ABC News reports:

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., says an interview he supposedly gave to a French magazine, calling the war in Iraq a “defeat,” is a fabrication. An Obama campaign spokesperson says the interview never took place. The interview appears under the byline of Alexis Debat, a senior fellow for national security and terrorism at the Nixon Center and a former ABC News consultant. ABC News officials say Debat was asked to resign in June after questions were raised by the French government about his academic credentials. The Obama interview appeared in the summer 2007 edition of Politique Internationale. Questions about the interview were first raised this week in another French magazine, Rue 89. The editor of Politique Internationale says the article has been removed from the magazine’s Web site.