British government admits error in not crediting U.S. academic's work in Iraq dossier

By Jill Lawless, Associated Press, 2/7/03    

LONDON — The British government said Friday it had erred in not crediting an academic whose work it copied for a dossier on Iraq.

"In retrospect we should have acknowledged" that sections of the document were based on work by Monterey, Calif.-based researcher Ibrahim al-Marashi, Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said.

The dossier, posted Monday on Blair's Web site and later distributed to delegates at the United Nations in New York, purported to show how Iraq was obstructing U.N. weapons inspectors. It claimed to be based in part on "intelligence material" and to give "up to date details" of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's security network.

Britain's Channel 4 news revealed Thursday that most of the document was taken, with little alteration, from published sources, including an article by al-Marashi -- a research associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey -- that appeared in September's Middle East Review of International Affairs.

Passages of several paragraphs are identical in the two documents, others contain very minor alterations.

Academic Glen Rangwala said he noted the apparent lifting of al-Marashi's when he read the material on the Blair Web site.

"When I saw the British government's dossier, I read it through and I realised that many of the words and phrases were similar so I compared it with the original article by a student from California ... and found that a very large chunk of his work had just been copied and that forms the bulk of the government's dossier," Rangwala said.

Al-Marashi said he had not been approached by the British government about using his research.

"It was a shock to me," he told The Associated Press.

Al-Marashi said his article looked at Iraq's security apparatus over the past three decades, and drew information that was recent at the time of publication, as well as some that was years old.

Blair's spokesman said the copying did not "take away from the core argument" of the dossier, which purported to detail how Iraq is blocking U.N. weapons inspectors.

Opponents of Blair's hawkish stance on Iraq called it proof the government is not playing straight in making the case for war.

"It just adds to the general impression that what we have been treated to is a farrago of half-truths, assertions and over-the-top spin," lawmaker Peter Kilfoyle, a member of Blair's governing Labor Party, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said the affair was "the intelligence equivalent of being caught stealing the spoons."

Labor lawmaker Glenda Jackson, who has spoken against war with Iraq, said the document "is another example of how the government is attempting to mislead the country and Parliament on the issue of a possible war with Iraq.

"And of course to mislead is a Parliamentary euphemism for lying," she said.

In response to the Channel 4 report, Blair's 10 Downing St. office said the dossier had been "put together by a range of government officials." The office said,

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

Blair's spokesman rejected the allegation the government had lied.

Asked whether Blair's office was embarrassed about the affair, the spokesman said: "We all have lessons to learn."

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