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Powell's speech was evidently a plagiarization

Posted: 2003-02-06 05:02pm
by Hamel
I'll snip some parts of the two articles
Fresh off of Drudge:

First article

Downing St dossier plagiarised
Iraq

Published: 6 February 2003
Reporter: Julian Rush

The government's carefully co-ordinated propaganda offensive took an embarrassing hit tonight after Downing Street was accused of plagiarism.

Read sample of the accused plagiarised text


The target is an intelligence dossier released on Monday and heralded by none other than Colin Powell at the UN yesterday.


Channel Four News has learnt that the bulk of the nineteen page document was copied from three different articles - one written by a graduate student.

On Monday, the day before the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell addressed the UN, Downing Street published its latest paper on Iraq.

It gives the impression of being an up to the minute intelligence-based analysis - and Mr Powell was fulsome in his praise.

Published on the Number 10 web site, called "Iraq - Its Infrastructure of Concealment Deception and Intimidation", it outlines the structure of Saddam's intelligence organisations.

But it made familiar reading to Cambridge academic Glen Ranwala. It was copied from an article last September in a small journal: the Middle East Review of International Affairs.

It's author, Ibrahim al-Marashi, a postgraduate student from Monterey in California. Large sections do indeed appear, verbatim.

Sample text

Government dossier: (page 13), published Jan 2003

"Saddam appointed, Sabir 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Duri as head during the 1991 Gulf War. After the Gulf War he was replaced by Wafiq Jasim al-Samarrai.

After Samarrai, Muhammad Nimah al-Tikriti headed Al-Istikhbarat al-Askariyya in early 1992 then in late 1992 Fanar Zibin Hassan al-Tikriti was appointed to this post.

These shifting appointments are part of Saddam's policy of balancing security positions. By constantly shifting the directors of these agencies, no one can establish a base in a security organisation for a substantial period of time. No one becomes powerful enough to challenge the President."

al-Marashi document: (section: "MILITARY INTELLIGENCE", published sept 2002 - relevant parts have been underlined

Saddam appointed, Sabir ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Duri(80) as head of Military Intelligence during the 1991 Gulf War.(81) After the Gulf War he was replaced by Wafiq Jasim al-Samarrai.(82)

2nd article

Britain's Iraq dossier was a cut-and-paste job: report
52 minutes ago

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - A dossier released by the British government purporting to show how Iraq is deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors was based on old information, including an article by an American university lecturer, a British news program said Thursday.



Channel 4 News said the 19-page report — entitled "Iraq: Its Infrastructure of Concealment Deception and Intimidation" and posted Monday on Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s Web site — contained large chunks lifted from other sources.


Channel 4 said the "bulk" of the document was copied from three articles, including one in Jane's Intelligence Review and another by Ibrahim al-Marashi, a research associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, that appeared last September in the Middle East Review of International Affairs.

Posted: 2003-02-06 05:06pm
by Mr Bean
Smells like Bullshit to me, At least on first reading
Why the fuck would we spend eight million dollers each year paying for all the various Intel Services if they Bullshited up some info

Keep in mind that falsfing information is a offense that falls under the "Treason" statue and possible death penlity sentance

Posted: 2003-02-06 05:18pm
by TrailerParkJawa
Bah, this smells fishy to me, I dont buy it.

Posted: 2003-02-06 05:53pm
by Admiral Valdemar
Channel 4, I don't think it's really anything to worry about.

Posted: 2003-02-06 05:55pm
by jaeger115
The really horrible thing is that Bush listens to Powell's treason. Executions, anyone?

Posted: 2003-02-06 05:56pm
by Hotfoot
jaeger115 wrote:The really horrible thing is that Bush listens to Powell's treason. Executions, anyone?
Um, I think you missed the point...

Posted: 2003-02-06 06:00pm
by Admiral Valdemar
jaeger115 wrote:The really horrible thing is that Bush listens to Powell's treason. Executions, anyone?
Downing Street used a White House document that was otherwise an amalgamation of other articles, one from a university student.