.Poster soldier for anti-war movement was a fake
Jesse MacBeth never was an Army Ranger, much less a corporal, never received a Purple Heart for wounds inflicted by a foreign foe, and neither saw nor participated in war crimes with fellow U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, claims for which he became a poster boy for the anti-war movement.
So, there was likely no way the 23-year-old Tacoma man suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from the horrors of war and other injuries.
MacBeth was sentenced Friday to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs claim and an Army discharge record.
At a sentencing hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik on Friday, MacBeth's federal public defender, Jay Stansell, said that if MacBeth didn't have PTSD from a war, he had mental health problems and grew up in a very harsh background, homeless on the streets, surviving by seizing whatever angle or positive feedback he could get.
"I know he lived a war as a child," Stansell said.
Lasnik, weighing a standard sentencing range of between two and eight months for falsifying a VA claim and an Army discharge record, also ordered MacBeth to seek help for mental health problems, especially as they related to committing domestic violence.
MacBeth's is the latest case to be sentenced under "Operation Stolen Valor," which uses the new Stolen Valor Act to go after fake veterans who often festoon themselves with awards and invent tales of long-term injuries, often to fraudulently acquire veterans benefits.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Friedman said the sentencing range is often linked to how much money a fake veteran bilks from the government, and MacBeth was caught before he took any.
Friedman said the government doesn't fully understand what MacBeth's motivations were. The interviews MacBeth gave were part of his effort to document PTSD, Friedman said, "but they were also symptomatic of something else."
The sentence stemmed from a plea agreement last May in which MacBeth admitted guilt to falsifying a claim for veterans compensation benefits and altering his military discharge record, which was issued after he washed out of Army boot camp after 44 days in 2003.
A thin man who sat quietly, looking down through most of the hearing, MacBeth apologized for snookering anti-war groups with his claims of killing unarmed, helpless civilians in Iraq -- which were translated into Arabic and posted on the Internet -- but also to U.S. soldiers whom he "defamed."
MacBeth said he felt bad for what he did.
"I'm sorry not only for lying about everything and discrediting anti-war groups, but also for defaming the real heroes, the soldiers out there sacrificing for their country," MacBeth said. "I was trying to pull a fast one, to make money to get off the streets."
MacBeth fooled peace groups and alternative media to become something of an anti-war star over the last four years. MacBeth claimed he witnessed and participated in war crimes in Iraq with other Rangers, slaughtering hundreds of unarmed men, women and children.
In a widely distributed Internet video translated into Arabic, Macbeth said "We would burn their bodies ... hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque."
Lasnik noted that the case operated in two arenas, one in the courtroom where he was sentenced specifically for the crime of falsifying records, but another "in the blogosphere and elsewhere where he became a symbol."
"Too many people with a political agenda grabbed ahold of Mr. MacBeth's story and ran with it because they wanted to believe it. Any sober look should have lead people to believe it was all a made up rant," Lasnik said.
"They tried to make him a poster boy for their point of view, and I think that is outrageous," Lasnik said.
Yet, while MacBeth's actions embarrassed the anti-war movement, it cannot be argued, as other quarters of the blogosphere assert, "that all reports of abuse by Americans in Iraq are incorrect," Lasnik cautioned. The military justice system has brought to light and dealt with such reports, he said.
Operation Stolen Valor is a yearlong federal law enforcement effort that has resulted in a dozen cases under investigation in the Pacific Northwest, with fraud totals of more than $1.4 million. Eight cases have been filed and are in various stages of prosecution.
The new Stolen Valor Act allows authorities to pursue phonies they previously could not touch. In the past authorities rarely could act unless they caught someone wearing an award.
"As a Vietnam veteran, and the father of a decorated Army officer currently serving, I feel very keenly the damage done by Jesse Macbeth and these other fakes," U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said.
SPI
Wasn't this guy discredited about tem minutes after he came out? It took these people this long to figure it all out.
So, there was likely no way the 23-year-old Tacoma man suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from the horrors of war and other injuries.
MacBeth was sentenced Friday to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs claim and an Army discharge record.
At a sentencing hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik on Friday, MacBeth's federal public defender, Jay Stansell, said that if MacBeth didn't have PTSD from a war, he had mental health problems and grew up in a very harsh background, homeless on the streets, surviving by seizing whatever angle or positive feedback he could get.
"I know he lived a war as a child," Stansell said.
Lasnik, weighing a standard sentencing range of between two and eight months for falsifying a VA claim and an Army discharge record, also ordered MacBeth to seek help for mental health problems, especially as they related to committing domestic violence.
