A large section of the “up to date details” about Iraq’s “infrastructure of concealment, deception and intimidation” published by Tony Blair, and praised by Powell as “a fine paper,” were plagiarized from a postgraduate thesis published in 2002, based on data from 1991.
Intelligence? the British dossier on Iraq’s security infrastructure, Glen Rangwala, 2003-02-05
Britain Admits That Much of Its Report on Iraq Came From Magazines, New York Times, 2003-02-08 (free registration required)
British government red-faced over plagiarized Iraqi dossier, Nigeria Vanguard, 2003-02-10
Iraq – its infrastructure of concealment, deception and intimidation, 10 Downing Street, 2003-02-03
British Government Plagiarizes MERIA Journal: Our Response, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal (with pointer to the original article)
But now this really makes me blanch:
Star Witness on Iraq Said Weapons Were Destroyed, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, 2003-02-27 (with pointers to Newsweek article and other resources)
The guy who managed the WMD programs for Iraq defected, and sang like a bird. Bush and Powell have no problem citing this highly credible and well-placed witness when he said that Iraq actually did produce nasty WMD — but they utterly ignore the fact that he also said they were all destroyed.