UPDATED: The disgraced ABC "consultant" and the push for war in Iran

UPDATED: The disgraced ABC "consultant" and the push for war in Iran

There's a huge new media scandal breaking this morning, and the headline so far -- that a much-used consultant to ABC News published a phony interview with Barak Obama -- may well be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The news about now ex-ABC consultant Alexis Debat (left) is just dribbling out, but I'm suprised people haven't been connecting the dots. This post will seek to connect a couple of them.

Simply put, Debat -- a former French defense official who now works at the (no, you can't make these things up) Nixon Center -- has also been a leading source in pounding the drumbeat for war in Iran, and directly linked to some bizarre stories -- reported on ABC's widely watched news shows, and nowhere else -- that either ratcheted up fears of terrorism or that could have stoked new tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Ironically, while Debat's alleged specialty is foreign affairs, it was a foray into American presidential politics that brought this budding scandal out into the open. This from today's article by Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post:

A former consultant to ABC's investigative unit admitted yesterday that he put his name on a purported interview with Barack Obama that he never conducted.

Alexis Debat, a former French defense official who now works at the Nixon Center, published the interview in the French magazine Politique Internationale. He said he had hired a freelance journalist to conduct the interview, in which the Democratic presidential candidate supposedly said that Iraq was "already a defeat for America" that has "wasted thousands of lives." Debat said he had been unable to locate the intermediary, and the Obama campaign says no such interview took place.

"I was scammed," Debat said. "I was very, very stupid. I made a huge mistake in signing that article and not checking his credentials."

But that's not the only red flag about Debat's credibility. It turns out that ABC News fired Debat as a consultant in June when it discovered that he had lied about earning a Ph.D. from the prestigious Sorbonne. According to the Post, ABC News also checked our Debat's work for the network and didn't find anything wrong. Today they say they'e checking again, and they should. Most recently, since ending his role with ABC, Debat helped raise a big international stir by pounding the drums for a U.S. attack on Iran.

more...

http://www.attytood.com/2007/09/the_disgraced_abc_consultant_a.html

That's a dream I have and would be a positive indication for our "democracy".

"I was scammed," Debat said. "I was very, very stupid. I made a huge mistake in signing that article and not checking his credentials."

Ah, pardon me, but just who is zoomin' who here? He was scammed?:nopity:

and then put their name to work done by others? Sounds like bullshit to me.

thanks for hanging in there! you're a real trooper

but, but, but, maybe he can figure out what to kiss!

.....The report came in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Times of London, right after rumors swept through Washington that aides to Vice President Dick Cheney were planning to use friendly news outlets -- including several others owned by Murdoch -- to whip up popular opinion for attacking Iran.

This story appeared in Murdoch's Times on Sept. 2, 2007:

THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.

Debat was speaking at a meeting organised by The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy journal. He told The Sunday Times that the US military had concluded: “Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same.” It was, he added, a “very legitimate strategic calculus”.

did he own the Times too?

there'll never be a change. Unless the stupid dumbed down congress passes the Fairness Doctrine. They see the media won't change on their own. Anything left to their own devices always shows the republican view.

I'm shocked,not. This one may be the most dangerous one yet.

This was a great interview I caught yesterday, Ricks has great insight on the situation in Iraq and the (worse, worser, worst) options for getting out.

If you didn't catch it, I highly recommend listening if you have the time (30 mins?)

Sorry babylonsister, can't start my own thread - to much of a newb. Hope ya don't mind me riding your thread

Listen here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14345112

:D

:toast:

now correct me if I'm wrong, (and I probably am lol), I know France had Nuclear interests in Iraq prior to the war in the way of reactors. Didn't they have the same in Iran or certainly wanting to?

Russia and China are dead set against the carpet bombing of Iran, mostly due to their interests there. Russia builds Iran's reactors, China has a large stake in Iran's oil. France however has been pushed out of the money making loop in Iran.

However, if moron* and his room full of dopes does bomb Iran, wouldn't that open up the field for France to heavily invest in Iran?

It always comes down to money.

(again, I could and probably am way off base here)

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3593296&page=1


U.S. military officials in Iraq tell ABC News that a rocket used in an attack on coalition headquarters at Camp Victory Tuesday was made in Iran. Officials say the rocket, which narrowly missed its target, was fired from an area of Baghdad controlled by Shia militia leader Moqtada al Sadr.

Officials say it landed so close that it shook the windows of the al Faw Palace, which houses the operational headquarters of U.S. forces in Iraq. The top two American military officials in Iraq -- Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno -- both have offices in the building. A video teleconference of senior officers was abruptly halted as officials rushed outside to see what was hit.

The attack wounded 11 coalition troops and killed one foreign worker.

Officials say Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, the spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, will display fragments of the 240mm rocket -- complete with Iranian markings -- at a press conference in Baghdad Thursday.

"We want to show the link between the Iranian weapons and the damage they are doing," said a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad.