State Department press jobs, anyone?

[Partha]

I have a feeling a few are coming open - jounalism skills not necessary:

This is last week’s “Iraq Weekly Status Report” from the State Department.

It’s described thusly: “This comprehensive status report on Iraq provides weekly updates in the eight key areas identified as pillars of U.S. Government policy.”

Scroll through and it looks kind of impressive, lots of information -- good job keeping on top of the game State Department! But scroll to the bottom and it lists the sources for the information. Now it woulda been nice if they included some footnotes in the body of the document to indicate they were including outside information, but as it turns out the entire thing is basically plagiarized word for word from those news articles, with the slightest of adjustments so as to maybe give the impression it’s in their own words. Drop this code below in a post to see what I mean, pretty pathetic that the US State Department would send this out as their official “Status Report” on the preeminent foreign policy clusterfuck of our generation, and plays right into Dowd’s point about Condi being lost in the funhouse and learning everything from the news.

1. Washington Post, 11/15/07:

Senior military commanders here now portray the intransigence of Iraq's Shiite-dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S. effort in Iraq, rather than al-Qaeda terrorists, Sunni insurgents or Iranian-backed militias. In more than a dozen interviews, U.S. military officials expressed growing concern over the Iraqi government's failure to capitalize on sharp declines in attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. A window of opportunity has opened for the government to reach out to its former foes, said Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq, but "it's unclear how long that window is going to be open."

State Dept Iraq Weekly Status Report, 11/21/07 (page 9):

Senior military commanders now portray the intransigence of Iraq's Shiite-dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S. effort in Iraq, rather than al-Qaida terrorists, Sunni insurgents or Iranian-backed militias. Several U.S. military officials have expressed growing concern over the Iraqi government's failure to capitalize on sharp declines in attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. A window of opportunity has opened for the government to reach out to its former foes, said Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq, but "it's unclear how long that window is going to be open."

Makes one wonder just how much actual news comes to the State Department from it's folks there.