Begin forwarded message:
> From: "geert lovink" <geert at xs4all.nl>
> Date: Jeu juil 3, 2003 16:25:05 Asia/Tokyo
> To: "Nettime-l" <nettime-l at bbs.thing.net>
> Subject: <nettime> Richard M. Smith: Microsoft Word bytes Tony Blair
> in the butt
> Reply-To: "geert lovink" <geert at xs4all.nl>
>
> (have a good laugh, but remember, all this also relates to you if you
> use
> word documents... ciao, geert)
>
> http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/blair.htm
>
> Microsoft Word bytes Tony Blair in the butt
>
> Richard M. Smith (rms at computerbytesman.com)
> June 30, 2003
>
> Microsoft Word documents are notorious for containing private
> information
> in file headers which people would sometimes rather not share. The
> British
> government of Tony Blair just learned this lesson the hard way.
>
> Back in February 2003, 10 Downing Street published a dossier on Iraq's
> security and intelligence organizations. This dossier was cited by
> Colin
> Powell in his address to the United Nations the same month. Dr. Glen
> Rangwala, a lecturer in politics at Cambridge University, quickly
> discovered that much of the material in the dossier was actually
> plagiarized from a U.S. researcher on Iraq.
>
> You can read Dr. Rangwala's original analysis of the dossier from Feb.
> 5,
> 2003 at this URL: http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2003/msg00457.html
>
> Blair's government made one additional mistake: they published the
> dossier
> as a Microsoft Word file on their Web site. When I first heard from Dr.
> Rangwala about the dossier, I decided to try to learn who had worked on
> the document. I downloaded the Word file containing the dossier from
> the
> 10 Downing Street Web site (http://www.number- 10.gov.uk/) and found
> the
> following revision log in the file:
>
> Rev. #1: "cic22" edited file
> "C:\DOCUME~1\phamill\LOCALS~1\Temp\AutoRecovery save of Iraq -
> security.asd"
> Rev. #2: "cic22" edited file
> "C:\DOCUME~1\phamill\LOCALS~1\Temp\AutoRecovery save of Iraq -
> security.asd"
> Rev. #3: "cic22" edited file
> "C:\DOCUME~1\phamill\LOCALS~1\Temp\AutoRecovery save of Iraq -
> security.asd"
> Rev. #4: "JPratt" edited file "C:\TEMP\Iraq - security.doc"
> Rev. #5: "JPratt" edited file "A:\Iraq - security.doc"
> Rev. #6: "ablackshaw" edited file "C:\ABlackshaw\Iraq -
> security.doc"
> Rev. #7: "ablackshaw" edited file "C:\ABlackshaw\A;Iraq -
> security.doc"
> Rev. #8: "ablackshaw" edited file "A:\Iraq -security.doc"
> Rev. #9: "MKhan" edited file "C:\TEMP\Iraq -security.doc"
> Rev. #10: "MKhan" edited file
> "C:\WINNT\Profiles\mkhan\Desktop\Iraq.doc"
>
> Most Word document files contain a revision log which is a listing of
> the
> last 10 edits of a document, showing the names of the people who worked
> with the document and the names of the files that the document went
> under.
> Revision logs are hidden and cannot be viewed in Microsoft Word.
> However I
> wrote a small utility for extracting and displaying revision logs and
> other hidden information in Word .DOC files.
>
> It is easy to spot the following four names in the revision log of the
> Blair dossier:
>
> P. Hamill J. Pratt A. Blackshaw M. Khan
>
> In addition, the "cic22" in the first three entries of the revision log
> stands for "Communications Information Centre," a unit of the British
> Government.
>
> Back in February, I passed along these 4 names to Dr. Rangwala who then
> provided them to a number of reports in the UK. One reporter quickly
> identified the four individuals as:
>
> Paul Hamill - Foreign Office official John Pratt - Downing Street
> official
> Alison Blackshaw - The personal assistant of the Prime Minister's press
> secretary Murtaza Khan - Junior press officer for the Prime Minister
>
> During the week of June 23, 2003, the British Parliament held hearings
> of
> the Blair Dossier and other PR efforts by the UK Government leading up
> to
> the Iraq war. Alastair Campbell of the UK Communications Information
> Centre was put in the hot seat and had to explain the dossier
> plagiarism
> and details of the revision log.
>
> One of the interesting tidbits that came out of the hearings is that
> John
> Pratt provided the dossier on a floppy disk to Alison Blackshaw to
> give to
> Colin Powell for his presentation before the United Nations. The
> revision
> log shows the document being copied from Pratt's hard drive to a floppy
> disk in revisions #4 and #5.
>
> The Word version of the dossier was recently removed from the 10
> Downing
> Street Web site, but I archived a copy of the Feb. 6 version here:
>
> IRAQ - ITS INFRASTRUCTURE OF CONCEALMENT, DECEPTION AND INTIMIDATION
> http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/blair.doc
>
> The Blair government learned its lesson well with regard to publishing
> Microsoft Word documents. Another report on Iraq that was published in
> June 2003 was only available as a PDF file. PDF files do not contain
> revision logs or hidden author information. Links
>
> Dr. Glen Rangwala's analysis of the Iraq dossier, Feb. 2003
> http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2003/msg00457.html
>
> Dr. Glen Rangwala's paper submitted to Foreign Affairs Committee of the
> House of Commons, June 16, 2003
> http://middleeastreference.org.uk/fac030616.html
>
> Iraq's Security and Intelligence Network: A Guide and Analysis, Sept.
> 2002
> http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2002/issue3/jv6n3a1.html
>
> Downing St dossier plagiarised, Feb. 6, 2003
> http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/02/week_1/06_dossier.html
>
> Britain Admits That Much of Its Report on Iraq Came From Magazines,
> Feb.
> 8, 2003
>
> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B1EFD395F0C7B8CDDAB0
> 894DB4 04482
>
> Straw's letter to WMD inquiry
> http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,983396,00.html
>
> Campbell: In the line of fire
> http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=418480
>
> The key backroom players
> http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/5475182
>
> WD97: How to Minimize Metadata in Microsoft Word Documents
> http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q223/7/90.ASP
>
> Dr. Glen Rangwala's Web site http://middleeastreference.org.uk
>
> 10 Downing Street Web site http://www.number-10.gov.uk
>
>
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