UK defends 'copied' Iraq dossier

[/ dave /]

[10 pages - out of 19 - copied nearly word-for-word from a student paper 
that's over a decade old...]


Downing Street has defended an intelligence dossier of evidence against 
Iraq after allegations that it included plagiarised material that was 12 
years out of date.

The UK intelligence document released on Monday was designed to help win 
over sceptics by detailing Saddam Hussein's efforts to hide weapons of 
mass destruction.

But Channel 4 News claimed the document was largely copied from three 
different articles, including one written by a postgraduate student.

The programme claimed excerpts from a paper relating to the build-up to 
the 1991 Gulf War by Californian student Ibrahim al-Marashi were lifted 
into the intelligence document.

But a Downing Street spokesman said the dossier was "accurate" and that 
the government had never claimed exclusive authorship.

"The report was put together by a range of government officials," he said.

"As the report itself makes clear, it was drawn from a number of 
sources, including intelligence material.

"It does not identify or credit any sources, but nor does it claim any 
exclusivity of authorship.

"We consider the text as published to be accurate."

The UK document received praise from US Secretary of State Colin Powell 
this week as he outlined his country's case against Iraq.

"I would call my colleagues' attention to the fine paper that United 
Kingdom distributed yesterday, which describes in exquisite detail Iraqi 
deception activities," Mr Powell told the UN security council.

Channel 4 News highlighted examples of the alleged plagiarism, including 
a suggestion in the dossier that Iraq was "supporting terrorist 
organisations in hostile regimes".

This compared to the weaker, political context in the original which 
read "aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes".

Dr Rangwala, lecturer in politics at Cambridge University, told the 
programme that the British Government's dossier was 19 pages long, but 
most of pages six to 16 were copied directly from the student's document 
word for word.

"Even the grammatical errors and typographical mistakes," he said.

(...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2735031.stm

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/  dave  /