Steven A. Boylan

Col. Steven A. Boylan is the Public Affairs Officer and official spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq and for Gen. David Petraeus. Boylan was the Director of the Multi-National Force-Iraq Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad, from August 2004 to December 2005 in charge of the embed program, responding to reporters and bloggers in and out of Iraq as well as the individual responsible for the command information network, AFN-Iraq and the command information newspaper the "Scimitar." [as per official duty description]

On the 2000th military casualty in Iraq

On October 26, 2005, when the military death toll in Iraq reached 2,000, then Army Lieutenant Colonel Boylan said:

The US Senate paused for a moment of silence after news that the death toll had reached 2000.

But Army Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said the 2000th death was "not a milestone".

"It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives. In some cases, this could also be the creating of news where none really exists," Lt-Col Boylan said.

Interviews and emails to/with bloggers

• Michael Arrieta-Walden, "Marking the 2,000th death", OregonLive.com, October 31, 2005. (This has the full text of the email Boylan sent to the media on the occasion of the 2000th military casualty in Iraq in October 2005).
• Richard Miniter, "The Rest of the Story," RichardMiniter.com (Pajamas Media), April 5, 2007.
• Steve Benen, "Petraeus starts lowering expectations for September," The Carpetbagger Report, May 17, 2007.
• "It’s Official: Beauchamps Claims Debunked by Army Internal Investigation" and "Breaking: Kuwait-Based Army PAO Calls Beauchamp/New Republic Claim and ‘Urban Legend or Myth’," Confederate Yankee Blog (Pajamas Media), August 3, 2007.
• Bill Roggio, "The Army Responds," The Weekly Standard, August 11, 2007.
• Kevin Drum, "Petraeus and the Republican Caucus," The Washington Monthly, September 2, 2007.
• Cernig, "Interview with Col. Steven Boylan MNF-I," The Newshoggers, October 9, 2007.
• Noah Schachtman, "Petraeus Throws Out Book, Launches Airstrikes" (Updated), Danger Room Blog/WIRED, October 26, 2007.

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Bloggers' Roundtable
• Scott Thomas Beauchamp
• Vets for Freedom
• war propaganda

External articles

• Franklin Fisher, "Army Officer is attacked outside Yongsan Garrison," Stars and Stripes, December 17, 2002.
• Transcript: "Critique of Worldwide Media Coverage," CNN, November 13, 2004.
• "Journalists Under Fire in Iraq: Reuters Chief Debates Pentagon Over Slain and Detained Media Workers," Democracy Now!, August 31, 2005.
• Glenn Greenwald, "Further politicization of the U.S. military’s public statements" (with updates), Salon, July 24, 2007.
• Scott Horton, "A Politicized Military?" Harper’s Magazine, September 1, 2007.
• Glenn Greenwald, "The growing link between the U.S. military and right-wing media and blogs," Salon, October 25, 2007.
• "Your Military At Work: Beauchamp, Boylan, and McCarthy," China Hand Blog, October 26, 2007.
• Glenn Greenwald, "A bizarre unsolicited email from Gen. Petraeus’ spokesman" (with updates), Salon, October 28, 2007.
• Glenn Greenwald, "E-mail headers from Col. Boylan and MNF," Unclaimed Territory Blog, October 28, 2007.
• Hart Williams, "Col. Boylan Goes Off the Reservation," his vorpal sword Blog, October 28, 2007.
• Cernig, "Cole-ing All Wing-Nuts," The Newshoggers, October 29, 2007.
• Steven D., "An Email Message for Col. Steven Boylan, PAO," Booman Tribune, October 29, 2007.
• Glenn Greenwald, "Col. Boylan's implosion accelerates" (with updates), Salon.com, October 31, 2007.
• Farhad Manjoo The case of the angry colonel, Salon.com, October 31, 2007.