Alexis Debat, currently using the name Yves Bergquist (born 1977)[1] is a French former commentator on terrorism and national security issues, formerly based in Washington D.C.
He worked as a reporter, consultant, and source for ABC News for six years, as a senior fellow at the Nixon Center, and was a contributing editor to The National Interest.
[3] He was also part of the Consulting Committee of the French magazine Politique Internationale, headed by Patrick Wajsman,[4] and worked until September 2007 for the National Security Institute of the George Washington University on Islamist radicalization in Afghanistan since 2005.
"None of these discrepancies would rise to the level of a formal, on-air retraction because none of them was material to the substance of our report," Mr. Westin wrote in an internal memo[7][8] ABC has however deleted articles by Alexis Debat, replaced by the notice "This story has been removed from our Web site because of questions raised about the credibility of one of its authors, Alexis Debat.
[18] Two days before Rue 89 's revelations, Alexis Debat was the source of a Sunday Times article claiming that The Pentagon had a "‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran".
[19] In an article published by National Journal, Laura Rozen has questioned Debat's account of alleged US support to the Jundallah in purported covert operations against Iran.
"[21] Laura Rozen then explained that according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, partially funded by the US government, Debat had been a paid employee of them, until the controversy lifted by Rue 89.
Debat presented himself as "former advisor to the French minister of Defense on Transatlantic Affairs," "visiting lecturer at Middlebury College" and claimed that he was at work on a manuscript on the history of the Central Intelligence Agency.
[23] In an interview on PBS in Autumn 2005, during the riots in the French suburbs, he was introduced as a former social worker, claiming he had worked in Martine Aubry's foundation, Fondation Agir Contre l'Exclusion (FACE).
"[24] According to his (now deleted) online biography at George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute (a US governmental think tank), Debat is additionally claimed to have worked as an analyst for the French government on the Counter-Terrorism Coordinating Committee, as an expert on Islamic finance and Islamic law for clients such as Deutsche Bank and the Japan External Trade Organization, as a contractor for the RAND think tank, as advisor for the Business for Diplomatic Action consortium, and once again for the French government as "a desk officer for the Ministry of Defense.
[3] AP news agency has stated that ABC was now sending long time Ross producer Rhonda Schwartz to Pakistan to counter-check Debat's articles.
[3] Rue 89, however, questions ABC News' decision to let the control of the investigation to Brian Ross, who was Alexis Debat's direct superior.
[11] Stéphane Dujarric, chief spokesman for the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, said he had denounced to Patrick Wajsman, head of Politique Internationale, the bogus interview in June 2005.