing on the wall yesterday. The PAO for FOB Falcon and Camp Buehring both said that none of the claims in ScottScam could be substantiated. Lies. Urban legends and myths. That's how Beauchamp's stories were described. No one could substantiate any of the claims, particularly the most egregious ones - the dining hall incident where soldiers jeered a woman grievously injured by an IED who was at the dining facility. Note that TNR said that in the course of their investigation they had to correct where that incident occurred. It didn't happen in Iraq as originally claimed (and supposedly vetted before publication), but in Kuwait and months earlier.

Well, the PAO for General Petraeus dropped the hammer. Hard.

Bob Owens has been in touch with Public Affairs Officers in Kuwait and Iraq and received email from Col. Steven Boylan, Public Affairs Officer for U.S. Army Commanding General in Iraq David Petraeus, who said that not only was the investigation complete, but all allegations made by Beauchamp were found to be without merit. So, what will happen to Beauchamp next? Col. Boylan writes:

As there is no evidence of criminal conduct, he is subject to administrative punishment as determined by his chain of command. Under the various rules and regulations, administrative actions are not releasable to the public by the military on what does or does not happen.

That will presumably end this sorry chapter as far as the US Army is concerned, but the problems are just beginning for TNR.

TNR has a lot more to worry about since they claim to have substantiated matters with a bunch of anonymous sources. If they want to stand by the story, they're going to have to do more than provide anonymous sources. They're going to have to name names - who supposedly corroborated these stories for them and how did they come by such knowledge. How is it that TNR was able to obtain this information and the US Army, who interviewed members of Beauchamp's unit, was not.

They're now on vacation, which doesn't make this any easier for them. Perhaps hoping that things will blow over in the interim will not make this go away either. ScottScam is a stain on the publication, one on par with the Stephen Glass incident. They should have known better and it will be interesting to see how they respond to the latest email from the US Army on the matter.

Franklin Foer, editor of TNR, has stood by this story, knowing full well that the facts were running against him. He's claimed that the magazine had vetted the story before publication and its reexamination of the story found corroboration other than the relocation of the dining hall incident from Iraq's FOB Falcon to Kuwait's Camp Buehring, a not insignificant matter, even though it was passed off as such.