Free Republic

It's an old snake-oil sales pitch, but it's wrapped in new layers of technical sophistication and Internet marketing: the phony diploma. Cheap and real-looking, it's now backed up by a supporting cast of other ingenious fakes. The state of the art in academic fakery includes not only diplomas, but fake transcripts and recommendation letters, bogus "verification services," even fake accrediting organizations - all apparently designed to make the degree look real to ... whom? An employer, an admissions officer?That's not the intended use, according to websites that sell fake diplomas. All tout their products as novelties to be used only...

Why Hasn't This Received More Attention?A top official at the Department of Homeland Security is investigated and now placed on leave after questions arise regarding her PhD, which appears to have come from a "diploma mill" rather than a legitimate university. Yet, outside of a few niche publications, Washington Technology, Government Computer News, and Federal Computer Week, that cover the business of selling technology products and services to the government, the story has received scant attention. UPDATE: The Washington Post's Al Kamen did cover the story on June 4, with an item in a round-up of news. Interesting tidbits: Laura...

A senate committee chairwoman today turned up the heat on the Homeland Security Department’s investigation of a senior government career official’s claim of a Ph.D. from a Wyoming university that, according to its literature, requires no attendance and scant course work. Hamilton University, the source of the official’s doctorate, grants bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees based on life and work experience. "I am very concerned by allegations that a senior Department of Homeland Security official may have misrepresented her academic credentials," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees Homeland Security. “I have written today...