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Clinton, Pelosi, Greenspan, Powell, Bloomberg, Gates, Annan Also Say Interviews 'Fakes'
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ShareSeptember 13, 2007 11:37 AM
Former President Bill Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan have added their names to the list of people who say they were the subjects of fake interviews published in a French foreign affairs journal under the name of Alexis Debat, a former ABC News consultant.
"This guy is just sick," said Patrick Wajsman, the editor of the magazine, Politique Internationale, a prestigious publication that has been in business for 29 years. Wajsman said he was removing all articles with Debat's byline from the magazine's Web site.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said a supposed interview with Debat, published in the June 2007 edition of Politique Internationale, never occurred and was a fabrication.
The allegation was first reported by another French magazine, Rue 89.
Today, spokespeople for Clinton, Pelosi, Bloomberg, Gates, Greenspan, Powell and Annan told the Blotter on ABCNews.com that interviews of them under Debat's name in the magazine also never took place.
In fact, Stephane Dujarric, the deputy communications director for the U.N. secretary-general, said he called the fabricated interview to the attention of the editor of the magazine, Patrick Wajsman, in June 2005.
"I told him that if he went ahead with it, we would denounce the interview as a fake," the U.N. official said. "This was not some obscure guy. This was the sitting secretary-general of the U.N., and the magazine was told it was a fake," he said.
Despite that, Debat continued for the next two years to be cited as the author of interviews with a range of prominent U.S. public officials in Politique Internationale.
The U.N. official said a second supposed interview of Annan by Debat, posted earlier this year by Politique Internationale, was actually portions of a speech the secretary-general had given at Princeton University.
The magazine editor, Wajsman, told ABCNews.com he thought the problem with the Annan interview, one of the first he submitted, was "maybe a technical one" or a misunderstanding.
Wajsman said he had referred the matter to his lawyer for possible action against Debat.
"I was a victim of this man. I had no reason to suspect someone like him could lie," Wajsman said.
Asked why he continued to use Debat after the warning from the U.N., Wajsman said, "Everybody can be trusted once. He seemed to be well-connected in Washington, working for ABC and the Nixon center."
Debat was a consultant on terrorism for ABC News for five years until this June, when ABC News officials demanded his resignation after he failed to satisfy questions raised about his academic credentials.
ABC News says it is reviewing all stories in which Debat has played a role.
"We investigated and could not establish his academic credentials," said ABC News senior vice president Jeffrey Schneider. Schneider said ABC News began a review of all of his work as a consultant but that so far, "our initial review has found that the information he provided ABC News checked out and was backed up by other sources."
Debat, who resigned yesterday as a senior fellow on counterterrorism issues at the Nixon Center, a Washington think tank, told ABCNews.com his only mistake was to allow his name to be put on interviews done by others.
Debat admitted he did not conduct interviews with Clinton, Pelosi, Bloomberg, Gates, Greenspan, Powell or Annan.
"The magazine asked me to send questions. They got the answers, and then I edited and translated them and put my name on it," Debat said.
The magazine editor, Wajsman, said, "That is an outright lie."
Debat said he had "no memory" of being contacted by U.N. officials about the Annan interview.
Debat told ABCNews.com yesterday the interview of Sen. Obama was not a fake but conducted for him by a freelance journalist named Rob Sherman in Chicago.
Debat says he believes he was "scammed" by Sherman, who he says he paid $500 to conduct an interview with the senator.
Repeated calls to a number for Sherman provided by Debat have gone unanswered, and today a reporter for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago told ABC News the address for Sherman on a fax that Debat said he received from him does not exist.
This post has been updated.
September 13, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (36)
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There is no surprise how deep the propaganda paid for by the US government and military concerns has reached. No surprise abc fondled this type of human being either as it fit their lock step march with the bushbaby. Now disengaging is going to be very difficult and hurt some feelings and call out some liars but HEY...why don't we heed chrissy matthews and just go with the gritty little bit of fascism Rudy can give us to get over the bushie hangover...
Posted by: daddy | Sep 13, 2007 12:14:47 PM
News outlet talking points....
ACCESS....PRICELESS
WELL-CONNECTED.....PRICELESS
consequences for the USA.....9.8 trillion and growing....
reality show for abc next fall....greenspan and andrea newsworthy mitchell sipping martinis in Monte Carlo..GRACIOUS
Posted by: daddy | Sep 13, 2007 12:24:33 PM
Alexis Debat is linked to the French counter-espionnage agency DST.
Posted by: Paul | Sep 13, 2007 12:47:49 PM
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
George W. Bush, May 24, 2005
And it surprises ABC that the Dear Leader and his minions would lie to them?
Posted by: blogenfreude | Sep 13, 2007 12:52:44 PM
Does this mean Debat's interviews with Winston Churchill, William Jennings Bryan, and Vlad the Impaler were also made up?
