Army Responds To TNR's "Stonewalling" Claim: No One's Keeping Beauchamp From Talking, And You Know That

They also note that no one can force Beauchamp to talk, and that the Army has neither the obligation or right to force him to come clean with TNR.

We are not stonewalling anyone. There are official statements that are out there are on the record from several of us and nothing has changed.

We are not preventing him from speaking to TNR or anyone. He has full access to the Morale Welfare and Recreation phones that all the other members of the unit are free to use. It is my understanding that he has been informed of the requests to speak to various members of the media, both traditional and non-traditional and has declined. That is his right.

We will not nor can we force a Soldier to talk to the media or his family or anyone really for that matter in these types of issues.

In other words: Hey, TNR? If he's "your writer," as you say (rather than "our soldier," which his oath says), you persuade him to talk. Got nothin' to do with us.

This leaves TNR twisting in the wind, which is either an unfair outcome or poetic justice. With Beauchamp apparently unwilling to repeat his claims or say precisely what he told the army, and the army feeling the law prevents them from releasing his statements, TNR can't quite disavow Beauchamp's stories but also can't quite re-affirm them.

Perhaps that's the best outcome it could hope for, and perhaps Beauchamp is actually doing them a favor by not admitting to them he lied. They can thus claim the whole matter is "unresolved," as Dan Rather claims to this day regarding Rathergate.

Then again, he's on HDNet now, so how well did that work out for him?

posted by Ace at 07:08 PM

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