Does the Washington Times crib from Tom Paine.com ?

The always insightful Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo brings to our attention news of Elliot Abrams firing NSC staff members, and cites this Washington Times report (for 25 February 2003).

After reading it, we wanted to refresh our memory about Abrams. So we typed "Elliot Abrams" into Google and went to the 1st entry in the list - a story (from Dec 11 2002) over at Tom Paine.com. Some of the material sounded familiar, and after further checking we think that the Times reporter (Richard Sale, UPI Intelligence Correspondent) copied material written by the Tom Paine.com reporter (Jim Lobe). Here is what we found:

Washington Times 25 February 2003	Tom Paine.com 11 December 2002
... Elliott Abrams, the controversial former Reagan administration official ...	Abrams, who first came to national prominence as a controversial political appointee in the Reagan administration ....
In 1991, Abrams was indicted by the Iran-Contra special prosecutor for giving false testimony before Congress in 1987 about his role in illicitly raising money for the Nicaraguan Contras. He pleaded guilty to two lesser offenses of withholding information to Congress in order to avoid a trial and a possible jail term.     He was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush along with a number of other Iran-Contra defendants on Christmas night 1992.	He was indicted by the Iran-Contra special prosecutor for giving false testimony about his role in illicitly raising money for the Contras but pleaded guilty to two lesser offenses of withholding information to Congress in order to avoid a trial and a possible jail term.  He was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush along with a number of other Iran-Contra defendants in 1992.

Did Richard Sale copy the text found on Tom Paine.com and add a few things? (e.g. "before Congress in 1997", "Nicaraguan", "on Christmas night")

Or last winter, did Jim Lobe go into a time machine set for the future, purchase a copy of the Washington Times, return, and use it in his report?

posted by Quiddity at 3/03/2003 02:13:00 AM