In their sampling, they recorded 629 actual total deaths, 82 of those that occured prior to the invasion, and 327 of the 629 deaths were "non-violent".
Of the 302 recorded violent deaths, they attributed 31%, or
93 deaths to coalition forces.
From the 93 deaths they recorded in their sampling as being violent deaths caused by coalition forces, they extrapolated, calculated, compounded, matriculated, and did whatever else "experts" do, and came up with 654,000 deaths to put in the headlines.
I almost picture the guy doing this study putting his pinky in his mouth and saying "From these 93 violent deaths at coalition hands, we estimate ONE THOUSAND...no...no...ONE MILLION DEATHS!"
They spent a grand total of
21 days this summer collecting this survey data and related death certificates for the 629 deaths, and using their methodology arrived at a number 6+ times higher than all previous estimates, including those gathered by the Iraq Ministry in cooperation with Iraqi morgues and hospitals, Iraq Body Count, and numerous media reports...not to mention a handful of previous similar surveys by other groups.
All political machinations aside, for anyone to look at this report objectively and NOT be at least a bit skeptical is reckless.