Back to Work, Barnett and Owens!

TNR:

Earlier this week, The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb published a report, based on a single anonymous "military source close to the investigation," entitled "Beauchamp Recants," claiming that Beauchamp "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."

Here's what we know: On July 26, Beauchamp told us that he signed several statements under what he described as pressure from the Army. He told us that these statements did not contradict his articles. Moreover, on the same day he signed these statements for the Army, he gave us a statement standing behind his articles, which we published at tnr.com. Goldfarb has written, "It's pretty clear the New Republic is standing by a story that even the author does not stand by." In fact, it is our understanding that Beauchamp continues to stand by his stories and insists that he has not recanted them. The Army, meanwhile, has refused our requests to see copies of the statements it obtained from Beauchamp--or even to publicly acknowledge that they exist.

Scott Beauchamp is currently a 24-year-old soldier in Iraq who, for the past 15 days, has been prevented by the military from communicating with the outside world, aside from three brief and closely monitored phone calls to family members. Our investigation has not thus far uncovered factual evidence (aside from one key detail) to discount his personal dispatches. And we cannot simply dismiss the corroborating accounts of the five soldiers with whom we spoke.

Although all available evidence suggests that Hewitt's mini-me and Mr. Wankee have no social lives, I'm damn glad that The Editor's latest volley will, presumably, destroy their respective weekends.

I, however, am headed upstate a ways to play vodka Scrabble and ping-pong all weekend. Register your envy in comments, please.

UPDATE: Unlike in traditional Scrabble, when a player forms a word worth 27 points or greater, he or she is required to take a shot of Stoli. This version of the game is useful when a participant has won four or five consecutive games, as it tends to level the playing field.