PHONY LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS IN IRAQ?: This is one of the most disgusting things I've seen in a while. I was tipped off by the folks at American Politics Journal about the appalling possibility that someone wrote a letter about how wonderful things are in Iraq, near Kirkuk, and signed several soldiers' names to the letter without them approving it, or their knowledge.

Turns out the astroturf letter part, at least, is true. Someone is sending the exact same letter to different newspapers across the country...only each letter is "signed" by a different soldier living in that paper's area of circulation. A blatant propaganda ploy. To see for yourself, do the following:

1) Do a google search for the phrase: "I have been serving in Iraq for over five months now"

2) This unit is serving near Kirkuk...the heart of Kurdish territory in Iraq. It would be unsurprising if the local population were very pleased to have U.S. troops there. Ironically, however, at least one of the soldiers who "signed" the letter [See him listed below] was injured in a booby-trap bomb explosion just recently.

I haven't found a supposed Gannett News service story about the apparent fraud. Supposedly the reporter interviewed a number of the soldiers who "wrote" the letters, and finds that none of them actually signed it.

Also, at least one of them had no clue that it had even been sent out in his name!

Here are the names of soldiers that ave been used so far:

1. Spc. Nathan Whitelatch.

2. Sgt. Shawn M. Grueser.

3. Pfc. David Deaconson.

Deaconson is the one who was injured in the explosion.

4. Pfc. Jason Marshall.

5. Sgt. 1st Class Edwin Gargas Jr.

And...

6. Sgt. Chris Shelton.

When and if I find a link to the actual Gannett News Service story by Ledyard King, I'll post it. In the meantime, I suggest folks e-mail this link to all of the newspapers victimized by the scam, in the hope that they will note it.

UPDATE: I found another one...from Pfc. Adam C. Connell. This one seems to be the original letter, sent home to his mother. It was then used by someone who affixed the names of other soldiers in the unit, and then sent it to their hometown papers. At least that's my working theory. This letter was published on September 14, 2003. The other letters seem to be much more recent.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Oh well, you can forget that theory. I was informed that there's another letter, not available online, that was published on September 16, 2003 from the almost myhtically-named SPC. Myron Tuttle published in the Tulare Advance-Register.

FINAL UPDATE: Yes! The scam is confirmed! Here's the Gannett News Service article, published in the Olympian.

"Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.

And all the letters are the same.

A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers, including Snohomish, Wash.

The Olympian received two identical letters signed by different hometown soldiers: Spc. Joshua Ackler and Spc. Alex Marois, who is now a sergeant. The paper declined to run either because of a policy not to publish form letters.

****

Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through their families said they agreed with the letter's thrust. But none of the soldiers said he wrote it, and one said he didn't even sign it.

Marois, 23, told his family he signed the letter, said Moya Marois, his stepmother. But she said he was puzzled why it was sent to the newspaper in Olympia. He attended high school in Olympia but no longer considers the city home, she said. Moya Marois and Alex's father, Les, now live near Kooskia, Idaho.

A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter until his father congratulated him for getting it published in the local newspaper in Beckley, W.Va.

"When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said: 'What letter?' " Timothy Deaconson said Friday, recalling the phone conversation he had with his son, Nick. "This is just not his (writing) style."

He spoke to his son, Pfc. Nick Deaconson, at a hospital where he was recovering from a grenade explosion that left shrapnel in both his legs.

Sgt. Christopher Shelton, who signed a letter that ran in the Snohomish Herald, said Friday that his platoon sergeant had distributed the letter and asked soldiers for the names of their hometown newspapers. Soldiers were asked to sign the letter if they agreed with it, said Shelton, whose shoulder was wounded during an ambush earlier this year.

"Everything it said is dead accurate. We've done a really good job," he said by phone from Italy, where he was preparing to return to Iraq.

****

Sgt. Shawn Grueser of Poca, W.Va., said he spoke to a military public affairs officer whose name he couldn't remember about his accomplishments in Iraq for what he thought was a news release to be sent to his hometown paper in Charleston, W.Va. But the 2nd Battalion soldier said he did not sign any letter.

Although Grueser said he agrees with the letter's sentiments, he was uncomfortable that a letter with his signature did not contain his own words or spell out his own accomplishments.

"It makes it look like you cheated on a test, and everybody got the same grade," Grueser said by phone from a base in Italy where he had just arrived from Iraq."
It's not quite so egregious as I originally thought. Most of the soldiers agree with the sentiment, if not the specifics in the letter. But, I also agree with Sgt. Grueser. It diminishes the integrity of the letter considerably the way it was distributed. I wonder who that "military public affairs officer" is?