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2004-10-18 Europe
US report of Iraq payoffs miffs France
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Posted by Verlaine 2004-10-18 12:49:14 AM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 No place remaining to hide in the Frog pond. :)
Posted by Mark Espinola 2004-10-18 12:55:58 AM||   2004-10-18 12:55:58 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Shrill? Must have been listening to the JFK/SorrosEdwards folk. The French must be confused.
Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom  2004-10-18 1:11:53 AM|| [http://www.slhess.com]  2004-10-18 1:11:53 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| [http://www.rkka.org/title-boris.gif]  2004-10-18 1:19:33 AM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 8:09:43 AM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 8:45:16 AM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 8:53:52 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| [http://radio.weblogs.com/0103811/categories/currentEvents/]  2004-10-18 10:17:53 AM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 11:06:53 AM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 11:10:50 AM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 11:27:01 AM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 11:28:48 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| [http://www.crusaderwarcollege.org]  2004-10-18 11:29:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#13 Â 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||   2004-10-18 11:33:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 11:42:56 AM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 12:02:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 12:09:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 French acceptance of Iraq payoffs angers U.S.
Posted by Mike  2004-10-18 12:30:47 PM||   2004-10-18 12:30:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 1:07:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 1:32:04 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 1:56:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 1:57:11 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 2:01:12 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 2:17:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 2:21:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 2:51:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#26 LOL Ed!
Posted by Shipman 2004-10-18 5:11:13 PM||   2004-10-18 5:11:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#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||   2004-10-18 5:14:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#28 And give Spain a fiver for the movies.
Posted by Shipman 2004-10-18 6:15:26 PM||   2004-10-18 6:15:26 PM|| Front Page Top

#29 Shipman lol!
Posted by 2b 2004-10-18 7:03:17 PM||   2004-10-18 7:03:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#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|| [http://larsonian.blogspot.com]  2004-10-18 7:50:56 PM|| Front Page Top

04:30 Aussie
16:30 .com
16:28 Frank G
16:17 Jennifer
11:55 ed
11:54 Frank G
11:49 Jennifer
16:41 Ulique Clavise4987
07:23 AmericanIdiot
07:09 rovvy
10:46 Jules 187
03:45 2b
02:09 Sock Puppet of Doom
01:03 AzCat
00:51 Kalle (kafir forever)
00:43 AzCat
00:27 Kalle (kafir forever)
00:25 Kalle (kafir forever)
00:13 Kalle (kafir forever)
00:11 mojo
00:03 Kalle (kafir forever)
23:52 Kalle (kafir forever)
23:48 Kalle (kafir forever)
23:45 Kalle (kafir forever)









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