West Coast Connection Forum
Lifestyle => Train of Thought => Topic started by: Don Seer on February 06, 2003, 11:20:07 AM
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i swear i never knew what spin was until this current govt came into power... peep this story.
from http://www.channel4.com/news/home/z/stories/20030206/dossier.html
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.
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 Concealement 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.
A section, for example, six paragraphs long, on Saddam's Special Security Organisation, the exact same words are in the Californian student's paper.
In several places Downing Street edits the originals to make more sinister reading.
Number 10 says the Mukhabarat - the main intelligence agency - is "spying on foreign embassies in Iraq". The original reads: "monitoring foreign embassies in Iraq."
And the provocative role of "supporting terrorist organisations in hostile regimes" has a weaker, political context in the original: "aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes."
Even typographic mistakes in the original articles are repeated.
Of military intelligence, al-Marashi writes in his original paper: "The head of military intelligence generally did not have to be a relative of Saddam's immediate family, nor a Tikriti. Saddam appointed, Sabir Abd Al-Aziz Al-Duri as head..." Note the comma after appointed.
Downing Street paraphrases the first sentence: the second is cut and pasted, complete with the same grammatical error.
plagiarism is intellectual theft.
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thanks for bringing that to our attention. crazy shit huh
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yeah for sure.. they showed lots more on the news too.
ch4's 7pm one is the only news prog i watch, they the shit.
(ruins it by sayin... coz its after hollyoaks ;D)
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Speaking of the UK government spinning things, I read about how UK authorities raided a mosque there and arrested a few people. The article went on to say that they founded a bunch of evidence that would link the mosque to terrorism like chemical suits and such. However, they refused to make these findings public because they didn't want to portray Muslims as being terrorists and possibly offend them. I can post the article if you want.
How can we fight a war on terrorism when we are more concerned about the feelings of our enemies than the safety of our own citizens? Political correctness is out of control, especially in Europe.
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CWalker just shut up.
In relation to what you're talking about, I know somebody (friend of a friend) who used to pray at that mosque. He's a real decent guy and I'm sure that what all, or at least a VERY high percentage of people, who go there are like. The reason they havent leaked the findings is because there are no 'findings'. its just a mosque
Why are you so obsessed with destroying anything that is different from your closed-minded, ignorant, secular little world?