It was all election propaganda.
Oh but the left would NEVER do that.
http://chronicle.com/news/article/5923/public-opinion-researchers-censure-hopkins-scholar-over-findings-on-iraqi-deathsFebruary 5, 2009
Public-Opinion Researchers Censure Hopkins Scholar Over Findings on Iraqi Deaths
The American Association of Public Opinion Research has censured a Johns Hopkins University professor for refusing to disclose “basic facts” about his controversial research that estimated the number of civilians who have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion is hundreds of thousands more than most other estimates.
The association conducted an eight-month inquiry into results published by Gilbert Burnham in the October 2006 issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal, that estimated that 650,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion.
The inquiry into Mr. Burnham’s work arose because of a complaint by one of the association’s members. But Mr. Burnham, who is not a member of the association, refused to cooperate. He wouldn’t disclose such information as the wording of questions he used in a survey of Iraqis, the instructions and explanations that were provided to respondents, and a summary of the outcomes for all households selected as potential participants in the survey, according to a statement released by the group.
“This violated the standards of science, seriously undermines open public debate on critical issues, and undermines the credibility of all survey and public-opinion research,” said Richard A. Kulka, the association’s president.
The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Hopkins said it was disappointed with the findings but pointed out that neither it nor Mr. Burnham are members of the association.
The inquiry said nothing about the accuracy of Mr. Burnham’s work, which has been under fire since it was published.
In the midst of war, researchers working with Mr. Burnham collected data by sending teams of interviewers into Iraqi neighborhoods and canvassing more than 12,000 people in 1,800 households, contrasting the mortality rate before the invasion to the rate after.
But he refused to disclose the identities of the interviewers and the neighborhoods they surveyed in order, he said, to protect the safety of the interviewers. What’s more, Mr. Burnham’s group refused to widely distribute their data set, making it impossible to independently verify their findings.
The number of Iraqi civilians killed in the war has been a matter of great controversy since the invasion. The Iraqi government doesn’t collect data on civilian deaths, but in 2006 it estimated that only 100,000 to 150,000 civilians had been killed. —Andrew Mills
