| Submit your comments on this article | |||
| Europe | |||
| US report of Iraq payoffs miffs France | |||
| 2004-10-18 | |||
| EFL The US' handling this week of a report on Saddam Hussein's attempts to purchase weapons and buy influence has angered French officials and set back a year of US efforts to repair the rupture caused by the Iraq war, French and other European officials said on Friday. The anger of France and others is focused on the assertions in the report by Charles Duelfer, the top US arms inspector in Iraq, that French companies and individuals, some with close ties to the government, enriched themselves through Iraq's huge payments to gain influence around the world in the years before the war. Let me see if I get this straight. Efforts to improve US-French relations -- damaged by French perfidy, corruption, and gross irresponsibility with regard to Iraq -- are imperiled by US handling of information showing French perfidy, corruption, and gross irresponsibility with regard to Iraq. I must be missing a nuance, or else this makes no effing sense.
True, France's status as Saddam's mafia lawyer at the UNSC, tirelessly pushing to end sanctions regardless of Iraqi behavior, began before the ink was dry on UNSCR 687. The corruption part was just icing on the cake. French officials say that the report's charges, based on documents and interviews in Iraq, have been denied in the past, but that Duelfer's report did not contain the denials. They also complain that France was not given more than one day's notice before the report was issued. Cry me a river, Jacques. We promise, next time we expose French complicity in genocide and terror we'll give you 48 hours' notice -- no, really) They were incensed that the report also mentioned Americans in connection with similar charges, but that unlike the French they were not identified because of US privacy regulations. One more reason to be American, and not French. "You protect American citizens, but you put in danger a number of private citizens in other countries who may be innocent people," said Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador to the US. "These names are from an old list, published months ago, and those mentioned denied it flatly." A European diplomat said the damage to French-American relations was so great that it could disrupt a new spirit of cooperation with France on other fronts, namely the joint US and European efforts to put pressure on Iran to dismantle its suspected nuclear weapons program and to organize an international conference next month on Iraq. So the damage caused by shameful and even criminal French misbehavior, now exacerbated by recognition of shameful and even criminal French misbehavior, threatens to disrupt the naive and pathetic European efforts to bribe Iran out of their nuke ambitions, and derail a pointless conference to which France has announced it would invite our Sunni enemies in Iraq? Whatever will we do?
Outrage! France's good name tarnished! Let's all take a break now so we can stop laughing.
Let me see if I follow this -- massive bribes were paid, but nobody got richer from them? "It doesn't say that those transactions were completed," said Richard Boucher, a State Department spokesman. "It doesn't say whether or not governments intervened. It doesn't say whether or not the individuals declined. It doesn't really say what happened." Was that a Clinton defense lawyer or a State spokesman? Along with the seething and whining of the French, the presumed anguish of the nuance specialists in the Europe Bureau is the happiest thing I've contemplated in a while. But that was not the tone adopted by Cheney and other officials caught up in President Bush's shrill re-election campaign. Whuh?? Catch that -- Bush's "shrill" election campaign? Strength, resolution, optimism, ambitious goals in keeping with our values -- shrill! Medi-scare, draft-scare, promising miracles to heal the sick, trolling for homophobia, embracing the lunatic and anti-semitic anti-American left -- uh ... nuanced! In Florida on Thursday, Cheney said Saddam used oil funds to corrupt "some employees of the United Nations as well as other governments in the hopes that they would work with him to undermine the sanctions." | |||
| Posted by:Verlaine |
| #30 #12 Ptah wrote: This whole brouhaha reminds me of Reagan's "Empire of Evil" remark: the sheer volume of the denials and criticisms just indicates that Duelfer hit the bullseye. Said another way: the dog that barks the loudest is the one that's been hit. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-10-18 7:50:56 PM |
| #29 Shipman lol! |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-10-18 7:03:17 PM |
| #28 And give Spain a fiver for the movies. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-10-18 6:15:26 PM |
| #27 In 2003, Condoleezza Rice was quoted in a German magazine: "Punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia." Still applies today! |
| Posted by: Jeff 2004-10-18 5:14:57 PM |
| #26 LOL Ed! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-10-18 5:11:13 PM |
| #25 And there is still the same deafening silence in the French media. Not a denial, silence. Meaning that the average French has never heard of the matter. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-10-18 2:51:30 PM |
| #24 When will the Chirac French realize that we no longer give a fuck what they think? Go wave your white flag for weak but murderous despots...but don't expect anything but disdain from us for your ocd need to do so. |
| Posted by: goolkjdk0tlkj; 2004-10-18 2:21:29 PM |
| #23 Mike-Precisely right. SO, next time they complain about poverty, and the gap between rich and poor, and human misery, and downtrodden peoples, and demand we help other countries with handouts, subsidies, debt forgiveness, etc., we should point out they gave corrupt politicians and criminals those monies. If Europe can't seem to stomach the argument that tolerating corruption in business and government is the sign of ethicless individuals and an ethicless culture, maybe they can appreciate the argument from the thanks but no thanks, we-will-find-ethical-partners-to-do-business-with-outside-of-your-country-instead approach. |
| Posted by: Jules 187 2004-10-18 2:17:14 PM |
