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2007-07-23 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by anonymous5089 2007-07-23 07:49|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Nifonging the military.

A little note for TNR folks -
It's call the Uniform Code of Military Justice [UCMJ]

Art. 78. Accessory after the fact

Any person subject to this chapter who, knowing that an offense punishable by this chapter has been committed, receives, comforts, or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial, or punishment shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

Your little Scott failed to comply in reporting incidents. That means he's committed an offense under the UCMJ. Your failure to identify the lad, means that you are obstructing justice. Remember that when you get the summons from the federal Attorney Generals Office asking you to speak before a grand jury. And what ever your lawyer tells you, just remember at the federal level reports et al do go to jail for failing to answer questions before such juries.

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-07-23 09:07|| 2007-07-23 09:07|| Front Page Top

#2 Unfortunately, we all know that will never happen.
Another thing this tells us is that despite how vile these stories are, there really hasn't been that big of a stink made over them. I think that tells you all you want to know about the popularity of The New Republic.

Posted by tu3031 2007-07-23 09:38|| 2007-07-23 09:38|| Front Page Top

#3 This will be a tempest in a teapot in the blogosphere. No mainstream media will report it. Who cares if some liberal magazine made up stories? They've got their heart in the right place, and besides, we all know that US soldiers did something like this at some time. The details might be fake, but the essential truthiness prevails.

Posted by gromky 2007-07-23 13:25|| 2007-07-23 13:25|| Front Page Top

#4 From the Weekly Standard -- seems the Army is now getting involved in this...

Monday, July 23, 2007

(Updated) More From FOB Falcon

UPDATED 1:11 pm

We have another statement from Major Ludeke at FOB Falcon regarding the "Scott Thomas" "Shock Troops" story in the New Republic:

I've been watching the events on the New Republic's "Scott Thomas" piece with interest.

As the 4th IBCT Public Affairs Officer- I can tell you unequivocally: there was NO mass grave discovered in this area of operations in conjunction with the building of a coalition outpost anytime in the past 12 months. None. Zero. Zip. And Frank Foer's assertions to the contrary, there is no way that his mystery soldier "Scott Thomas" can prove it. Foer can produce all of the alleged "eyewitnesses" he wants- unless these individuals are willing to back up their claims with real evidence, it's just so much garbage on a computer screen. Some people seem to forget that the burden of proof should be on the New Republic to back up his unsubstantiated claims and not the other way around.

If the story *is* true, then "Scott" and whomever else is purporting to back up his assertions should come forward, identify themselves and submit their report through official channels. We are not in the business of suppressing his right to free speech...on the contrary- he's free to submit whatever he wants, so long as it doesn't put others at risk for operational security (OPSEC). Of course- by putting his name on such outlandish claims, he then has to account for what is clearly a series of false statements. So- obviously- it is left to reasonable people to decide who is telling the truth here.

I invite Mr. Foer and the New Republic to actually give us something to go on. Proof. Any kind will do- and something more than one anonymous soldier's claims and a nebulous "we've heard from others who can corroborate it," kinds of responses he provided Howard Kurtz. It's kind of hard to take these allegations seriously, when you're hiding behind the cloak of anonymity. Just about every Soldier these days has his or her own digital camera or video camera. Talk to anyone here- every unit down to squad level in our brigade is *required* to have a camera on every mission. It's all part of being prepared for such a discovery. Surely- there would be photos of the skulls and mass grave if it truly existed, would there not? The reason there isn't any photos, is because simply- the story isn't true.

There may be small grains of truth to what Scott Thomas has written. But, I can tell you that at least one event he's described as "fact" could not have occurred. To claim that an entire chain of command was complicit in keeping quiet such a grisly and important discovery of such magnitude stretches the realm of believability and is a grave insult to the professionalism and dedication of so many fine Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines serving here.

