To bolster his cynical slow bleed strategy, Rep. Murtha has been citing polls from Iraq. Candace De Russy has taken a closer look at the polls:
“Who are the meter-readers upon whom Murtha relies to validate his pitch? Herein a tangled tale:
“The survey Murtha quotes was published last September by the Center on Policy Attitudes, a small think tank affiliated with the University of Maryland, ‘partnered’ by the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center.
…neither Brookings nor the University of Maryland actually did any polling. They contracted the job out to a U.S. firm, D3 Systems – which subcontracted it to KA Research. Matt Warshaw, a D3 spokesman, says KA Research is owned by Iraqis and Turks, but isn?t prepared to name them.
Chafets went on to critique the survey: It is based on dated statistics and on claims of interpersonal types of interviews difficult to imagine successfully conducting under the present circumstances in Iraq; also, there have been no real outside verification of KA’s data.