“There is an interest in democratizing, and the question is how to get it,” Makiya said. “It has been expressly left to Iraqis to figure out.... [Our report] may not be what the [U.S.] government wanted, but it’s what leading Iraqis for democracy want.”

The report will not be available for public review until it is presented to the conference in November.

Makiya has written prolifically on the subject of his birthplace. He said his first two books, Republic of Fear (1989) and The Monument (1991), were written under the pseudonym “Samir al-Khalil” out of fear for his and his family’s livelihood. Republic of Fear became a best-seller after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Makiya began authoring books under his real name in 1993. He said that his life has never been threatened.

Makiya left Iraq to study architecture at MIT and later designed and built projects in the Middle East. In 1981, he left architecture and began to write.

In 1991, Makiya went to Iraq to inspect documents seized by rebels. The BBC film crew that accompanied him produced an award-winning documentary about his investigation.

In the late-1990s, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations granted Makiya and IRDP access to a complete database of Iraqi Secret Police documents.

—Staff writer Justin D. Gest can reached at gest@fas.harvard.edu.