"Special Forces Soldier killed in Syria" likely not dead, may have faked death (Occupy San Diego)

[Robb]

Update February 3, 2012:

Sgt. Polk's death has still not been reported by the Dept. of Defense, nor has any notice of his death appeared in his family's hometown newspaper.

A source has further informed ECM that his name has not been provided for addition to a memorial that honors fallen special services soldiers. Thus at this point, it appears likely that Polk did not die in service overseas. Perhaps he faked his death, or possibly someone else posted misleading information on his Facebook account.....

Read More: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/8382

... Or perhaps no one picked up the phone to confirm before running breathlessly with story. Old mess of a DU thread here. Actual soldiers who have been killed here. Likelihood of this guy having been a Special Forces soldier here.

Again, the moral of the story: "Something I read on Facebook" is not a source.

[Brickbat]

1. "Perhaps he faked his death."

[Recovered Repug]

5. He seemed to have faked his life so why not fake his death?

[zappaman]

51. kick n/t

[Scurrilous]

2. editor@eastcountymagazine now on ignore. n/t

[Historic NY]

3. Well someone FOIL'ed his records........OOPS.

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=28611

[Robb]

4. Washed out of basic training. Well, there you go.

Makes me wonder about the "non-denial" supposedly obtained from his command.

[zappaman]

66. Kick

Good link!

[Robb]

72. That site is now linking back here.

[zappaman]

73. Ugh

Makes DU look like idiots.
Great...

[Historic NY]

74. It already was thats how I found it.......

[zappaman]

75. kick n/t

[SidDithers]

6. K&R...

thanks for the update, and for staying on the story.

Sid

[Robb]

7. Interestingly, the OP has self-deleted the original post.

[SidDithers]

8. Thus locking the thread...

which is why I'm glad you started this one to allow updates to the story to be posted.



Sid

[Scurrilous]

11. I guess this means we're not at war w/ Syria anymore...

[zappaman]

18. LOL!

Really, the saddest/funniest post I've read in some time!
Thanks!

[tkmorris]

16. That IS interesting isn't it?

I wonder why she would do that?

[joshcryer]

9. Thanks for the update, I figured this would be resolved.

Shame the original OP was deleted.

[Robb]

10. Well, since it was deleted only in the last few minutes

...it's still in Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:H6VBsgUK1TEJ:sync.democraticunderground.com/1002179652+site:democraticunderground.com+SOLDIER'S+FACEBOOK+POST+RAISES+QUESTIONS+ABOUT&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us



It was also posted on DU2, which does not have the same self-deleting feature: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5087821

The memory hole is a tad more shallow these days.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. Is this the OP mentioned at the site Historic NY posted above?

Mentioned here: http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=28611

When I hit that link it sent me to a deleted OP by the same member which appeared to be on topic judging by the replies. I'm assuming it is, I just want to be sure.

[SidDithers]

36. Forget Syria. I wanna know more about 2.3% mortgages!!...

Sid

[zappaman]

19. can anyone explain what the fuck this means...?

"So from now on, man bytes dog, I can even ask the vet how many stitches."
Anyone?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

56. she got her 'reporter'-ass spanked

maybe she will learn not to ... nah, nevermind.

sP

[tammywammy]

13. Thanks the update

No wonder Nadin refused to say who she confirmed the death with.

Though I'll keep an open mind and maybe Nadin has a perfectly reasonable explanation.

[tammywammy]

24. Who did you confirm the death with?

Don't say 'his command', what's their name.

If you cannot get a basic fact on if someone's dead, I'm going to take the rest of your article with a grain of salt. You can divert attention away, but the basis of 'we're in Syria!!!' you're spreading was based off this man's Facebook post and it's not even confirmed he was in the Army.

[Robb]

32. That's a good question, she answered that earlier.

Perhaps she can explain the burial.

[zappaman]

25. "...complex stories, not even from Guardian, NYT or wiki leaks itself, belong on DU"

yup, we hear on DU are way two stoopid for you're complex storys becuz we are simpley not as smart as you.

[petronius]

29. It isn't CNN, Fox, or even the NYT that decides if something is news

At the most fundamental level, what decides that is whether it actually happened.

DU can handle quite a lot. In this case, it seems that you got something wrong - if you can't handle that, perhaps it's you who needs to stick to the man bytes (?) dog genre, rather than slamming this site and its users...

