House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Fresno/Clovis/Visalia) called out Pentagon officials in a hearing today over lifting information from Wikipedia for a report about building the Joint Intelligence Analysis Complex at Croughton Air Base, 70 miles northwest of London.
At the hearing today (Thursday), Nunes wanted to know whether James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, Robert Work, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Marcel Lettre, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence were aware that information in that report specifically about a military facility in the Azores were plagiarized from Wikipedia.
The trio denied knowing about it and deflected most questions.
“I am just alarmed that we would rely on Wikipedia, free online encyclopedia, that is famously known for most high school students plagiarizing their homework, that the Department of Defense would even use Wikipedia to provide information to Congress,” Nunes chided Work.
“Is it appropriate to take information off of Wikipedia and provide it to the Congress?” Nunes asked.
“I would say I am surprised this comes directly form a Wikipedia page,” Work responded.
The full video of the hearing can be viewed here.
E-mail David Taub
