Pentagon watchdog to review plagiarism probe of Sen. John Walsh

CNN political ticker ^ | 7-30-14 | CNN staff

[smokingfrog]

The Defense Department’s inspector general will review the academic investigation of plagiarism allegations against Sen. John Walsh.

The Montana Democrat is accused of not properly attributing certain material in a paper to complete his master's degree at the Army War College.

Carol Kerr, the school’s spokeswoman, said it would launch an Academic Review Board to look into the matter.

The results and any recommendations will be forwarded to the Defense Department IG for its “consideration.”

The New York Times first reported last week that a review of a 2007 final paper suggests the decorated Iraq war veteran “appropriated at least a quarter of his thesis on American Middle East policy from other authors’ works, with no attribution.”

Material from a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report and a 1998 essay by a Harvard scholar were included in the paper without proper sourcing, the Times reported.

Walsh's reelection campaign acknowledged "the citations were not all done correctly," but insisted it was an "unintentional mistake."

Walsh later told the Associated Press he was suffering from post-traumatic stress after his Iraq deployment.

[blueunicorn6]

He was a full time student. All he had to do was write a 14 page paper. He couldn’t do it. He had to cheat. This isn’t just an honors violation. They need to take a look at this guy’s IQ. How do you get to The War College without the ability to write a 14 page paper?