In public, the government scorned the Lancet estimate that 655,000 Iraqis had died directly and indirectly as a consequence of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
At the end of March, the BBC World Service used the Freedom of Information Act to discover that the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser, Sir Roy Anderson, had described the study's design as “robust”, using “methods that are regarded as close to 'best practice' in this area”.
Another official commented privately, “The survey methodology used here cannot be rubbished, it is a tried and tested way of measuring mortality in Conflict zones.”
Topics: Iraq