I know that if my organization claimed to have unearthed a sizeable cache of hundreds of explosives, rockets, nitric acid and other key components to make roadside bombs, otherwise known here in these parts as a "good news story," media outlets would rightfully demand some kind of proof to subtantiate our claims. That's why we take pictures of such things and provide them along with our press releases. The inability of the New Republic and Scott Thomas to provide any kind of photographic evidence whatsoever, and the fact that "Scott" isn't willing to come forward and identify himself, pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

If he is in fact speaking the truth- he should have no problem putting his real name next to it. It's called integrity, and it'[s one of the seven Army Values. That neither he nor the New Republic want to do that, and then hide behind the need to protect him from "retribution" (when I would add that he *is* in fact breaking a DoD directive with his actions) merely underscores the dubious nature of this whole story.

I invite Scott Thomas to come by the Dragon PAO shop at FOB Falcon- Bldg 301, Rm 119, and I'd be happy to share the DoD media policy with him. While he's here, I'd love to discuss with him the mass graves, Bradley IFV dog hunting and IED burn victim he's so intent on stating is fact. If he can provide the evidence, I will gladly retract every word I've posted on the subject. If he's not willing to do that, then it kind of makes you wonder about his credibility, and that of the New Republic's doesn't it?

Best regards,
Major Kirk Luedeke
Public Affairs Officer
4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division DRAGONS FOB Falcon

Posted by Sherry 2007-07-23 13:28|| 2007-07-23 13:28|| Front Page Top

#5 Too good not to be true.

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2007-07-23 13:46|| 2007-07-23 13:46|| Front Page Top

#6 A commenter at the link's website sums it up nicely:

To believe this crap, you have to want it to be true.

The Liberal Left is rapidly abandoning all sense of intellectual honesty or moral integrity in its attempts to skew reality over to their increasingly warped slant. Few things can so quickly invalidate a group's overall stance as fabrications of this sort. Especially so when the intended target of its smears are brave young men and women who are placing their lives on the line for our own sake. This isn't just shameless ingratitude, it is treason.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-07-23 13:56|| 2007-07-23 13:56|| Front Page Top

#7 Because everything about the "Shock Troops" stories were so flagrantly wrong, and so easily debunkable (is that a word... why, yes it is!) I am wondering if it was a set-up from the start. I wonder if "Scott Thomas" isn't a very clever young troop who made up a perfect s**t sandwich for TNR to chow down on. I speculate that somewhere in a dining facility in-country, a party of creative and politically savvy troops are even now laughing themselves sick at the sight of egg all over the face of TNR's editor.

Posted by Sgt. Mom 2007-07-23 15:16|| www.celiahayes.com]">[www.celiahayes.com] 2007-07-23 15:16|| Front Page Top

#8 Sounds like the most plausible scenario, Sgt. Mom. It is easy to catch a hungry fish. I only hope the perps don't hurt themselves laughing.

Disclaimer: I am completely willing to believe reporters are essentially clueless buffoons who would sacrifice facts and their grandmothers for a story that supports The Narrative.

Posted by SteveS 2007-07-23 15:41|| 2007-07-23 15:41|| Front Page Top

#9 Sgt. Mom: Either that, or he's a member of Kos or DU (who's earned the "10,000 posts!" gold star) sitting in Mom's basement in his 'jammies, pounding out the stories on his good old 1972 IBM Selectric word processor.

Posted by Mike 2007-07-23 15:42|| 2007-07-23 15:42|| Front Page Top

#10 PS: Sgt. Mom, congratulations on being mentioned in Gates of Vienna!!!

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-07-23 17:39|| 2007-07-23 17:39|| Front Page Top

#11 The blogosphere, it is a small place sometimes, Zenster!

Posted by Sgt. Mom 2007-07-23 17:50|| www.celiahayes.com]">[www.celiahayes.com] 2007-07-23 17:50|| Front Page Top

#12 dittos Sgt. Mom,
;-)

Posted by RD 2007-07-23 22:09|| 2007-07-23 22:09|| Front Page Top

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