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Europe
Lassie Clemenceau come home!
2006-02-17

French President Jacques Chirac yesterday ordered the asbestos-lined garbage barge warship Clemenceau back home from the Indian Ocean, ending a months-long debacle that has embarrassed the government. The outcome marks a major victory for environmentalists, who argued that sending the ship to India for breaking posed a serious environmental and health hazard.

Mr. Chirac announced the move minutes after France's highest court, the State Council, ordered the ship's transfer stopped in response to legal action by Greenpeace and three anti-asbestos groups. The warship debacle threatened to overshadow Mr. Chirac's state visit to India that begins Sunday. Most seagoing ships end their service at shipyards in India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan, where activists say they are cut up by unprotected workers, taking a grim toll on human health and the environment. The company that was set to dismantle the Clemenceau in Gujarat state in western India said the French decision was a "big blow" and could cost thousands of jobs for the Indian ship-breaking industry.

Paris also had been under mounting pressure at home to bring back the warship, with the Socialist opposition denouncing the affair as a "fiasco" and part of the press accusing the government of incompetence. The former pride of the French navy and still the most effective carrier was blocked for 10 days from crossing the Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean and the Red seas, when Egyptian officials expressed pollution fears. The hull, which was being towed under French navy escort, then was ordered to stay out of Indian territorial waters until the Indian Supreme Court decided whether to allow it into the country. That court has not ruled in the case.
Posted by:Jackal

#8  look for an unfortunate incident during the tow that cause it to sink....
better yet, paint one of the offensive MO-toons on it and let the seethers take shots at the MO-toon; enough and the MO-toon goes away.
Posted by: USN, ret.   2006-02-17 17:10  

#7  Go to your room, DB.
Posted by: Pappy   2006-02-17 11:31  

#6  They did asbestoes they could. Couldn't remove all of it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2006-02-17 10:40  

#5  Sinking the Oriskany right off Pensacola. Hurricanes held it up for awhile.
Posted by: 6   2006-02-17 08:24  

#4  "asbestos-lined"? OK scuttle it in the deepest place they can tow it to.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom   2006-02-17 01:26  

#3  I read yesterday that the Oriskany had been cleaned up enough to be allowed to be scuttled off Fla to build a dive-sight/reef...

tell me again about the hyper-efficient europeans
Posted by: Frank G   2006-02-17 00:28  

#2  Given the size of the carrier, it almost sounds like they're saying it was built out of asbestos...
Posted by: Phil   2006-02-17 00:25  

#1  Thats a funny-looking BISMARCK, NELSON, IOWA-CLASS, or RICHELIEU, etc. iff there ever was one.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2006-02-17 00:16  

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