Sunita Paul: More Plagiarism

I guess I am not the only one who “Sunita Paul” plagiarizes. It appears that she even plagiarizes big name reporters.

Consider the April 5, 2009 article by “Sunita Paul” in the American Chronicle entitled “DPRK: Missile-Satellite Controversy” – one of the very few articles not focused on Bangladesh. The article is about the North Korean missile launch. But as I read it, it felt very disjointed and parts of it were vaguely familiar. It read very much like an article written by Helene Cooper of the New York Times. This article was first published on April 5th with Helene Cooper’s byline and then was later augmented with reporting by David Sanger and published on the front page of the April 6 edition of the New York Times. I remembered the article because it caused quite a buzz when it came out. The original article, with only Helene Cooper on the byline, is still available online.

The Helene Cooper article consists of 13 paragraphs. “Sunita Paul” lifted 11 of the 13 paragraphs from Helene Cooper’s article and included them in her American Chronicle article. Nowhere in “Sunita Paul”‘s article is Ms. Cooper or the New York Times given credit. Now, it is possible that the New York Times and Helene Cooper decided to waive copyright and give the entire contents of their original work to “Sunita Paul” to publish as if the words were written by her, but I very much doubt that. It is much more likely that “Sunita Paul” has plagiarized the New York Times article and tried to pass it off as her own writing.

Since pretty much the entire article was plagiarized, I will not reprint the entire New York Times article here. Instead, I will offer a few examples to illustrate the plagiarism. The reader can compare both articles to see the 11 paragraphs that were taken from the New York Times article.

Below is a paragraph from “Sunita Paul”‘s article:

The U.S. president also said that he still plans to continue with plans to pursue missile defense, but tied the need for such a system to any Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons. Russia opposes locating a defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, as current plans call for, and Mr. Obama said in a letter to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev two months ago that if Russia is able to successfully help the United States stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, there will be no need for a missile defense shield in placed in Eastern Europe.

Here is the original paragraph from the New York Times article:

Mr. Obama also said that he still planned to continue plans to pursue missile defense, but he tied the need for such a system to any Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons. Russia opposes locating a defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, as current plans call for, and Mr. Obama said in a letter to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev two months ago that if Russia were able to help the United States stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, there would be no need for a missile defense shield in in Eastern Europe.

Here is a paragraph from “Sunita Paul”‘s article:

 The issue has particular resonance here in Prague, since the now-collapsed government of Prime Minister Marek Topolanek went to bat against popular opinion here to support the missile shield, only to have the Obama administration begin to walk back from the plan.

Here is the original paragraph from the New York Times article:

The issue has particular resonance here in Prague, since the now collapsed government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek went to bat against popular opinion here to support the missile shield, only to have the Obama administration begin to walk back from the plan.

Here is a paragraph from “Sunita Paul”‘s article:

That North Korea fired a rocket over Japan and into the Pacific just hours before President Obama´s speech lent his message an added urgency, He said, although White House officials disputed any suggestion that the secretive government in the North timed its rocket launch to coincide with the U.S. President´s speech.

Here is the original paragraph from the New York Times article:

That North Korea had fired a rocket over Japan and into the Pacific just hours before Mr. Obama’s speech lent his message an added urgency, Mr. Obama said, although White House officials disputed any suggestion that the secretive government in the North timed its rocket launch to coincide with Mr. Obama’s speech.

As you can see from the above examples, the plagiarism is blatant.

In response to my op-ed in the Daily Star, “Sunita Paul” published in the American Chronicle a scathing ad hominem attack on me. Leaving aside for the purposes of this post the libelous vitriol contained in that article, I found the following passage in the article to be of great interest:

Mashuqur Rahman calls me a plagarist and cheat. He did not cite one example behind such nasty allegation. I have never violated any copyright of any publication, ever. Wherefrom he invented this plagarism theory?

As the reader will recall, I documented in detail the paragraphs “Sunita Paul” plagiarized from my articles. Yet, she now claims she has never plagiarized or violated copyright. Interestingly, the article that I had linked to at the American Chronicle has mysteriously disappeared after my op-ed came out. However, the article, though now deleted, lives on in Google cache as testimony of her plagiarism. The offending article is also still available, for now, on Global Politician and Priyo.com. For more on “Sunita Paul”‘s attack on me, read Shada Kalo’s excellent post.

So, it is likely that this new article by “Sunita Paul” may also mysteriously disappear since the plagiarism has been exposed. However, it will live on in Google cache.

As I have noted before, plagiarism is dishonesty. As more evidence of plagiarism arises, the level of dishonesty becomes self-evident.

UPDATE The article on American Chronicle has now been deleted. The article is still available on Google cache. The article is also currently posted at ModernGhana.com.

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4 Responses to Sunita Paul: More Plagiarism

  1. Robbie says:

    Wow. That takes some skills. I can’t plagiarize myself as well as that.

  2. zm says:

    Congratulations Mash. You’re in the same league with Ms Cooper. 😀

    This leech behind the name Sunita Paul should brought out in the daylight and condemned for life. Otherwise (s)he will surface under another assumed name and continue to steal people’s writing and at other times will simply write crap about anybody (s)he did not like.

    • Mash says:

      zm, sunlight is the best disinfectant.I suspect many incarnations of the same writer will appear (and has appeared). The best we can do is inform the reader so they can take the wild claims in these articles with the grain of salt they deserve.

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