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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PartyTime who wrote (6409)	2/7/2003 4:49:23 PM
From: Just_Observing	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

DOWNING STREET REPORT IS 'RIP OFF' Feb 7 2003 Iraq report 'is a rip-off from the internet' By John Peacock And James Hardy A DOWNING Street dossier showing how Iraq has deceived UN weapons inspectors is partly based on a 12-year-old report, it was claimed last night. The Government is said to have used internet material from several sources, including a student in California, whose work was based on documents captured in 1991 following the first Gulf War. One expert said: "The Government is trying to build a case for war but, in view of this, what else can we believe? "Colin Powell used some of this in his publication to the UN. It has got to cast questions over his presentation." The dossier was branded "cut and paste plagiarism" and includes misquoted phrases, spelling mistakes and wrong punctuation. A Cambridge University student, who has studied the documents, said: "The Government's report 'Iraq - Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation,' suggests the UK does not have available information of Iraq's intelligence services." Cambridge don Glen Rangwala, an expert on Iraq, said the bulk of the Government's 19-page document was copied, without acknowledgement, from an article in Middle East Review of International Affairs by Ibrahim al-Marashi, a student at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Dr Rangwala said the public had been led to believe the Government's report was a result of direct investigation, rather than simply copied from pre- existing internet sources. Examples of misquoting include the phrase "aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes", which the Government report puts as "supporting terrorist organisations in hostile regimes". Text from Sean Boyne's "Inside Iraq's Security Network" mentions "10,000-15,000 bullies and country bumpkins recruited from regions loyal to Saddam". The Government's version deletes "country bumpkins". Dan Plesch, from the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies in London, told Channel 4: "This appears to be obsolete academic analysis dressed up as the best MI6...can produce on Saddam." A Downing Street spokesman said: "The report was put together by a range of Government officials. "It was drawn from a number of sources, including intelligence material, but it does not identify or credit any sources, neither does it claim any exclusivity of authorship." mirror.co.uk