Pentagon staffers copied and pasted significant parts of an official report from Wikipedia, documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation reveal.
Pentagon documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation
The highlighted sections of the documents reveal clear plagiarism by staffers within the Defense Information Systems Agency of the Pentagon. The plagiarism was not limited to the text of the report, but also included the same images from Wikipedia.
The unclassified report titled “DISA Azores Telecommunications Feasibility Report” was delivered to Congress on July 15, 2015. The report was required by Congress under the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, determining that another site was ideal for a joint intelligence center.
The report recommended against using the Azores islands as a “robust or suitable telecommunications hub,” to fulfill a due diligence requirement in evaluating possible lower cost intelligence center sites.
“Are you aware that significant portions of this document that you passed to three committee chairmen to meet a public law were plagiarized from Wikipedia?” House Permanent Select Committee Chairman Devin Nunes asked Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work Thursday.
Work replied, “No, I did not know that the information in that document came from Wikipedia.” Nunes then pushed back saying “I’m just alarmed, Secretary Work that we would rely on Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that’s famously known for most high school students plagiarizing their homework. And that the Department of Defense would even use Wikipedia, a free online service to provide any information to Congress to put in any report.”
“I would say that I’m surprised that this comes directly from a Wikipedia page,” Work conceded.
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