Minutes before or minutes after? It's important. Sounds to me like the student submitted the NYT op-ed (not necessarily as his own writing) to see if it was plagiarized from something else.
You are correct and I can’t tell you it has been verified.
But its here for consideration and review.
I think that this issue is being discussed on:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3685628/posts?page=1
Also being dicussed on Reddit;
On Reddit they are trying to find someone with a turnitin account to see if they can learn more.
(Sorry, have to go do errands.)