Last October, the Lancet released a report by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health that estimated 655,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the Iraq war. Right……

Spew Alert! Found this short, but astoundingly sweet little gem over at Emperor Misha’s. If this doesn’t start your Tuesday off right, nothing will … €œ”Lancet” “€œStudy”€ Once Again Exposed as Fraud The Lancet “study” claiming that …

When the Lancet study is totally discredited, what will be the apologists explanation for the faulty conclusions?

This ones too easy… “Fake but Accurate”

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…the Lancet Study is politically-driven fake news cooked up by a group of anti-war Democrat scientists that should probably be fired for academic fraud. I called this study complete and utter crap months ago, but neve thought they’d stoop as……

I called what researchers did “CHERRY PICKING” — chosing data points to return a pre-determined result.

I also accused the authors of being leftwing shills and committing circular reasoning:

In addition, unlike other studies in the Lancet, this study does not appear to be refereed. In fact, one of the authors, Les Roberts — who is credited as being the instigator of it – is openly outspoken against the war and is openly left wing. His interview in the Socialst Worker alone ought to disqualify this study as having any validity, especially as the study itself piously and self-righteously claims it has no “conflictis of interest” — I the Lancet is expecting the public to ignore the POLITICAL PREJUDICES of the author and pretend that this isn’t a politically inspired document.

Therefore, the conclusions of this study are wrong as it is an example of circular reasoning bolstered by cherry picked data.

Professor Michael Spagat, from Royal Holloway College, University of London in the Times article mentioned above said exactly the same thhing:

“The authors ignore contrary evidence, cherry-pick and manipulate supporting evidence and evade inconvenient questions,” contends Professor Spagat, who believes the paper was poorly reviewed. “They published a sampling methodology that can overestimate deaths by a wide margin but respond to criticism by claiming that they did not actually follow the procedures that they stated.” The paper had “no scientific standing”. Did he rule out the possibility of fraud? “No.”

On the issue of political bias, the Times prints what should have been a red flag (it was to me) right from the very start.

One of The Lancet authors, Dr Les Roberts, campaigned for a Democrat seat in the US House of Representatives and has spoken out against the war.

Thank you Times for exposing the fraud in a way that can’t be spun or ignored.

Any suggestions? “Ha cha cha chaaaaa” “I got a million of em!”

http://iraqbodycount.org/press/pr14.php

In general they defend themselves against higher, more speculative body counts here:

http://iraqbodycount.org/editorial/defended/

Exit question: Is this another lesson about the perils of using stringers?

No… this is obviously an attempt by Bu$hitler’s Zionist Masters to obfuscate the truth; planting the seeds of doubt by reason and scientific method. Be ever vigilant to such sorcery…

But the 600,000 ‘dead’ number some of the left is tossing around for the warin Iraq alone, is plain insanity.

When the study came out, I went by the CIA’s numbers and simply asked: wouldn’t someone notice if 5% of a country’s population evaporated? thats how many 600,000 was. 5% of the population. That’s 15,000,000 americans up and vanishing. Think you’d notice? Yep. I think so.

Several academics have tried to find out how the Lancet study was conducted; none regards their queries as having been addressed satisfactorily. Researchers contacted by The Times talk of unreturned e-mails or phone calls, or of being sent information that raises fresh doubts. “The authors ignore contrary evidence, cherry-pick and manipulate supporting evidence and evade inconvenient questions,”

It really goes to show just how far some organizations will go to deceive as many people as possible in support of their agenda.

Hasn’t everyone figured out how the left and the media works yet? It doesn’t matter if the story is true, if the claim hurts Bush/GOP/America/Business/Christians the media will play up the claim in headlines, then when the claim is shown to be garbage, the media moves on to the next claim and doesn’t rush out and start tossing up headline after headline correcting the record.

Anyway, I’m just kind of surprised to see that anyone even mentions this Lancet study. Aren’t these the guys who pulled out the 100,000 figure before the 2004 election and admitted doing it for political reasons?

(Somewhere right now, employees of the Associated Press and the rest of the establishment media are frantically trying to figure out a new (or recycled with new wording to make it seem new) “scandal” to pin on the President so that they don’t have to report on this…. What will be the headline in a few days? Bush arrested people after their phone calls were unconstitionally listened to, and it turns out they are registered Democrats!? Or will it be that Bush is issuing orders to Gitmo guards to torture detainees? Perhaps recycle stories along these lines that seem to pop up every few months with no new information, but intended to make them sound new, when everything is old and above the fold. Wait! I’ve got it! The ACLU has sued and more Abu Ghraib photos are on the way! That’s it!)

lorien1973 on March 4, 2007 at 7:49 PM

And now, how could anyone ever know. After Sadamm killed off what, 1.5 to 2 million of his own people, then buried thousands in mass graves, gassed some, more in not-yet-found graves, etc… there is no place, no number from which to start.
No one could even tell you accurately, how many people lived in Iraq in 2000, 2003, 2005 or now.
But the 600,000 ‘dead’ number some of the left is tossing around for the warin Iraq alone, is plain insanity.

This combines well with the Global Warming religionists. Truth in science is rapidly dying.

laelaps on March 4, 2007 at 7:34 PM

Sad but true…. The guy said “…they either don’t know or they don’t care.” Or they’ve got an Axe to grind.

Okay, great, now how many people really have died in Iraq? Will we ever know?

We’ll never know. Is it knowable? How do you attribute deaths? If someone dies of old age between 2003 and 2007, did the war kill them? If terrorists kill 100 citizens, are those deaths equal to terrorists being killed? In order to have an accurate study, you have to know who killed who and how they died. I’d bet that the vast majority of deaths would be from insurgents/terrorists killing civilians.