The anti-war far-left routinely quotes the Lancet study, performed by Iraq war opponent Les Roberts at Columbia university, which concludes, through the use of controversial methodology, that 650,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the Iraq invasion.

It is more than ten times the estimate of other studies.

Its now been revealed that Roberts accepted half the research funds from Open Society Institute, a George Soros funded front group for his left-wing agenda.

His team surveyed 1,849 homes at 47 sites across Iraq, asking people about births, deaths and migration in their households.

Professor John Tirman of MIT said this weekend that $46,000 (£23,000) of the approximate £50,000 cost of the study had come from Soros’s Open Society Institute.

Roberts said this weekend: “In retrospect, it was probably unwise to have taken money that could have looked like it would result in a political slant. I am adamant this could not have affected the outcome of the research.”

Roberts' credibility account is overdrawn. I predict various anti-war spokespersons will dismiss the source of the funding as irrelevant to the conclusion, but these are the same people that are indignantly critical of global warming deniers who have received funding from big oil.

I feel almost silly putting it so baldly, because one actually sounds like moonbat when saying it, but the left lies...