A former University of Missouri-Columbia student whose Iraq war diaries published in The New Republic have come under scrutiny was telling the truth and reported the facts accurately, except for one error, a review by the political magazine has concluded.

Beauchamp

Army Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, who attended MU from August 2002 to December 2004, wrote three diary entries this year about his deployment. After the veracity of his latest entry, titled "Shock Troops," was called into question, The New Republic re-reported every detail of the story, the magazine said yesterday on its Web site. The review included speaking with current and former soldiers, forensic experts, other journalists who covered the war, Army public affairs officers and five other members of Beauchamp’s unit.

The magazine said all of the soldiers corroborated Beauchamp’s anecdotes.

In "Shock Troops," Beauchamp wrote about troops mocking a visibly handicapped soldier sitting in a dining hall. The magazine talked to three soldiers, all of whom said they repeatedly saw the same facially disfigured woman, including the soldier who was with Beauchamp that day. He told The New Republic: "We were really poking fun at her; it was just me and Scott, the day that I made that comment."

Members of Beauchamp’s company, however, did refute the location of the incident. Beauchamp wrote that it happened in a Baghdad dining hall; it actually happened in Kuwait, before the unit went to Iraq. "When presented with this important discrepancy, Beauchamp acknowledged his error," the magazine said. "We sincerely regret this mistake."

Witnesses also backed Beauchamp’s accounts of a soldier finding and wearing a skull on his head and a Bradley fighting vehicle driver intentionally running over a dog, the magazine said.

The Army launched its own investigation into Beauchamp’s writings last week, "short-circuiting our efforts," the magazine said.

Beauchamp’s computer and cell phone have been taken away by the military, and he is unable to talk to his family.

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