WASHINGTON, March 26 (UPI) -- British civil servants warned ministers against criticizing a 2006 survey that said the Iraq war killed more than 650,000 people.
The survey, a peer-reviewed study of pre- and post-war mortality rates in Iraq, was criticized by both British and U.S. officials -- including President George W. Bush -- as being a huge over-estimate.
But according to documents obtained by the British Broadcasting Corp. through a Freedom of Information Request, the chief scientific advisor to the British Ministry of Defense said the survey's methods were "close to best practice" and the study design was "robust".
"Are we really sure the report is likely to be right?" asks another official about the advisor's comments. "That is certainly what the brief implies."
A third official responds "We do not accept the figures quoted in the Lancet survey as accurate ... However, the survey methodology used here cannot be rubbished, it is a tried and tested way of measuring mortality in conflict zones."
At least one British minister however did just that, according to the BBC. Just six days after the exchange, foreign office minister Lord Triesman said: "The way in which data are extrapolated from samples to a general outcome is a matter of deep concern."