MacBeth's is the latest case to be sentenced under "Operation Stolen Valor," which uses the new Stolen Valor Act to go after fake veterans who often festoon themselves with awards and invent tales of long-term injuries, often to fraudulently acquire veterans benefits.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Friedman said the sentencing range is often linked to how much money a fake veteran bilks from the government, and MacBeth was caught before he took any.
Friedman said the government doesn't fully understand what MacBeth's motivations were. The interviews MacBeth gave were part of his effort to document PTSD, Friedman said, "but they were also symptomatic of something else."
The sentence stemmed from a plea agreement last May in which MacBeth admitted guilt to falsifying a claim for veterans compensation benefits and altering his military discharge record, which was issued after he washed out of Army boot camp after 44 days in 2003.
A thin man who sat quietly, looking down through most of the hearing, MacBeth apologized for snookering anti-war groups with his claims of killing unarmed, helpless civilians in Iraq -- which were translated into Arabic and posted on the Internet -- but also to U.S. soldiers whom he "defamed."
MacBeth said he felt bad for what he did.
"I'm sorry not only for lying about everything and discrediting anti-war groups, but also for defaming the real heroes, the soldiers out there sacrificing for their country," MacBeth said. "I was trying to pull a fast one, to make money to get off the streets."
MacBeth fooled peace groups and alternative media to become something of an anti-war star over the last four years. MacBeth claimed he witnessed and participated in war crimes in Iraq with other Rangers, slaughtering hundreds of unarmed men, women and children.
In a widely distributed Internet video translated into Arabic, Macbeth said "We would burn their bodies ... hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque."
Lasnik noted that the case operated in two arenas, one in the courtroom where he was sentenced specifically for the crime of falsifying records, but another "in the blogosphere and elsewhere where he became a symbol."
"Too many people with a political agenda grabbed ahold of Mr. MacBeth's story and ran with it because they wanted to believe it. Any sober look should have lead people to believe it was all a made up rant," Lasnik said.
"They tried to make him a poster boy for their point of view, and I think that is outrageous," Lasnik said.
Yet, while MacBeth's actions embarrassed the anti-war movement, it cannot be argued, as other quarters of the blogosphere assert, "that all reports of abuse by Americans in Iraq are incorrect," Lasnik cautioned. The military justice system has brought to light and dealt with such reports, he said.
Operation Stolen Valor is a yearlong federal law enforcement effort that has resulted in a dozen cases under investigation in the Pacific Northwest, with fraud totals of more than $1.4 million. Eight cases have been filed and are in various stages of prosecution.
The new Stolen Valor Act allows authorities to pursue phonies they previously could not touch. In the past authorities rarely could act unless they caught someone wearing an award.
"As a Vietnam veteran, and the father of a decorated Army officer currently serving, I feel very keenly the damage done by Jesse Macbeth and these other fakes," U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said.
SPI
Wasn't this guy discredited about tem minutes after he came out? It took these people this long to figure it all out.
posted by madtom at 7:43 PM
16 Comments:
Those keen enough to have followed this traitorous clown smelled a big brown pile right away. But that did not stop thousands of youtube yahoos from drinking in his crap or millions in the Arab world being enraged from Macbeth's lies of killing men and women as they left a Baghdad mosque.
It simply took a court of law this long to accept his guilty plea. Jesse Adam Macbeth, 23, pleaded guilty to charges he faked his war record.
All I want to know is why was this turd not charged with treason?
There is a long tradition of psuedo warriors in the anti-war movement. John Kerry was their spokesman in front of a Senate hearing and was nominated for President.
Will,
Hiding behind anonymity don't make you comment and more ture. You wish you had it as good a Kerry.
Wasn't hiding, Mad-one. Didn't catch it before entering 'publish'. Sometimes the blogger utility logs me out and I have to log back in, sometimes it keeps me logged in from blog to blog and I post anon on one because I have been banned there--- I dunno, but why would I hide from a comment so well documented as true? I assume you are well informed on the matter or the 'Winter Soldier' program that Kerry represented when testifying before Congress? Many of them were the same sort of individuals as the fool in this story.
"'Winter Soldier' "
To tell you the truth, that was a bit before my time..But I think it has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that Kerry served. Which is more than can be said for a"W"ol
Winter soldier was a group of anti war Vietnam 'vets' funded by Jane Fonda, among others, and headed by Kerry and his buddy. They collected horror stories and Kerry used those stories during his famous appearance before the US Senate. turns out his buddy, and many if not most of the 'vets' had either not served in the military at all, or never set foot in Viet Nam. Sorta like this guy.