[Ikonoklast]

30. Might as well delete this one, too.

Instead of admitting you were either taken in completely, or were just making stuff up in order to make yourself look like you had inside knowledge of some sort, you're doubling down on the nonsense.

[Heddi]

33. She's just deleting everything

to me, that means that what she posts will not be able to stand the test of time, and may be used in the future as a reminder and proof of her disinformation and less-than-truthful "hard-breaking news that americans and Du'ers can't be interested in because it's complex and Americans and DU'ers are stupid and can't handle complex truths, like I can" bullshit.

[zappaman]

34. +100 and a kick n/t

[zappaman]

14. K & R

Thanks for staying on this super dooper classified story!

[Ikonoklast]

21. I thought everyone already knew he was a fraud.

Too young to make Master Sargeant told me all I neeeded to know about Polk as a liar.

I figured the real truth would come out sooner or later.

This story also tells me a great deal about those taken in by this guy, and those purporting to know the inside story about his 'death'.

But it will all be forgiven by the fan club, as all the other 'predictions' and 'trends' are soon forgotten as soon as the next breathless prognostication is made for them.

[zappaman]

22. Yup, it's a cycle that those of us who know have seen before.

are now seeing again, yup.

[SidDithers]

23. And that's all I'm going to say about it HERE...nt

Sid

[Ikonoklast]

26. The answers are in The Elite Publications.

The Elite Of The Elite!

The ones no one else reads!


Like "Steaming Pile", "Fantastic Stories", and "Stuff I Made Up".

[Codeine]

37. Fecking brilliant, sir. nt

[joshcryer]

31. I followed that thread and the irrational arguments, and decided to stay out of it.

In the information age it is very difficult to parse information, particularly information from untrustworthy sources (ie, anonymous individuals, things like that).

Confirmation bias kicks in and people just start believing false narratives without thinking critically about them.

I encountered this for almost a year while following Libya, and it is the same basic theme.

[Ikonoklast]

35. I have a pretty good bullshit filter, and all the alarms went off reading that mess.

Lots of unsubstantiated declarations backed by secret sources usually mean it floats in the toilet.

But doubling down on posting what in the end was untruths at best, outright fabrications at worst is not the sign of a trustworthy source, it's the sign of someone with a problem.

[Robb]

40. Did you see the FOIA doc on our "special forces" soldier?

I'm pleased it was released quickly. It's reproduced below.

[zappaman]

41. so, this is faked?

to coverup, not only his death, but his super-dooper classified mission in Syria?

[Robb]

55. I hadn't thought of that.

Devilishly clever, those special forces guys.

[Ikonoklast]

42. The cover-up has commenced.

I bet that the nefarious Mr. Polk has gone to ground, or is in a safe house somewhere plotting his next super-dooper double secret espionage black-ops special forces eyes-only elite forces NSA CIA FBI AFL CIO NFL DEA NHL NBA PBA strike.

Or one of those 'three-letter' agencies, I can't keep them all straight.

I was waiting for information of this type to come forward, I knew right down to the soles of my feet it was total bullshit from the get-go, and stated as such.

As did you, you dingbat.

[zappaman]

43. I'm just glad that some in OWS San Diego had a memorial for him even though he is alive.

Much easier than admitting a mistake.

[Ikonoklast]

46. All it would have taken is getting an actual active-duty vet to talk to Polk.

The truth would have come out in ten minutes or less.

Military special ops guys never talk...EVER.

They seldom acknowledge what their actual MOS was.

[zappaman]

47. true...unless

it's supper-dooper classified!

[Ikonoklast]

48. Sorry, I can't tell you what I had for dinner last night.

Oh, not that it's supper-dooper classified or anything like that, it's because I got hammered on home-brew and don't remember.

[zappaman]

49. home-brew? nice!

for me, it was lagunitas...

[pecwae]

53. It does

takes someone pretty 'special' to enlist, hang around all of less than 4 weeks, then walk off post. Maybe he just needed a ride to Columbia for some reason.

[pinboy3niner]

61. Is there verification that Jamond Polk and Jay Polk are the same individual?

I've seen the records posted on webites, but no explanation about how it was determined that this 'Jamond Polk' is Jay.

