"Scott Thomas" Speculation Continues

There is a lot of speculation surrounding the identity of the New Republic‘s mysterious, pseudonymous “Scott Thomas”, aka the Baghdad Diarist. A semiotics-based analysis by John Barnes has poured fuel on the fire with the conclusion that “Thomas” fits the profile of a creative writing program graduate. Blackfive’s Laughing Wolf weighs in on that theory with some thoughts of his own. Over at Mudville Gazette, Greyhawk comes to a different conclusion. The “exhumation of a graveyard,” he says, “leads me to believe Thomas is indeed a soldier.” And writing at NRO, Mackubin Owens seems to agree,

Nonetheless, the “Diarist’s” stories remind me of the sort of shocking and outrageous statements young men like to tell to credulous listeners. As the late Harry Summers, a veteran of two wars once remarked, such stories are intended to have the same impact as the sight of two Hell’s Angels French kissing in front of a group of bystanders: shock and awe. They also remind me of the predisposition of the American press to believe the worst about American soldiers, a predisposition that dates to the Vietnam War.

Dean Barnett remains agnostic on “Thomas”‘s claim to be a soldier serving in Baghdad,