Another phony "Iraq veteran" exposed, but not by the MSM

Chalk up another fraud in the growing list of leftards who think that lying about service would give them credibility that they think they deserve but might not otherwise receive. From Gateway Pundit:

After they ran a military/war-bashing piece on women in war, the New York Times Magazine found out one of the women in their expose did not in fact serve in Iraq as she said she had!
...
This is what she told the NYT reporter:

Amorita Randall lives across the state from Christensen, in a small town outside of Grand Junction. She is 27, a former naval construction worker who served in Iraq in 2004. Over the course of several phone conversations before visiting her in January, I grew accustomed to the way Randall coexisted with her memories. Mostly she inched up to them.

On days she was feeling stable, she would want to talk, calling me up and abruptly jumping into stories about her six years in the Navy, describing how she was raped twice - the second rape supposedly taking place just a matter of weeks before she arrived in Iraq. Her experience in Iraq, she said, included one notable combat incident, in which her Humvee was hit by an I.E.D., killing the soldier who was driving and leaving her with a brain injury. "I don't remember all of it," she told me when I met her in the sparsely furnished apartment she shares with her fiance?. "I don't know if I passed out or what, but it was pretty gruesome."

Complete rubbish!
Although, it is now confirmed that Amorita Randall is indeed a fraudster, The New York Times Magazine still is running an interactive that includes Miss Randall.

And, get this...

"Saying something was looked down upon," says Amorita Randall a naval construction worker who served in Iraq in 2004. She says she was raped.

Here is the crazy correction:

CORRECTION: On March 12, three days after the article had gone to press, the Navy called The Times to say that it had found that Ms. Randall had never received imminent-danger pay or a combat-zone tax exemption, indicating that she was never in Iraq. Only part of her unit was sent there; Ms. Randall served with another part of it in Guam. The Navy also said that Ms. Randall was given the medal with the insignia because of a clerical error.

Based on the information that came to light after the article was printed, it is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced she did. Since the article appeared, Ms. Randall herself has questioned another member of her unit, who told Ms. Randall that she was not deployed to Iraq. If The Times had learned these facts before publication, it would not have included Ms. Randall in the article.

Oh, if I had a dime for every time I was "convinced" that I had been somewhere I've never been, I'd...um...well, I wouldn't have a dime.

Seriously, that has got to be one of the lamest and most absurd attempts at spinning and face-saving that I have come across in a very long time! I mean, I can understand if she came from Detroit and thought she had been in a war zone. Short of that, I have no idea how someone can be "convinced" that they've been anywhere when they actually haven't been there. Naturally, the NYT willingly went along with it, not bothering to check the credentials ahead of time. Nope...no liberal media bias!

As Gateway Pundit points out, "I'm convinced I played for the Houston Rockets! Where's my cash, jack?"