Altes Elliott-Wellen-Forum - GOODIE! -- Detaillierte Darstellung der Blairschen Dokumentenfälschung

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01.07.2003, 20:18

GOODIE! -- Detaillierte Darstellung der Blairschen Dokumentenfälschung

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Microsoft Word bytes Tony Blair in the butt</title>
<h3>Microsoft Word bytes Tony Blair in the butt</h3>
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<script src=../utils/common.js></script>

<script>PrivacyDirectoryLine("Blair's Iraq Dossier");</script>

Richard M. Smith (rms@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:

<a href=http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2003/msg00457.html>http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2003/msg00457.html</a>

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:

<code><pre>
Rev. #1:"cic22" edited file"C:DOCUME~1phamillLOCALS~1TempAutoRecovery save of Iraq - security.asd"
Rev. #2:"cic22" edited file"C:DOCUME~1phamillLOCALS~1TempAutoRecovery save of Iraq - security.asd"
Rev. #3:"cic22" edited file"C:DOCUME~1phamillLOCALS~1TempAutoRecovery save of Iraq - security.asd"
Rev. #4:"JPratt" edited file"C:TEMPIraq - security.doc"
Rev. #5:"JPratt" edited file"A:Iraq - security.doc"
Rev. #6:"ablackshaw" edited file"C:ABlackshawIraq - security.doc"
Rev. #7:"ablackshaw" edited file"C:ABlackshawA;Iraq - security.doc"
Rev. #8:"ablackshaw" edited file"A:Iraq - security.doc"
Rev. #9:"MKhan" edited file"C:TEMPIraq - security.doc"
Rev. #10:"MKhan" edited file"C:WINNTProfilesmkhanDesktopIraq.doc"
</pre><code>
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

<a href=http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/blair.doc>http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/blair.doc</a>

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.

<h3>Links</h3>

Dr. Glen Rangwala's analysis of the Iraq dossier, Feb. 2003

<a href=http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2003/msg00457.html>http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2003/msg00457.html</a>

Dr. Glen Rangwala's paper submitted to Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, June 16, 2003

<a href=http://middleeastreference.org.uk/fac030616.html>http://middleeastreference.org.uk/fac030616.html</a>

[i]Iraq's Security and Intelligence Network: A Guide and Analysis, Sept. 2002

<a href=http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2002/issue3/jv6n3a1.html>http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2002/issue3/jv6n3a1.html</a>

Downing St dossier plagiarised, Feb. 6, 2003

<a href=http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/02/week_1/06_dossier.html>http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/02/week_1/06_dossier.html</a>

Britain Admits That Much of Its Report on Iraq Came From Magazines, Feb. 8, 2003

<a href=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B1EFD395F0C7B8CDDAB0894DB404482>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B1EFD395F0C7B8CDDAB0894DB404482</a>

Straw's letter to WMD inquiry

<a href=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,983396,00.html>http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,983396,00.html</a>

Campbell: In the line of fire

<a href=http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=418480>http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=418480</a>

The key backroom players

<a href=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/5475182>http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/5475182</a>

WD97: How to Minimize Metadata in Microsoft Word Documents

<a href=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q223/7/90.ASP>http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q223/7/90.ASP</a>

Dr. Glen Rangwala's Web site

<a href=http://middleeastreference.org.uk>http://middleeastreference.org.uk</a>

10 Downing Street Web site

<a href=http://www.number-10.gov.uk>http://www.number-10.gov.uk</a>

[/i]

Copyright (C) 2003 Richard M. Smith

<ul> ~ Quelle</ul>