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Europe
Frenchies tell Soddy charities to get bent. Really.
2003-01-16
The French government has said that it firmly backs the decision by its embassy in Riyadh to refuse visas to the representatives of 13 Saudi charities who were to have taken part in an international conference on humanitarian assistance here last week. “The decisions were taken for good reasons, and I don’t intend to debate the question any further with anybody,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau said.
"So shut yer fudge up!"
He said the decision was taken in Paris, not, as previously reported, in Riyadh. According to a communique issued by the Saudi participants who were banned from attending the Paris conference, the measures adopted against charitable organizations such as theirs were “discriminatory”, especially as they “sought to curtail humanitarian activities.”
Depends on whether your definition of "humanitarian activities" includes explosives, of course...
They also “condemned the war mounted against some charity organizations in the name of the so-called war on terror.” Addressing a press conference in Riyadh on Sunday, Saleh Al-Wohaibi, secretary-general of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), described the French move as “unacceptable.” He also noted that the visas were denied by the French Embassy “without any explanation.”
"I mean, they just tossed them back over the counter and laughed. What could that mean?"
Speaking by teleconference from Paris during the packed press conference, Haitham Manna, spokesman of the Paris-based Arab Committee for Human Rights, condemned Paris for “acting under US pressure” in its decision to refuse visas to officials of the Saudi NGOs.
And I, in my turn, as a representative Merkin citizen, applaud the Frenchies for demonstrating that they do, in fact, possess working nads. Feels good to be tougher and more decisive than the Danes and the Norgies and the wooden shoe crowd, doesn't it? Matter of fact, I'm gonna make a note to compliment the Frenchies again next week, assuming Rivasseau hasn't been fired by then.
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#7  see how tough the french are when it comes to half a dozen tourists? Course if it were the Nazis or the Ba'athis they would be clamouring to sell them weapons or their Jewish population.
Posted by: Anonymous   2004-3-21 5:46:19 PM  

#6  One of WAMY's chaplains is a converted Roman Catholic priest, from the U.S.A. Check out the beard: www.islamtomorrow.net
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-01-16 21:00:54  

#5  or maybe the Soddys looked at what happened to the Yemeni cleric in Germany and decided they did not want to get stung...and blamed the French for the cancellation
Posted by: john   2003-01-16 20:09:30  

#4  Man I love that quote.
Posted by: Rw   2003-01-16 19:46:59  

#3  â€œThe decisions were taken for good reasons, and I don’t intend to debate the question any further with anybody,”

My next 5 vacations will be in France, just for that one quote alone.
Posted by: Rw   2003-01-16 19:44:52  

#2  WAMY --- Interesting sounding name, kind of self-explanatory. Maybe that is what tipped off the French Foreign Ministry and caused them to deny the visas. The applicants will have to rethink their names so the acronyms do not mean anything, like Emron or something.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-01-16 13:58:57  

#1  ...condemned Paris for "acting under US pressure"...

He's kidding, right? The French doing what we say?

Otherwise, is it just me, or do significant chunks of Europe (not all, of course) seem to be getting a clue all of sudden? You know, right after the Ricin thing?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips   2003-01-16 13:48:25  

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