The Army's latest guidance on cultural awareness lasted about six weeks.

Officials pulled Army Techniques Publication 3-24.3, "Cultural and Situational Understanding," offline Tuesday after allegations of plagiarism and other problems surfaced in the days following its April 1 release.

Bill Ackerly, a spokesman for the Fort Leavenworth, Kan.-based Combined Arms Center, which authored the document, did not offer details surrounding the allegations, but told Army Times via email Wednesday that "after taking a closer look at the content in the ATP, we pulled it from circulation and it is no longer an approved doctrine publication."

"The ATP will not be re-released until the content issue has been resolved," Ackerly said.

The publication's withdrawal was first reported by BuzzFeed. That report cited a post at CounterPunch citing seven instances of alleged plagiarism from multiple locations and hinting at others. The examples included sections with similar language as academic works, online tutorials and "Say No to Religion," a book that, according to an Amazon.com description signed by the author, hopes to "explain the difference between 'religion' and salvation through Jesus Christ."

Multiple academics interviewed by BuzzFeed took issue with the manual beyond its source material, with one calling the publication "totally incoherent."

About Kevin Lilley

Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.

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