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| USN: Oil-for-Food only part of larger French-Russian scheme going back to 1998 |
| 2004-12-02 |
| Wretchard reports a fascinating (no longer online) study by a US Naval Commander from Nov 1998 of how French surveillance planes and a French frigate tailed the US Nimitz task force responsible for U2 overflights of Iraq. Excerpt: [In] the third part of a series of six entitled Five Fleets: Around the World with the Nimitz by Lieutenant Commander William R. Bray, U.S.N. ... Bray describes how the Nimitz [in November 1998] was taking part in a UN sponsored mission to contain Saddam Hussein. One of its tasks was to support a U-2 flight over Iraq that Saddam had threatened to shoot down. The U-2 was an American aircraft assigned to a United Nations mission. What Bray described next was how the French tracked the Nimitz task force almost certainly on behalf of Saddam.... The Russians [also] were ready to play their part. While the movements of the Nimitz and the rest of the Fleet were being reported by French warships, the Kremlin induced Saddam to retreat ever so slightly from the brink, but not all the way, leaving the Iraqi dictator with a net gain. They played the hero to the American heel. More from LCDR Bray: As the Nimitz operated in the northern Arabian Gulf on the morning of 19 November, Russia's Foreign Minister, the crafty former KGB spymaster and accomplished Arabist Yevgeny Primakov, ... promised [Foreign Minister Tariq] Aziz they would work harder in the Security Council to get sanctions lifted, as long as Iraq immediately allowed all UNSCOM inspectors to return to work and complied with all existing resolutions. Baghdad accepted, and on 21 November the inspectors returned to Iraq, temporarily defusing the crisis. The United States was being played like a fiddle, its huge fleet and aerial assets led in circles in the sham blockade that we now know was set up by 'friends' on the Security Council who were running a covert rearmament effort called the Oil-for-Food Programme. History may show that Oil-For-Food; the corrupt regime of UN inspections, the AQ Khan nuclear proliferation industry -- and much else -- were all of a piece. Future generations will be astonished, not at how terrible that September day in New York was, but at how lightly the US got off for the folly of the 1990s, escaping not so much through vigilance as sheer good fortune. Say it again, Tom. In the middle east, the French and Russians are on the other side. The goal is to reduce the influence of the US hyperpower and step into any breach they can open up, regardless of the nature of the regime involved or the threat it poses to the west. |
| Posted by:lex |
| #7 Whoa... Moe, Larry,... CHEESE! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-12-02 9:30:37 PM |
| #6 And just in case the destabilizing, anti-American America Clintons and their Commie cabal fail to suborn free America to anti-sovereign Socialism, Communism, and OWG NLT 2020, RUSSIA-CHINA are preparing their armed forces to wage GLOBAL NUCLEAR WAR SCENARIOS ags the USA AND ONLY THE USA, along the same 2020 maxima time frame. If Hillary itends to serve eight years of Left-verified national success and geopol "quiet" as Bill did, then the various International Rogue crises must be over or mostly over by the time she runs for de facto POTUS - if NOT resolved, at best she run for VPOTUS. Pragmatically, any non-Clinton, male GOP-DEM POTUS only has at most FOUR YEARS, and likely less, to serve as POTUS of free America as we know it. AND IF KERRY AND DEAN INTEND TO RUN AND BE POTUS, THEN NON-CLINTON POLS DEFINITELY HAVE LESS THAN FOUR YEARS. DER STALINREICH MARTHA/BETTY CROCKERFRAU COMMIE HILLARY'S POTUS AMBITIONS IS MOVING TOWARD "CRITICAL MASS", AND SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE OR OCCUR - ASAP, NOW - BEFORE ITS TOO LATE FOR HER! SHE MUST BE DEFEATED FOR 2008 AND 2012-2014! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2004-12-02 9:07:32 PM |
| #5 I misread what you said as "clean themselves up", which would probably be equally effective. Unfortunately for them, it would present a conflict between their two diplomatic objectives (namely serving their interests and undercutting ours). |
| Posted by: Dishman 2004-12-02 4:46:13 PM |
| #4 I like Badanov's plan. Hint to the French that the Russian ambassodor to Iraq is involved. Hint to the Russians that the French abmassador is involved. Start a three way cage match as they sort it out. If France wanted to reduce US influence in the middle east the answer is easy. Go in and clean things up themselves. If France removed Saddam in order to save Kuwait we would have applauded them and gotten our pretty butts out of the region. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2004-12-02 3:29:39 PM |
| #3 I've said it forever, once the Soviet Union fell, world communism looked for a new home, it found its home by dividing its power structure to new orbits. Saddam became its financier, france its chief spy master, the un its political mouthpiece. Now as more and more evidence is found, the clarity of this evolution is becoming clearer by the day. |
| Posted by: Ebbeath Gleart2775 2004-12-02 2:39:43 PM |
| #2 We assumed that whatever information we gave [the French] or the Saudis would be in Baghdad the next day. Sooo, why not let slip that a crack assasination team is in Baghdad readying an attack on Saddam and his ruling collective, make some popcorn and watch the action as it unfolds? I believe real spooks call this walking the dog. |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-12-02 1:54:50 PM |
| #1 Interesting comment on Wretchard's site: I was at Joint Task Force Southwest Asia in late 1997 and early 1998. The French were not allowed into our Joint Intelligence Center--they could only stand in the guard trailer and ask for someone to come out and speak with them. We assumed that whatever information we gave [the French] or the Saudis would be in Baghdad the next day. In light of the French officer who got caught committing espionage on behalf of the Serbs against the multinational force in the Balkans at about that time, restricting access to data and facilities was probably a good decision. # posted by Jem : 3:55 PM |
| Posted by: lex 2004-12-02 1:42:52 PM |