AD-EDIT IRONY ALERT! Testimony from the General Accounting Office (GAO) reveals that hundreds of federal employees may possess highly questionable academic credentials. The GAO report indicates that Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defense may be the agency most beset by dubious degree holders.

According to the GAO, investigators conducted their online research by searching "for nontraditional, unaccredited, postsecondary schools that offer degrees for a relatively low flat fee, promote the award of academic credits based on life experience, and do not require any classroom instruction." The investigators then asked four of the diploma mills to provide the names of current and former students identified in their records as federal employees.

You can read about the findings in the article "28 officials said to have false university degrees" in the online International Herald Tribune, which describes itself as "the premier international newspaper for opinion leaders and decision makers around the world."

Whether or not you're one of those opinion leaders and decision makers, check out the advertiser links at the end of the article. One advertisment is for Customdegrees.com.

"Earn a College Degree online within 30-days [sic]," declares this International Herald Tribune advertiser. "We represent Universities and Colleges that will grant college degrees based upon life experience, work history, military experience and/or previous college credits; or a combination thereof." The Customdegrees.com website also states that degree prices start at $199 and encourages ambitious scholars to be meticulous from the very start of their month-long academic careers: "Please ensure to complete the application in it's entirety [sic]."

All this might give you the impression that Customdegrees.com is just another run-of-the-mill diploma mill. Yet Customdegrees.com takes pains to set itself apart. "There are degree mills all over the Internet promoting their college, and advertising the opportunity to get your degree in 21-days, etc. from a school that everyone knows is a degree mill. The problem with these schools is that by advertising the name of the school openly over the Internet, the school is immediately known to all as a degree mill. We do not broadcast the names of the institutions which we represent [sic]." Take that, GAO sleuths!

Back at About The IHT, the International Herald Tribune proudly states that it "combines the extensive resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times." Jayson Blair is no longer one of those resources, but I suspect that Customdegrees.com would be happy to supply individuals of similar character, with similar credentials. For a price.