Senator John Walsh Plagiarized 2007 Thesis

It's a rather long article, but the following few excerpts pretty well sum up the gist of it:

NY Times - Thesis by Montana Democrat Presented Others’ Work as Own

Most strikingly, the six recommendations Mr. Walsh laid out at the conclusion of his 14-page paper, titled “The Case for Democracy as a Long Term National Strategy,” are taken nearly word-for-word without attribution from a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace document on the same topic.

In his third recommendation, for example, Mr. Walsh writes: “Democracy promoters need to engage as much as possible in a dialogue with a wide cross section of influential elites: mainstream academics, journalists, moderate Islamists, and members of the professional associations who play a political role in some Arab countries, rather than only the narrow world of westernized democracy and human rights advocates.”

The same sentence appears on the sixth page of a 2002 Carnegie paper written by four scholars at the research institute. In all, Mr. Walsh’s recommendations section runs to more than 800 words, nearly all of it taken verbatim from the Carnegie paper, without any footnote to it.In addition, significant portions of the language in Mr. Walsh’s paper can be found in a 1998 essay by a scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, a research institute at Harvard.

In an interview outside his Capitol Hill office on Tuesday, after he was presented with multiple examples of identical passages from his paper and the Carnegie and Harvard essays, Mr. Walsh said he did not believe he had done anything wrong.

“I didn’t do anything intentional here,” he said, adding that he did not recall using the Carnegie and Harvard sources.

Asked directly if he had plagiarized, he responded: “I don’t believe I did, no.”

The master’s degree in strategic studies from the War College has benefited Mr. Walsh’s career: In a military evaluation the year after Mr. Walsh received it, his commander praised him for it, writing that he “leads his peers and sets example in maintaining continuous military education and training subjects pertinent to today’s leadership challenges.”

In September 2008, Mr. Walsh, a recipient of the Bronze Star, was appointed adjutant general of Montana’s National Guard by the governor. A subsequent military evaluation said his prospects for the post had been “bolstered” in part by his degree from the War College.

Unlike with many other cases of plagiarism that have made the news in recent years, this one can't be written off as a youthful mistake. Senator Walsh was 46 in 2007. The school will be conducting their own review and I imagine if he's found to be guilty of misconduct, he stands to lose at the very least his degree. The honorable thing to do at that point, in my opinion, would be to apologize, announce his resignation and fade from view.

a reply to: theantediluvian

He's a Democrat and look at the date it was written.

Don't you know Bush made him do it!

All he has to do is say that one magic sentence, and poof, like magic

all the other Dems will say of course, then it's not your fault.

No need to apologize, no need to resign....all he has to do is say the magic words "it's Bush's fault"

The APA is not amused!!!

Seriously what a buffoon for not thinking anyone would notice and playing that part of -uhh I dun think I cheated boss-.

And in typical political style he has his excuse ready

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Sen. John Walsh of Montana said Wednesday his failure to attribute conclusions and verbatim passages lifted from other scholars' work in his thesis to earn a master's degree from the U.S. Army War College was an unintentional mistake caused in part by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Walsh told The Associated Press when he wrote the thesis, he had PTSD from his service in Iraq, was on medication and was dealing with the stress of a fellow veteran's recent suicide.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Apologize?!?! In politics!?!?

a reply to: Maluhia

Wow

using PTSD as an excuse for plagiarism... I've seen it all.



He needs to eat his hat.

a reply to: Lysergic

I wouldn't go so far as to ask him to fall upon his sword, but I would ask the Army to take away his real dress sword and give him a rubber (fake) one.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
The honorable thing to do at that point, in my opinion, would be to apologize, announce his resignation and fade from view.

Completely agree. If he is slimy enough to use PTSD as an excuse to plagiarize, he would fit right into our current Congress, but he needs to get out!