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| Iraq-Jordan |
| 7 truckers released, no word on the French |
| 2004-09-02 |
| Islamic militants freed seven truck drivers from India, Kenya and Egypt on Wednesday after holding them hostage in Iraq for six weeks, offering a ray of hope to a dozen other foreigners still in captivity. U.S. warplanes struck at the city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, late on Wednesday in what the American military called a precision attack on safe houses used by associates of al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Iraqi medical sources said at least eight people were killed. It was the fate of hostages that dominated diplomacy. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #8 2004: Le Figaro is boasting about France's privileged contacts with assassins and terrorists 1940: Vichy was boasting of its privileged contacts with Germany What a shame. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-09-02 4:55:09 PM |
| #7 Whenever the Parisians got to me...I'd take the train to Brittany and enjoy spending time with real French peoples. Though they consider themselves Britons, for the most part. Or better yet, to the south and the town of Aubagne, the home of the Foreign Legion. Again, far enough from Paris to be enjoyed, and for Americans...appreciated. |
| Posted by: RN 2004-09-02 2:34:32 PM |
| #6 TGA: What's it like living next door to this kind of thinking? I used to go to Paris a couple of times a month on business. The first 24 hours my overiding impression was always, "these people are f*cked up". But then I'd succumb to the reality distortion field and enjoy myself till the end of the trip. Afterwards, I'd always feel like I had gone through a temporary period of mild insanity. |
| Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2004-09-02 2:10:23 PM |
| #5 Of course the French are superior in every way. I read a book. The French: portrait of a people by De Gramont in the 1970's that gave me a good insight to the vanity of the French state. Writen by a French person it has a unique insight. Having a wife that teaches French and who has traveled in France does not hurt. She also holds them in low regard in many respects mostly politically. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-09-02 7:35:28 AM |
| #4 Whose 'unique' sympathy, precisely? Not JFM's; not anyone I've spoken to. I guess they're referring to the clumsy crocodile tears of Hamas, Hezbollah etc. French realpolitik is so utterly amoral and cynical it's a self-parody. Madness. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-09-02 7:20:26 AM |
| #3 "Aucune n'a suscité autant de sympathie publique que les deux journalistes français." = "None (of the hundreds of previous hostages) has evoked as much sympathy as the two French hostages." Proving what exactly? Absolutely moronic. |
| Posted by: dude 2004-09-02 7:13:19 AM |
| #2 I was just skimming the French press about the hostage issue. And in the Figaro I came across one of the most outrageous comment I can remember reading in a French paper. Here goes: "Sur le terrain de l'opinion, les efforts de la France ont payé. Du côté des dirigeants nationalistes, comme le Palestinien Yasser Arafat, l'Egyptien Amr Moussa ou le Libyen Mouammar Kadhafi, mais aussi du côté des intégristes sunnites ou chiites – le Hamas palestinien, le Hezbollah libanais ou les Frères musulmans égyptiens –, la condamnation de la prise d'otages a été unanime. Le cas est unique. Une centaine de personnes ont été enlevées ces derniers mois en Irak. Aucune n'a suscité autant de sympathie publique que les deux journalistes français." Sorry for the French but I wanted to preserve the original (Figaro links expire the next day). Basically they are saying that the French efforts to influence opinions have worked and they have the sympathy of Arafat, Ghadafi, the sunni and shi'ite islamists, Hamas, Hizbollah and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, who have condemmed the kidnapping of the journalists. AND THEY ARE PROUD OF IT! |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-09-02 2:38:04 AM |
| #1 No need to worry about the French reporters. They are just fine. It's just taking longer than expected for Paris to get all the ransom money together. Since the TotalElfFina scandal it's been tougher to maintain big liquid pools of French politico slush money. |
| Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2004-09-02 1:31:41 AM |