Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

August 13, 2007 By Fausta

Joy in Sadr City

As the number of truck bombs and other large al-Qaeda-style attacks in Iraq have declined nearly 50% and of course the NYT continues to twist the truth on British troop reductions, Matt taped this video smack in the middle of Sadr City:

Matt emailed,

Iraq is filled with children, more than what you’ll see in the US. Despite the troubles, kids are always laughing, playing and generally seem healthy. These kids were playing soccer on the street and came over to try handshakes they have seen on television with the soldiers.

The surge must really be working: the UN wants a bigger role in Iraq

Update: And the troops are saving babies, too, Troops Shelter an Unlikely Survivor in Baghdad.
“There is an intangible and growing moral clout and it flows from an increasing respect among Iraqis for our military.”

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Filed Under: Iraq, Matt Sanchez, UN, videos

August 12, 2007 By Fausta

Front yard invasion, today’s items, and the Carnival

UPDATE
Don’t miss also Ellen Goodman, Helpless Little Girl


The Husband does the gardening (except for the mulching, which was done this week – and trust me, you don’t want to smell the mulch much), and a couple of years ago he planted clematis. Well, the clematis love our front yard and now we have a large patch of clematis ready to take over. The ones in the picture are well over 5′ tall and seem to be spreading.

Let that be a lesson to all of us.

—————————————————————–

SC 2 Linked To Sami Al-Arian Investigation

There’s been another strange development regarding the searching of a home in the investigation into Yousseff Samir Megahed and Ahmed Abda Mohamed, arrested for allegedly carrying pipe bombs in their vehicle just miles from a military facility in Goose Creek, South Carolina. According to this report, the home was also searched some years back during the investigation into Sami Al-Arian.

Go read the rest.

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For some reason the comments aren’t showing under the posts. I have not a clue as to why or what to do, so my apologies for the inconvenience. Hopefully it will fix itself.
—————————————————————–

Don’t miss Francis Porretto‘s excellent post from 2004 following up my post from yesterday.
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Matt has an article from Nate Fick on Afghanistan. Fick’s the author of One Bullet Away

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Newsweek Editor Calls Mag’s Global Warming ‘Deniers’ Article ‘Highly Contrived’, debunking itself.
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The Carnival of the Insanities is on!

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Filed Under: abortion, Matt Sanchez, photos, Princeton, terrorism

August 7, 2007 By Fausta

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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Filed Under: Iraq, Matt Sanchez, Michael Totten, Michael Yon, Scott Thomas Beauchamp

August 3, 2007 By Fausta

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

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Filed Under: Iraq, Matt Sanchez, Scott Thomas Beauchamp

July 13, 2007 By Fausta

Matt Sanchez in Fallujah

Marine Matt Sanchez continues his posts as an embed. Here’s his latest, with photos: Fallujah–From Near, from Afar
While you’re there, go to his right sidebar and listen to the troops In Their Own Words. This is not the AP reporting on Harry Potter and the War on Terror; this is the real thing.

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Filed Under: APDD, Iraq, Matt Sanchez

July 10, 2007 By Fausta

Confederate Yankee = APDD antidote

Updated, Wednesday 11 July

A while ago I defined Associated Press Deficit Disorder as

Associated Press Deficit Disorder: the innatention of Associated Press and other news agencies to the actual words said by a person who doesn’t fit what AP wants to hear.

This week’s antidote to Associated Press Deficit Disorder? Confederate Yankee

Go read his posts
When Does a Massacre Matter?
A Hunting We Will Go
Associated Press Prints Immediate Correction
AP Responds to DecapiGate
AP: Screw the Facts, Protect the Narrative

Forget about AP.
Go read the guys who are there now, or who have been there recently:
Michael Yon in Iraq
Matt Sanchez in Iraq now, and Afghanistan
Michael Totten, who is heading to Iraq right now.
Michael Fumento is back from Afghanistan

Read their articles, look at their pictures, get the real story. And please, contribute to their blogs through PayPal if you can.

UPDATE, Wednesday, 11 July
Laws, Sausages and Journalism, and Second Chances
And Security operations in Basra, the second largest city in Iraq, soon to be transferred to Iraqui forces

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Filed Under: APDD, Associated Press Deficit Disorder, Iraq, Matt Sanchez, Michael Fumento, Michael Totten, Michael Yon

June 16, 2007 By Fausta

Embed in Iraq: Operation Alljah

Matt Sanchez continues to blog from Iraq: Operation Alljah, with photos. Go read it, since you won’t find anything like this in the MSM

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Filed Under: Iraq, Matt Sanchez

June 14, 2007 By Fausta

Matt Sanchez reports from Iraq as an embed

Matt Sanchez isn in Iraq, and has a great article, Outside the Wire–A day in the Life with photos.

Go read every word.

Michael Fumento has a great series of posts in his Afghanistan Diaries chronicling his experiences when he was an embed in the country last March. He also has great photos.

Update, Friday 15 June
Don’t miss also Michael Fumento’s The Other War:
Afghanistan is Winnable, but Victory Can’t be Taken for Granted

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Filed Under: Afghanistan, Iraq, journalism, Matt Sanchez, Michael Fumento

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