Kerry served 3 months in Viet Nam and got out because 'someone' recommended him for 3 purple hearts in THREE months of service! You should learn the truth about his service and the men who made up the Swift Boat campaign before you jump to conclusions. I know you are well aware that what you read in MSM is rarely true. W has never thrown his service out as being exceptional, though he really did fly jet fighters in the Gulf (you do see the need for patrolling the gulf especially in the years not so long after the Cuban missile crisis, aren't you?), Kerry made it his major qualification. Besides being phony, it was stupid regardless of the politics. Didja know that Kerry has still failed to allow release of all of his military records despite saying dozens of times that he had, or would, or was in the process of doing so? Do you know why? He was going to prove the Swift boaters all liars, and like OJ, he is still working on proving himself innocent of the charges.
"though he really did fly jet fighters in the Gulf"
Good, I guess you can provide a citation for that. I thought he just trained, and never graduated, something about not showing up for the physical.
And besides non of this was the issue, it's just the spin, and you know very well we can sit here and argue how many angles fit on the head of a pin for the rest of our lives, and we would not have achieved anything.
The real issues that the spin was used to cover up was the "use of privilege". W used his daddies influence to get those very rare post in the guard protecting the Gulf, Cheney used his privilege to get..whatever you called them to stay in school. And those "Swiftboat" disgraced themselves in the eyes of millions for some browning points. I would not want any those guys guarding my dog.
Kerry, if even for a day served, and came back with a purple heart
But that's all old news anyway there is a new post up now that goes to where the right wants to take the issue today. Now all anti-war soldiers are fakes. Ditto heads
I have never heard anyone deny he flew the fighters--- that is an accepted fact. His flight instructor was interviewed several times and said he was an excellent student. It's pretty amazing that you throw around the accusation without even a shred of factual knowledge on the subject. What was claimed was that he did not show up for a physical the final year after he had already requested, and been given permission, to finish his commitment in Alabama. He wasn't going to be flying there since they had no planes he had been trained on and was being phased out even in TX, so there was no need to take the physical which was necessary to maintain his flight certification. The accusation is that he never did the days in Alabama to complete his service, but no one came up with any documentation one way or the other.
On his 'privilege' to serve, the commander of the TX National guard said that anyone who was a Yale graduate and applied to fly National Guard jets would be accepted, and he never received any request to give Bush special consideration and none was needed. But if you have an agenda, facts don't matter, so why bother to actually give that any consideration? I am certain that he was given special consideration even if no one asked, and I am pretty certain he would have been given the slot even if he hadn't been named Bush.
So far as the ditto head remark and ascribing to me the idea that all anti-war soldiers are fakes, you have nothing to indicate I ever thought or said any such thing, but it does feed that agenda, so again, why bother with fact, right?
You apparently know nothing of the facts of Kerry's service (3 purple hearts, one bronze star) and the issues the Swift boat guys raise. So why would you malign them? You do know that some of them served THREE years of swift boat duty and were highly decorated and respected? I won't go over the undisputed facts that alone indicate Kerry was a coward and liar, but you can easily find it yourself if the facts matter to you. His reaction and refusal to release the papers he claimed he had released should at least give you pause. You should get the facts before maligning men based only on your agenda and ignorance.
No I did not call you a ditto head, I just wanted to use the word somehow, so I through it in at the end to make a statement, not to call you names...Funny how every time I use that word in the presents of a conservative they object. I was banned for life at Babalu blog, a Cuban blog for doing just that.
"so there was no need to take the physical"
Sure there was, he could have got certified, and volunteered for service, in the guard, in Vietnam, over Europe... Somehow that little fact always seems to go missing... I mean what good was all that training just to through it away. How can you excuse that behavior, you would not accept it from your daughter, I am sure.
Imagine if there had been some piece of paper that if she just forgot to get, would have kept her home on her last deployment. What would you have said to her.
It's not agenda and ignorance. Not that I am an expert, I have read the debates and it all came down to politics.
They tried to make him out to be a liar, just as you have repeated here, but I never saw anything. Remember he would be innocent until proven guilty. It's not for Kerry to prove his innocents, it goes to those that would accuse to prove him guilty. Something they never did, nor could. It was just politics
Come on Will 3 metals, I knew it, you have just written it a few comments above, the number was irrelevant to my comment. Just like some of your critique of my knowledge of the Bush story, mostly irrelevant to the point I was trying to make...
Ditto head is what your type likes to throw out when they can't answer with reason or logic. When a conservative makes a point that is part of basic conservative belief, or course it is because they are mindless robots, so why try to refute what can't be refuted?
