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Downing Street Memos Fake?

I tried to search, to see if this had come up here before, but the search function wasn't working. Anyway, yet another fake memo story, courtesy of the USS Neverdock:

Stage one (quoted excerpt from AP):
...Smith told AP he protected the identity of the source he had obtained the documents from by typing copies of them on plain paper and destroying the originals.

The AP obtained copies of six of the memos (the other two have circulated widely). A senior British official who reviewed the copies said their content appeared authentic. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of the material.
Ah, fake but accurate.

And notice that the 'senior British official' doesn't have a name, and didn't specifically cross-check the assumed copies with originals, to which he may or may not have had access.

And Stage Two:
It appears the originals may still exist after all. Raw Story has this tid bit:

"I first photocopied them to ensure they were on our paper and returned the originals, which were on government paper and therefore government property, to the source," he added. [...]

"It was these photocopies that I worked on, destroying them shortly before we went to press on Sept 17, 2004," he added. "Before we destroyed them the legal desk secretary typed the text up on an old fashioned typewriter."

Smith appears to be tripping up here. He says he returned the originals because they were on government paper and therefore government property. So, photocopying a page out of a book makes the words no longer the property of the author?
They're getting to be as bad as the Rapid Action Battalion, only not as productive.
Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-06-19

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=122026