Jesse Macbeth

Jesse Macbeth of Tacoma, Washington, is a disgraced former soldier who falsely claimed in 2006 to be a U.S. Army Ranger and a veteran of the Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Macbeth lied in alternative media interviews that he and his unit routinely committed war crimes in Iraq.

Transcripts of the video were made in English and Arabic. Accounts in Macbeth's name appear on Military.com and Myspace.com, and both were used to post claims about military service in Iraq.

No record of Ranger service
According to the U.S. Army, there is no record of Macbeth being a Ranger, or serving in a combat unit: he was discharged from the service after having been declared unfit or unsuitable for the Army, or both, before he could complete basic training.

IVAW
After his release from the Army in 2004, Macbeth purported himself to be a veteran, telling war stories and garnering attention from the mainstream media, and student media outlets. He joined Iraq Veterans Against the War in January of 2006, and represented, or was scheduled to represent them publicly at various events throughout the country;  the organization has since said it does not endorse Macbeth or his accounts of military service.

Conviction and sentencing
On September 21, 2007, Macbeth admitted in federal court that he had faked his war record. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sullivan declared that Macbeth had been in the Army for just 44 days "as a private at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2003 but was released 'for issues related to entry-level performance and conduct,' according to court papers."

On June 7, 2007, MacBeth "pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. MacBeth admitted that he filed a bogus claim for VA benefits in 2005, which included a fraudulent military-discharge form."

Macbeth was sentenced to five months in jail, "three months in a halfway house after his release and three years of probation."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * fake news
 * Rush Limbaugh

External articles

 * Dale Franks, "Out, Damned Spot!" The Q and O Blog, May 22, 2006.
 * Michelle Malkin, "The Fables of Jesse Macbeth," MichelleMalkin.com, May 23, 2006.
 * McQ, "Jesse Macbeth: An interesting case study," The Q and O Blog, May 23, 2006.
 * AllahPundit, "Jesse Macbeth video goes viral (bumped)," Hot Air Blog, May 23, 2006.
 * "'Ranger' who boasted of murdering Iraqi civilians debunked by Army," WorldNetDaily, May 27, 2006.
 * McQ, "Why outing Jesse Macbeth was important," The Q and O Blog, May 31, 2006.
 * Michelle Malkin, "Anti-war fraudster Jesse Macbeth arrested. Updated with statement from VA whistleblower," MichelleMalkin.com, May 18, 2007.
 * Mike Barber, "Fake veteran gets 5-month sentence. Man claimed to have helped kill civilians in Iraq," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 21, 2007.
 * "Fox News Live guest claimed Limbaugh named MacBeth 'about 30 seconds' after 'phony soldiers' comment -- but it was nearly 2 minutes," Media Matters for America, October 3, 2007.
 * Mark Silva, "Swift Boat veteran, GOPers rally around Rush," The Swamp Blog/Baltimore Sun, October 4, 2007.
 * Tom A. Peter, "'Phony soldier' comments continue to roil Iraq War debate. Both sides are cranking up the volume regarding Moveon.org’s Petraeus ad and Rush Limbaugh’s comments about soldiers who don’t support the war," Christian Science Monitor, October 5, 2007 (edition).