Again with the Bush thing. He had already been released from flying duty, so did not take the flight physical. Wasn't required. He had done his flying service. His service as a jet pilot had already ended. The jets he was trained to fly were being retired, they weren't going to train him to fly others unless he re upped, and he didn't. He was no great war hero and didn't claim to be. Big damn deal and was never an issue at the time. Unless you believe that the Dan Rather miraculous Word Perfect Time Travel Documents are real, there is nothing to it. Yet you guys keep hanging on, just like Crazy Dan.
Kerry was proven to be a liar, MT. THAT is the point. Unless you think that all those Swift boat vets who where there with him are liars and they falsified all the facts they brought to their case are fabricated, you have to conclude he is a liar. Unless you believe his story of his heroic rescue from a river while coming under heavy fire for over a mile in the jungle is true, while everyone else involved says they stayed in one place for over an hour trying to tow another boat back to base is lying, you have to conclude Kerry is a damn liar. Was Kerry lying when he said he threw his medals over a fence in protest, or was he lying when he said his medals are on display in his office and that it was someone else's medals he threw over the fence? Either way, he is a liar. He lied under oath at the Senate hearing that brought him to national prominence. Even he has had to retract some of it. He was stupid enough to make his service and medals the main qualification to be president. That makes it the most relevant point of all. He used a picture of himself with 18 SBV officers with whom he served in his campaign. 2 publicly supported him. 12 of them went on the record to say he was unfit to serve as president. You think they were all just 'brown-nosers"? Ditto heads, maybe?
Innocent until proven guilty? You reserve that right for him while ignoring the fact it has been proven, but labeled the 23 + SBVs as disgraced and unworthy of any trust, didn't you? different rules apply because.......?
I payed a lot of attention to the issue and was not happy with the whole Swift Vet movement. Then I met a former Navy search and rescu guy who served under Kerry's commanding officer, and he said if that guy said Kerry was unfit, then you could bank on it. The guy was known for supporting all his sailors unless he had overwhelming reason not to. Then I looked into all the facts, unlike you---- and sent the SBVs some money to get out the story. Kerry disgusts me, probably more than bush disgust you.
Ok I will accept you version of the events, but I do need more. I need to know W's total commitment and the dates.
I find it very hard to accept, with out more, statement like:
"the commander of the TX National guard said that anyone who was a Yale graduate and applied to fly National Guard jets would be accepted,"
Jet Fighter pilots are a big investment. There is a minimum requirement to get those slots. Yale graduates at least a thousand students every year, that all of them could have signed up for a short term commitment and joined the pilot program with no strings attaches during a war that was "raging", in Nam and with threats to Europe and the Gulf from the Russians, smells of spin to me.
"He had already been released from flying duty"
Without certification? and without deployment.
Let me ask you, had he gained "certification" what are the chances that he might have been "stop loss" and deployed? Other people got drafted trained to fly and deployed, all of witch had a degree, or were candidate for a degree from Yale too.
Privilege explains it all much better. To me.
And Bush does not disgust me, nor do I hate, I just disagree.
OK, all the people who said he was highly qualified and an excellent pilot must have lied and the only evidence to refute his version of why he did not fly the last 1.5 years of his six year commitment-- the Rather Memos--- are the truth.
Did his name likely make his way easier, even if it was never used outright? Probably, but so what? What world do you live in? He didn't set himself up as a military hero or say that his service made him qualified to be President.
So far as the stoploss and active duty deployment, that isn't the way the NG worked at the time. They didn't do combat unless they volunteered, and rarely even then. Besides, bush flew F102s which were considered very difficult to fly and dangerous and were on the way out and not used in combat zones, so he would not have been combat deployed regardless.
I am not crazy about the guy either, we share some reasons and not others, but I just hate seeing people make stuff up and it becoming the 'fact' that everyone accepts as true. I googled the subject and found thousands of pages full of made up stuff that only a little research can refute. There are lots of subjects like that where politics enter and reason departs. Especailly where the Left is concerned. Google/internet is scary.
"So far as the stoploss and active duty deployment, that isn't the way the NG worked at the time. They didn't do combat unless they volunteered, and rarely even then. Besides, bush flew F102s which were considered very difficult to fly and dangerous and were on the way out and not used in combat zones, so he would not have been combat deployed regardless."
I guess we will just have to agree to disagree that this does not have silver spoon written all over it, and that anyone* could just "apply".
"He didn't set himself up as a military hero or say that his service made him qualified to be President.'
Maybe not, but his surrogates sure made sure that someone else's service, disqualified them to be president.
"Google/internet is scary"
Yes I know, and for the most part "they" "argue how many angles fit on the head of a pin"
But that's why we, are "the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
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