When Kenneth Stein resigned from the Carter Center over Carter’s “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” he wrote in an email that he objected to the book because “it is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments.” At the time of the email, however, Stein cited no specifics.

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times last night, however, Stein backed up his allegation that Carter “copied materials not cited” claiming that he had lifted maps from Dennis Ross’s book “The Missing Peace.”

But, in a telephone interview Thursday evening, Stein offered a narrower criticism. “It appears that at least two maps that came out of the Carter book were or are very closely similar, or unusually similar, to maps that were produced and published in Dennis Ross’ book ‘The Missing Peace,’ ” Stein said.

That book, published in 2004, is also about the search for peace in the Middle East. “This could be incredibly coincidental, or it could not,” Stein said. “But it goes to the way history books should be written, and the way citations should be made when material is borrowed.”

The maps in question appear on Page 148 of Carter’s book, detailing the differing Israeli and Palestinian interpretations of President Clinton’s peace proposal made in 2000.

Ross, who was U.S. Middle East envoy under Clinton and President George H.W. Bush, could not be reached for comment Thursday night; Stein declined to discuss the matter in any greater detail.

While the LAT wasn’t able to get a hold of Ross last night, luckily FOX News was able to get him this morning. And in what seems to be an open and shut case of plagiarism, Ross explains that the maps in Carter’s book were specifically created for his book “The Missing Peace”–and Ross created them himself.

Update: Jim Hoft thinks he found the maps in question.

Update: Spruiell has both Carter’s map and Ross’s map side by side. As he notes, they look almost identical.