[MineralMan]

64. Yes, apparently there's photographic

evidence that the two are one and the same.

Those sites that check out claims of bogus military service are very thorough with their investigations. They do a really good job of it, too.

[Number23]

68. Amen

Confirmation bias kicks in and people just start believing false narratives without thinking critically about them.

[Codeine]

38. That soldier has been self-deleted. nt

[zappaman]

39. yes, but has the super-dooper classified mission to Syria been self-deleted? n/t

[Swede]

44. And for god's sake,don't drink the radioactive milk!

It's radioactive!

[zappaman]

45. awesome

[Brother Buzz]

52. I was slow on the uptake

But my pea brain finally fired the appropriate neurons to remind me to run down to the PX and bag all the aseptic milk cartons before everyone else did.

[zappaman]

50. kick n/t

[randome]

54. He will be buried within 24 business hours.

[greytdemocrat]

58. Alright...

[chrisa]

57. Maybe another example of, "I saw it on the internet - it must be true?"

While DU is usually a source of good info, it sometimes slips up with information that is completely wrong or unfounded. The best approach is to be skeptical, and wait for more information.

[MineralMan]

59. This is why small regional publications should stick to local stories

and not try to do big articles on political issues. They simply do not have the resources to properly check the stories. When I first read this story, alarm bells went off in this old journalist's brain. When you report on the death of a soldier killed in combat somewhere, you really need to be absolutely sure that the information you have is correct.

If a publication and author cannot confirm the information through official sources, they should hold off on publishing the story until they can confirm it. Sadly, small publications like this one in San Diego are usually operating on a shoestring, like most such publications are, so they depend on amateur writers who will write for little or not payment, along with editorial staff without the long experience needed to deal with major stories that involve major issues. That means that stories aren't fully vetted before publication and end up having to be withdrawn or apologized for.

Along the same lines, we see a lot of preliminary things written for some blog or some small publication like this one posted here on DU. Often, we find out later that the stories are not accurate or are just plain wrong from the start. In the meantime, some of these stories stir up all kinds of outrage and get spread all over the internet. Later retractions or evidence that the story was incorrect just don't get the same distribution, so such stories get copied and pasted long after they've been debunked.

It's too bad, really. So much that is incorrect and potentially harmful floats around the Internet. That's why I'm skeptical of such stories and try to dig down and find out the actual facts.

[pecwae]

62. That little pub has learned

an invaluable lesson by making an error they won't be in a hurry to repeat. They do have to shoulder some of the blame by accepting a story with such far reaching consequences based on a Facebook page. One doesn't even need editorial experience to question such claims, just common sense.

[MineralMan]

63. I certainly hope that is the case.

Very embarrassing for them, for sure.

In the meantime, that story has been quoted on numerous websites and blogs. Checking today, none of them have corrected the story. That is why it's a problem. The publication in question has put a disclaimer at the top of the story, but all of those places that copied and pasted the story still have it as written. Mistakes have long legs, I'm afraid, so the damage here is not over. If things go as they usually do, it will continue to be copied and pasted to other blogs and websites, second hand, and will not be corrected.

Sadly, there is no real way to solve this problem, except for publications taking a great deal of care with what they publish, and that's not likely overall. Equally unfortunately, there are no consequences for publication of incorrect stories, other than the publication losing the respect of its readers. The guy who lied about his military service will simply move on and probably continue to lie. That's a pity, since he probably won't get treated for whatever is wrong.

[zappaman]

65. At least it has been corrected here.

Not by the OP, of course, but at least it was deleted.
Isn't there anything else the pub can do besides the disclaimer?

[Snake Alchemist]

60. This thread may have the largest # of self-deletes by one poster ever.

I wish I had seen the original posts.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

69. appropriately so I would imagine...

though reading them before deletion might have been entertaining...

sP

[zappaman]

70. this might be needed

http://www.amazon.com/How-Journalist-2-0-Practical-ebook/dp/B005RTP4UU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1328563432&sr=8-5

[ProdigalJunkMail]

71. it would require that someone give a hoot

about what is posted rather than just running emotionally through the inter-tubes looking for the 'hottest' bullshit they can dig up...

sP

[Robb]

67. I'd like to think this man could've been spared his pain (VIDEO):

A little bit of legwork to have outed Polk as a fraud early on might've prevented this: