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September 8, 2004
The French Connection
We've known for some time that France has tried to subvert our efforts in Iraq. France never liked the original "sanctions regime" of the 1990s, and proposed several times that they be weakened. After our invasion we found recently manufactured French missiles. We know that many French officials were deeply involved in what has become known as the Oil for Food Scandal.
However, the situation may have been far worse than we knew,
First off, Bill Gertz, defense and national security reporter for the Washington Times, has published a new book titled "Treachery". Today the first of three excerpts was published in the Times. Key sections:
New intelligence revealing how long France continued to supply and arm Saddam Hussein's regime infuriated U.S. officials as the nation prepared for military action against Iraq.
...
France's corrupt dealings with Saddam flourished throughout the 1990s, despite the strict arms embargo against Iraq imposed by the United Nations after the Persian Gulf war.
By 2000, France had become Iraq's largest supplier of military and dual-use equipment, according to a senior member of Congress who declined to be identified.
Saddam developed networks for illegal supplies to get around the U.N. arms embargo and achieve a military buildup in the years before U.S. forces launched a second assault on Iraq.
...
Just days before U.S. and coalition forces launched their military campaign against Iraq, more evidence of French treachery emerged.
In mid-March 2003, U.S. intelligence and defense officials confirmed that exporters in France had conspired with China to provide Iraq with chemicals used in making solid fuel for long-range missiles. The sanctions-busting operation occurred in August 2002, the U.S. National Security Agency discovered through electronic intercepts.
...
In May, Army intelligence found a stack of blank French passports in an Iraqi ministry, confirming what U.S. intelligence already had determined: The French had helped Iraqi war criminals escape from coalition forces — and therefore justice.
Then, there were French-made trucks and radios and the deadly grenade launchers, known as RPGs, with French-made night sights. Saddam loyalists used them to kill American soldiers long after the toppling of the dictator's regime.
Read the whole thing.
Second, a story has appeared in several places which says that France is the source of the forged documents used as one source by the US and UK to say that Iraq was buying uranium from Niger.
Now, as it turns out Iraq was most likely trying to buy uranium from Niger, and ambassador Joe Wilson was exposed as having, er, "botched" his mission to Niger. British Intelligence to this day stands by their claim, saying that they have have another source which confirmed the transaction. But for a time Bush caught a lot of flack from the Democrats who tried to claim that he had lied during his January 2003 State of the Union speech when he mentioned that British Intelligence had reported the transaction. Unfortunately this bogus claim is still repeated by those on the left who refuse to listen to the facts. Read this article at the Belgravia Dispatch for the best summation I can find.
Anyway, the story (courtesy of Jane at Armies of Liberation) as reported in the British Telegraph is that Italian Intelligence says that it was the French who forged the documents, and that they did so specifically to try and embarrass the US and UK. If true, then they did succeed in that it created quite a row.
The Telegraph reports that Italian diplomats told the paper that France did this specifically because "Their aim was to make the allies look ridiculous in order to undermine their case for war."
Why would they need to undermine the case for war?
According to an account given to The Sunday Telegraph, France was driven by "a cold desire to protect their privileged, dominant trading relationship with Saddam, which in the case of war would have been at risk."
Again, read the whole thing.
Posted by Tom at September 8, 2004 9:34 PM
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