How Alexis Debat managed to cheat everyone in Washington [View All]

How Alexis Debat managed to cheat everyone in Washington
Par Rue89 15H40 15/09/2007

On Capitol Hill, last November (Rueuters)

For years, this "expert" managed to fool think tanks and media despite flashing warning signals.

How could someone, in the age of the Internet, manage to fake interviews with world leaders without being caught, while working for the famous investigative unit of one of the biggest American television networks?

Broken by Rue89, the affair of the mythomaniac analyst is causing a stir in the United States. How did Alexis Debat, a self-proclaimed expert on terrorism, manage to build such a career for himself --as a regular contributor to the foreign affairs reviews Politique Internationale and National Interest, as a consultant for ABC News and an analyst of the prestigious Nixon Center attending conferences with the cream of the crop of American foreign policy circles?

On September 5, Rue89 revealed that Debat had provided Politique Internationale with a fake interview, carrying his byline, with Senator Barack Obama, running for the Democratic party nomination for the 2008 presidential election. Our research showed that Debat was also inflating his resume, flattering himself with a PhD he never obtained as well as cooked-up positions.

Debat defends himself, saying he made the mistake of trusting “a third person” to ask his questions. But the spokesperson for the former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who was also “interviewed” by Debat in Politique Internationale, told us his was also a fake. As were the ones Debat “got” with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, New York city Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former president Bill Clinton, and many more.

Embarrassed reactions

When we discovered the fabricated Obama interview and contacted Patrick Wajsman, the editor of Politique Internationale, he told us he was stunned, considering himself the "first victim" of the imposture.

more...

http://www.rue89.com/2007/09/15/how-alexis-debat-managed-to-cheat-everyone-in-washington\

Related thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1817758