Orwell strikes again -- Coalition of the Altering

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: December 5, 2008 8:57:06 PM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Coalition of the Altering

[Note:  This item comes from friend Janos Gereben.  DLH]

From: janosG <janosg () gmail com>
Date: December 5, 2008 4:57:09 PM PST
To: Dewayne <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: Coalition of the Altering


<http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=13217>

White House altered, deleted press releases on 'coalition of the  
willing'
12/05/2008 @ 9:15 am
Filed by John Byrne

The White House altered documents regarding the nations involved in  
the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" that aided the US invasion of  
Iraq.

A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political science professor  
says he found that the White House had modified elements of its  
website dealing with the coalition and in some cases deleted key  
documents in the public record.

At the onset of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the White House  
released a list of the nations participating in the coalition, an  
important part of Bush Administration PR efforts, as the war was not  
UN-endorsed. Over a period of years, however, the original releases  
were modified to account for the diminishing number of nations.

Two releases were deleted from the White House website entirely, the  
professor says.

"I think that it raises the question of whether or not we can trust  
the government to maintain public records of things that were said or  
done that later prove embarrassing," Illinois political science  
professor Scott Althaus said.

"It could be what we found is limited," Althaus added. "But if it is  
not, it certainly opens the finding up to larger questions."

According to the university's student newspaper, a proofreader  
doublechecking a paper Althaus co-authored on the edited releases  
found that one of the URLs included in his paper now led to a blank  
page. "Related lists of coalition countries also appeared to  
contradict one another," the paper added.

The Cline Center for Democracy asserted that the "pattern" of  
"revision and removal" suggest that the White House has edited  
documents dealing with the period between 2003 and 2005.

"Instead of the White House Web site maintaining an updated list while  
preserving copies of the old ones or issuing revised lists in addition  
to the original posts, the White House removed original documents,  
altered them and replaced them with backdated modifications that only  
appear to be originals," wrote Illinois University reporter Kelly  
Gibbs on Friday. The findings showed "that several documents had been  
revised and listed different numbers and names of coalition countries."

[snip]
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