War, Lies and The Huffington Post: A Veteran's Tall Tale Coming Undone

(Feb. 4) -- Iraq war veteran Luis Carlos Montalván would rather be the storyteller. Instead, he's become the story.

The decorated soldier-turned-Huffington Post blogger positioned himself as the perfect crusader for the growing anti-war movement after he returned from a second tour of Iraq in 2003. He wrote dozens of passionate anti-war stories for The Huffington Post. He became an outspoken advocate for veterans. And his sidekick was even fluffier than he was.

Gabriela Maj, Getty Images

Iraq veteran Luis Carlos Montalvan and actress Glenn Close attend a celebration of military service dogs in New York on Nov. 17, 2008.

A golden retriever named Tuesday, trained to treat Montalván's post-traumatic stress disorder, attracted almost as much press as Montalván. In November, Montalván sued McDonald's after he claimed he was attacked by workers with "fists and with garbage can lids," for bringing the service dog into the restaurant. The media-savvy pair were featured in The Wall Street Journal, which chronicled Montalván's experience in Iraq, according to Montalván, of course:

Mr. Montalvan was walking in a compound on Iraq's border with Syria at around 9:30 p.m. when a man leaped out of the darkness and started slashing at him with a knife.

He pulled out his Beretta and shot the man, wounding him. Another soldier killed the attacker, according to Army records and several soldiers who served in the unit. Mr. Montalvan was thrown into a truck, fracturing three vertebrae.

In the past year, Montalván has soaked up the spotlight, even pursuing a degree at Columbia Journalism School, and maintaining a personal Web site with his latest articles and media appearances. But then, some stories are just too good to be true. And it looks like Montalván's is beginning to unravel.

Associated Press reporter Allen Breed investigated Montalván's tale of war bravery, finding it literally incredible. Gawker obtained a copy of an e-mail Breed wrote to Montalván:

I have spoken with David Page, the man who, by all accounts, finished off your attacker of Dec. 21, 2003. I have also spoken with Col. Chris Hickey and CSM John Kurak, and have obtained a contemporaneous journal entry about the attack, written by a member of the quick reaction force leader who arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. Each of these people gives a markedly different version than you of the events and aftermath of that night.

All agree that you injured your back in the incident, but that you returned to full duty within days, with little apparent difficulty. In fact, your Facebook page contains a photo, dated 2004, of you holding a young Iraqi child in your outstretched arms – a feat that would be difficult or impossible for someone who had recently fractured three vertebrae.

It didn't stop there. The more Breed and Gawker uncovered about Montalván's past, the less credible his story became.

Gawker, for example, found Maryland court records from 1999 showing that he faced charges of stalking and violating a protective order that were later dropped. And Breed seems to be on the verge of revealing Montalván as an outright fraud.

"Without a doubt, PTSD is a subjective thing," Breed wrote to Montalván. "But I am also told that it is one of the easiest psychological disorders to feign. I am trying to reconcile your changing versions of what happened that night with what others have told me. Surely you don't expect McDonald's, one of the world's largest corporations, to pay you without first doing a thorough background check – and with legal discovery authority far greater than a journalist's."

Montalván responded on his Facebook page Wednesday:

It bothers me that I serve my nation for 17 years, have an unblemished record (to the contrary), was awarded two bronze stars, the purple heart, and 30+ other medals for service in Iraq and around the world ... and some a--hole has the nerve ... to question my character ... and tarnish my name.

AOL News was unable to reach Montalván for comment. But from the very beginning, he hasn't liked the way the story was being told. In October, on The Huffington Post, the retired captain decried the media's "penchant for superficial and divisive reporting" of the Iraq war.

"At the outset of our invasion of Iraq," he wrote, "our press took its unquestioning cue from policy makers like Donald Rumsfeld, promulgating a Hollywood vision of post-war, Phase IV reconstruction Iraq where throngs of Iraqi citizens would wave in a new era of goodwill on the joyful breeze of thousands of American flags, so the Iraqis could cheer their noble liberators."

But right now, it is this anti-war blogger's version of the events that no longer seems so compelling.