Posted by: El Cid | Sep 13, 2007 1:13:12 PM
I don't suppose it would help dispel the conspiracy mongering to point out that this guy was a former employee of the *French* government?
-or that none of Debat's "reporting" was particularly helpful to the Bush administration or the U.S?
Get a grip.
Posted by: Rol | Sep 13, 2007 1:18:54 PM
so you all think Bush paid this guy to lie? he's a liar and Clinton is a liar and the whole Liberal Left in the USA are all truthers and liars...
how does this have anything to do with Bush?
what it's about is MSM will do anything for a story... even lie.
Posted by: Kristoff | Sep 13, 2007 1:21:01 PM
El Cid, priceless.
Don't forget his deathbed interview with Dr. Mudd or the final interview with the Romanovs.
Posted by: Gary | Sep 13, 2007 1:32:41 PM
WOW...what a surprise. Fake interviews published by a Right Winger. Take a look at those that he "interviewed"...to a person, all of them oppose Bush's policies.
Coincidence? Don't think so.
This is Rovian in it's deception and outright lies. It's also par for the course when you deal with a Fascist administration. Goebbels is looking up and smiling.
Posted by: PatA | Sep 13, 2007 1:40:36 PM
daddy and blogenfreude - did you read the article you're commenting on? What color is the sky in your world today?
Posted by: John | Sep 13, 2007 2:03:23 PM
Well, now, he works for the Nixon Center. Fraudulent journalists like Jayson Blair invariably get fired when the truth comes out. But since it's the Nixon Center, it's completely consistent to keep a dirty trickster on staff.
Posted by: David in NY | Sep 13, 2007 2:13:16 PM
Keep digging on this guy. My hunch is he's just a Jayson Blair-type patho-liar. Still, given the political aims of his work, y'gotta suspect he's carrying water for someone higher up.
Posted by: JBoy | Sep 13, 2007 2:29:43 PM
The folks blaming Bush for this are also blaming him for the Indonesian earthquakes. It's quite funny, but really, some of you ought to throttle it back a little before Nurse Ratched has to give you a double-dose.
Posted by: Dave | Sep 13, 2007 2:52:42 PM
You folks at ABC ought to be ashamed. A couple of stories coming through ABC in May regarding covert actions toward Iran had potentially serious effects. ABC should be vetting their sources better. Shameful.
Posted by: sdemetri | Sep 13, 2007 3:04:29 PM
I do not understand how the French magazine went to print with all of these interviews and apparently never contacted any of the interview subjects for a fact-check. They also must not have required Debat to give them copies of his interview tapes. Very odd, given most publications' desire to protect themselves legally. Oddest of all is that even after he was caught in the Kofi Annan interview, they still didn't fact check him after that.
It's hard not to wonder whether the magazine or perhaps an editor were in on Debat's game.
Posted by: anon | Sep 13, 2007 3:38:34 PM
ABC practices too much stenography, and relies too much on anonymous sources. Compare the October 30, 2006, Alexis Debat story on the madrassa bombing in Bajour, Pakistan, with the BBC story that same day. Which story would you feel left you better informed?
Posted by: laura | Sep 13, 2007 4:35:54 PM
Gee thanks ABC!
The hollowness of American mass media is so breathtakingly awesome in scope it almost defies description. This revelation about Debat continues to unfold. This ABC "expert" apparently was allowed to funnel deliberate lies into the news stream at ABC WITHOUT CHALLENGE for FIVE YEARS!!! Even when this man was offering information about issues like nuclear weapon capabilities of a country that this Amdinistration so desperately wants to attack, ABC appears to only have looked into his credibility a few months ago. WOW!
I guess all those bloggers that have been described as unprincipled whackos for claiming most American mainstream news is corrupt and that their function over the last few years has been merely to distract, deceive and spin were right. Is ABC merely a propaganda platform for BushCo and others???
I hope ABC investigates the impact the FALSE stories by this man have damaged America and potentially made all of our lives much less safe by affecting foreign policy.
Posted by: Vinnie From Indy | Sep 13, 2007 4:36:53 PM
how daddy? how is he connected? You can't just throw stuff like that and not back it up.
Posted by: arno | Sep 13, 2007 6:23:48 PM
Debat claims to have paid a freelance $500 to conduct an interview with Obama on his behalf? As a freelance myself who has recently generated nearly that much for individual and unsolicited material, just the rather low figure of $500 should be a clue. There is no way what so ever I would accept such a small amount for such an important interview and write up and I can't imagine a freelancer who would do so.
Posted by: Dr. Lou | Sep 13, 2007 6:54:09 PM
This 'journalist' has been one of the major players in hyping the 'Iran threat', and he has printed stories hyping the 'Iraq threat' from before the war started. This is the type of deception I've been warning about FOR MONTHS! We are being lied to by very dangerous people in high places in order to foment public support for more wars. This has to stop immediately.
Posted by: Eric | Sep 14, 2007 12:09:52 AM
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