Why Alexis Debat Really Did ItAt 35, Alexis Debat was pretty successful. He had a respectable position in a well-regarded think tank, he was a regular face on television, he was quoted in newspapers… why did he need to keep fabricating interviews in a French journal with a limited circulation?
Interesting query, Rue89! But we think we’ve got it all figured out.
Presumably, Debat did it for the same reason that always drives people to routinely make up semi-believable interviews for modestly read French publications, namely they’re insecure, overcompensating for a lifetime of inadequacy and slightly fucked in the head.
Certainly the most likely possibility – no question about it. But, I wonder still. Debat’s articles were so monofocused, inflamming Iran/U.S. relations, anti-Democrats. And some of them made so much noise – U.S. Plans to bomb Iran into the Stone Age in three days. Obama saying ‘Iraq is a defeat.’
- "U.S. Strike Killed Al Qaeda Bomb Maker", ABC News (January 18, 2006)
- "The Secret War Against Iran", ABC News (April 3, 2007)
- "Suicide Bomb Teams Sent to U.S., Europe" ABC News (June 18, 2007). ABC has acknowledged him as a consultant on this story.
- "Pentagon three-day blitz plan for Iran" The Sunday Times (September 2, 2007)
- "Why Al Qaeda Is At Home In Pakistan", ABC News (March 3, 2006)
- "Captured Zarqawi Aide Spilled the Beans" ABC News (June 9, 2006)
- "The Man Who Is Planning the Next Attack on America", ABC News (August 9, 2006)
- "Zawahiri Was Target in U.S. Attack on Religious School in Pakistan", ABC News (October 3, 2006)
- "American Passports Found on Bodies of Al Qaeda Fighters in Somalia", ABC News (June 5, 2007)
- "In Praise of Warlords" (PDF) The National Interest (Summer 2006)
- "America the Vulnerable" (PDF) The National Interest (September/October 2006)
- "Terror and the Fifth Republic" (PDF) The National Interest (Winter 2005/2006 )
- "Channel the violence" The International Herald Tribune (November 21, 2006)
- "Hezbollah blinks; Britain leaves Iraq; NATO expansion and Russia" International Herald Tribune (February 25, 2007)
- "Vivisecting the Jihad: Part Two" The National Interest (online, October 14, 2004)
- "9/11: Not A Failure. A Choice." The National Interest (online July 2003)
I can go with insecure, overcompensating for a lifetime of inadequacy and slightly fucked in the head. But a bit of proof would be nice. He could be insecure, overcompensating for a lifetime of inadequacy and slightly fucked in the head and sleeping with the enemy. Most people who sleep with the enemy are also insecure, overcompensating for a lifeti… etc.
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