Sahel Intelligence: Copy, Paste, Publish.

The improperly named website Sahel Intelligence has previously figured on WSI, when I noticed that this self-declared intelligence community website was creating its "expert material" by copying from my blog posts. That all their supposed writers are pseudonyms and the page is completely anonymous (representing a non-existent "Global Intelligence Company") doesn't exactly inspire further confidence, nor does the one-sided view of a certain conflict -- it might tell you something of who runs it, though.

Now, I am happy to report that "Jorge Mathias", the expert in charge of copy-pasting my post on the death of Smaïl Lamari, has done a long-overdue auto-google. Accordingly, the original article has been changed, rewriting most of the material lifted from my post -- although his original Ctrl-C expertise can still be read here. Anyway, I'm not sure that this new version is more flattering to the Sahel-Intelligence unit, which, as you rember, claims to be a huge operation composed of special correspondents, former diplomats and soldiers. Because if they had a single real expert between them, they ought to be able to do better than this:

The Times, August 29, 2007:

On the day after his 61st birthday and after 25 years at the heart of power, Basri was summoned to the palace and relieved of his duties. ... But, for most Moroccans, Basri’s removal was the most welcome act of Mohammed VI’s first year in power.

Sahel Intelligence:

After 25 years at the heart of power, Basri was summoned to the palace and relieved of his duties. ... For most Moroccans, Basri’s removal was the most welcome act of Mohammed VI’s first year in power.

AFP, Aug 27, 2007:

RABAT - Morocco’s former interior minister, Driss Basri, died today in a Paris hospital, aged 69, after a long illness, one of his relatives told AFP in Rabat.

Basri was minister of the interior for 20 years and right-hand man to King Hassan II until the death of the monarch, whose son, Mohamed VI, dismissed him on November 9, 1999, three months after taking the throne. [...] He was a hardliner of enormous power who acquired notoriety for ruthless crackdowns on anti-government protests and long took personal charge of the issue of the Western Sahara...

Sahel Intelligence:

Driss Basri died in a Paris hospital, aged 69, after a long illness. He was minister of interior for 25 years and right-hand man to King Hassan II until the death of the monarch in 1999. [...] Basri was a hardliner of enormous power who acquired notoriety for ruthless crackdowns on anti-government protests and long took personal charge of the issue of the Western Sahara.

Reuters, Aug 28, 2007:

Lamari became deputy-chief of the intelligence apparatus in charge of secret operations against Islamist guerrillas and counter-espionage shortly after authorities scrapped parliamentary elections in 1992, which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win. An Islamist uprising began shortly after. Up to 200,000 people were killed in a subsequent decade of violence. Lamari played a key role in infiltrating Islamic armed groups, particularly the most radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA), security analysts said. But his major achievement was the deal he struck with the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) in 1997 convincing its leaders to give up the fight in return for amnesty, they added.

Sahel Intelligence:

He became deputy-chief of the intelligence in charge of secret operations against Islamist guerrillas and counter-espionage shortly after authorities scrapped parliamentary elections in 1992, which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win.

While remaining out of the public eye, he was behind the scenes in Algerian politics. Lamari played a key role in infiltrating Islamic armed groups, particularly the most radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA), but his major achievement was the deal he struck with the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) in 1997 convincing its leaders to give up the fight in return for amnesty.

Add to this the lousy spelling apparent in the the two or three phrases that actually belong to Sahel Intelligence (like "Lamare" and "lamari"), the skewed political perspectives, and the chances of this site to convince anyone that they are other than a poorly run political link dump slip to nil.

Will had his fun with the "independent" Together Foundation, and I think I'll make it my task to hound Sahel Intelligence until they wave the white flag. And they should: for it was said, not by Mathias, but by someone similarly named, that he who lives by Google will die by Google.

[disclaimer: expect all quotes to change.]