An ‘expert’ unmasked
Suzanne Goldenberg
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Alexis Debat operated as an expert on security in the world of Washington think-tanks, U.S. network TV, and French intellectual journals.
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American and French media on Friday were taking a second look at the work of a so-called terrorism expert who faked his academic credentials — and entire interviews with some of the world’s most prominent figures.
For six years Alexis Debat, who falsely claimed to have earned a Ph.D at the Sorbonne and worked as an adviser to the French Defence Ministry, operated as an expert on national security in the world of Washington think-tanks, U.S. network television and French intellectual journals.
He was a consultant to ABC television, which sent him on trips to Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran to guide their coverage on Al-Qaeda; a senior fellow on terrorism at the conservative think-tank the Nixon Centre; and a regular contributor to the magazine National Interest, whose honorary chairman is Henry Kissinger. Mr. Debat was also a regular in the pages of the French publication Politique International.
But, as is only now emerging, Mr. Debat not only lacked the credentials he claimed, he fabricated interviews with such figures as the then U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, and Democrat presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
On Friday ABC News withdrew his work on Al-Qaeda and other subjects from its website. He was sacked from the network last June after it emerged that he had made up an interview with Mr. Obama.
Mr. Debat resigned from his post at the Nixon Centre on Wednesday, following “extensive and difficult discussions” over his credentials, said Paul Saunders, the centre’s executive director. Mr. Debat’s credibility in such circles was in itself noteworthy. What is extraordinary, however, was his ability to continue operating for more than two years after the first doubts about his integrity.
The U.N. first raised the alarm in June 2005 after failing to find any evidence that Mr. Debat had held a claimed interview with Mr. Annan for Politique International. A U.N. internal probe revealed no record of such an interview, and that Mr. Annan was a meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa on the day of the alleged conversation with Mr. Debat.
When the Nixon Centre inquired last June about the veracity of Mr. Debat’s Ph.D, he produced a sheaf of documents to back up his claims. Such bravado may have allowed Mr. Debat to keep functioning long after he was unmasked.
Mr. Debat, who was on a trip to Pakistan with ABC News when contacted about the interview, stood by his story, claiming he had held a telephone conversation with Mr. Annan, arranged through a third party. The magazine did not publish that particular interview. However, it continued to publish pieces by Mr. Debat, including the purported interview with Mr. Obama, which was exposed by the French online magazine Rue 89. — ©Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007
I UNDERSTOOD THE MEANING OF THE WORD "IMPOSTOR"
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