| #22 Agree with Mike. For the better part of almost three decades, both major parties in France have been running slush funds with contributions and kickbacks from execs at France's major oil company, formerly Elf Aquitaine, now TotalFinaElf. The same entity that received the sweetheart deal for 20 billion barrels of reserves from Saddam. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-18 2:01:12 PM |
| #21 Jacques the Ripper-Off knows that the minute he's out of office he's headed au prison. I wouldn't count on it. If I understand correctly (JFM, TGA, please correct me if I'm wrong!), French (and continental European) political culture is far more tolerant of corruption than we in the States would be--what Chirac did is not viewed with anything approaching the disapproval it would meet with here un the U.S. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-10-18 1:57:11 PM |
| #20 "These names are from an old list, published months ago, and those mentioned denied it flatly." if the list was already published, then there are no privacy concerns. |
| Posted by: Jeff 2004-10-18 1:56:52 PM |
| #19 Jacques the Ripper-Off knows that the minute he's out of office he's headed au prison. |
| Posted by: Steve from Relto 2004-10-18 1:32:04 PM |
| #18 --"These names are from an old list,-- There's a newer list and they have a copy? |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2004-10-18 1:07:40 PM |
| #17 French acceptance of Iraq payoffs angers U.S. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-10-18 12:30:47 PM |
| #16 The Oil for Fraud stuff, as disgusting as it is, pales in comparison with France's overt sanctions-busting and influence-trading via sweetheart deals signed at the 11th hour with Saddam. In the W Qurna oilfields deal (Nov 02), France got exclusive rights with extremely generous guaranteed profit margins to develop one-third of all of Iraq's reserves, or 20 billion barrels! Ditto (on a lesser scale) for Russia's LUKoil's deals. Talk about a coalition of the bribed, or blood (of Saddam's victims) for oil contracts. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-18 12:09:18 PM |
| #15 the French ambassador to the US. "These names are from an old list, published months ago, and those mentioned denied it flatly." Did you know that our prisons are filled with innocent people too? No really.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-10-18 12:02:39 PM |
| #14 We have no trust for the French govt, and we really do not have any mutual self interest, so we have no reason to work with the French. They aid and abet our enemies, so they should be considered a hostile nation. We do not have to train the guns on them, just ignore them. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-18 11:42:56 AM |
| #13  It means that they still think talk solves everything
It means talk is the only thing they can do. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-10-18 11:33:13 AM |
| #12 This whole brouhaha reminds me of Reagan's "Empire of Evil" remark: the sheer volume of the denials and criticisms just indicates that Duelfer hit the bullseye. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-10-18 11:29:18 AM |
| #11 If so-if we shouldn't have expected better from them than betrayal, abandonment, theft-then it follows logically that the US government shouldn't waste any more time trying to "repair" the alliance. |
| Posted by: Jules 187 2004-10-18 11:28:48 AM |
| #10 It means that they still think talk solves everything, When a yammer is the only tool in the box, all problems look like a summit. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-10-18 11:27:01 AM |
| #9 the steady disintegration of the French/US alliance is the US's fault. Perhaps that's true - our expectation sof them were too high. We thought they'd act as an ally, mutually interested in combatting terrorism and putting a democratically elected gov't in place of Saddam. They, on the other hand, expected us to allow their backstabbing perfidy and abuse to continue without calling them on it. Our bad.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-10-18 11:10:50 AM |
| #8 I saw Mssr. Levitte on C-Span this weekend, talking about French US relations. At one point, an audience member asked what lessons had been learned from the strains in French/US relations since the US went ahead with Operation Iraqi Freedom without French cooperation. He said we must learn to listen to each other. What does that mean? It means that they still think talk solves everything, and that the US should follow France's lead (corrupt oil deals, coddling/negotiating with terrorists, blaming Israel for the ills of the world, etc.) in how to deliver world peace. It was crystal clear from his answer that he thought the French needed to learn no lesson-that the steady disintegration of the French/US alliance is the US's fault. |
| Posted by: Jules 187 2004-10-18 11:06:53 AM |
| #7 Leave the rupture in place, for shrill's sake! France is not an ally, despite what the NYT and NPR keep saying. Do we think of it as regrettable "rupture" when a criminal is accused, then indicted? |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-10-18 10:17:53 AM |
| #6 US efforts to repair the rupture How about some French efforts to repair the rupture? The Frogs have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Hack 'em off. |
| Posted by: Spot 2004-10-18 8:53:52 AM |
| #5 Jean-David Levitte can kiss my rear end and put his "new spirit of cooperation" where the sun don't shine. The French are playing a double game right now due to the U.S. election. We'll see how they whine in 16 days. Four more years, frog. |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-10-18 8:45:16 AM |
| #4 Watched the Fox report.Mobil,Cheveron,2 other co.and 1 individual were named."shrill"there's that awful French whine agin. |
| Posted by: raptor 2004-10-18 8:09:43 AM |
| #3 Does not France and by extension their Eurostan enablers realize that supplying an armed enemy of the United States is in itself an act of war? |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-10-18 1:19:33 AM |
| #2 Shrill? Must have been listening to the JFK/ |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-18 1:11:53 AM |
| #1 No place remaining to hide in the Frog pond. :) |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-10-18 12:55:58 AM |