Study of deaths in Iraq was funded by Soros

In October 2006, Randall Parker at Parapundit gave extensive coverage to a study in the prestigious British medical journal the Lancet which claimed that 650,000 additional deaths had occurred in Iraq since the U.S. invasion and occupation. Parker treated the report with respect, and mentioned other writers, such as Steve Sailer, who also thought the report was valid. Purely on the basis of common sense and rule of thumb, I thought the death figure was obviously absurd and I said so in a comment at ParaPundit:

This 600,000 figure is ludicrous. That’s the number of dead in the American War between the States, with vast battlefields covered with the dead. There obviously has been nothing approaching that in Iraq, even with the ongoing almost daily terrorist killings. The idea that the Coalition forces have killed 200,000 is also ludicrous. Mr. Parker does not help advance intelligent criticism of Bush’s disastrous Iraq policy by reporting “straight” such an absurd, and, I’m sure, politically motivated, finding.

I was then viciously attacked by several of Parker’s commenters. I defended and explained my position at length, which, again, was based not on science, but on simple logic and common sense.

This week, as reported in the New York Post, the National Journal revealed that the study in the Lancet had been funded in significant part by George Soros, the billionaire who has made it his aim in life to destroy George W. Bush; that two of the study’s co-authors have told the National Journal that they were opponents of the Iraq war and that they submitted their article to the Lancet insisting that it appear before the 2006 election, so as to cause maximum damage to Bush and the Republican party; and that a chief researcher for the study had once worked for Saddam Hussein. The National Journal also quoted a Lancet editor indicating that the Lancet was now distancing itself from the article: “Anything [the authors] can do to strengthen the credibility of the Lancet paper would be very welcome,” the editor says.

I sent the New York Post article to Randall Parker a couple of days ago and look forward to seeing his response.

Here is the article:

$OROS’ IRAQ DEATH STUDY WAS A SHAM
By TODD VENEZIA

January 10, 2008—Anti-Bush billionaire George Soros helped finance a dubious study of Iraqi casualties that was rushed into print on the eve of the 2006 elections, according to a new report.

Soros, who gave more than $20 million to prevent President Bush’s re-election, contributed $45,000 of the $145,000 that was spent on the study, the National Journal disclosed.

The study, which The Lancet, a British medical journal, published three weeks before the midterm elections, made major headlines around the world with claims that some 650,000 Iraqis died in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein and the ensuing chaos.

Two of the study’s co-authors told the National Journal that they opposed the war and submitted their findings to Lancet with the insistence that it appear before the election.

Much of the data for the study, which was organized by Johns Hopkins University, was collected by Iraqi researcher Riyadh Lafta, who once worked for Saddam, the National Journal said.

Soros, who has an estimated fortune of more than $8 billion, has backed various left-wing and anti-Bush groups, such as MoveOn.org. A Soros spokesman did not return a request for comment.

The 650,000 figure was regarded with skepticism when the study appeared because it was vastly higher than estimates by the US government (30,000) and the Iraqi government (50,000).

Even an antiwar activist group, Iraq Body Count, claimed 45,000 dead, a fraction of the Lancet figure.

Many anti-war activists received the Lancet numbers with glee, and touted it as an example of US lying.

But the National Journal found that some of the methods used to gather data seemed designed to boost that death count

The researchers interviewed far fewer people than were spoken to for other casualty studies, and seemed to focus on places where people were more likely to be killed, it said.

The Lancet seemed to be distancing itself from the data, the National Journal said.

“Anything [the authors] can do to strengthen the credibility of the Lancet paper would be very welcome,” said Lancet editor Richard Horton.

Yesterday, the Iraqi government and the World Health Organization released a new study which used similar methodology to the Johns Hopkins researchers, but concluded 151,000 Iraqis died of violence in the three years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 12, 2008 12:16 PM | Send