Article

2003-02-25 India-Pakistan

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Seafarious 2003-02-25 08:21 pm|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 It may appear out of topic but readers would remember that Pakistan in 1973 was offered a plutonium-reprocessing technology by France but the controversial deal was finally scrapped under US pressure in 1979. The French as scavengers ended up selling Citroens and Airbuses.

For the Agosta submarines, French heavily bribed the former Prime Minister Benazirâs husband. It is one of the allegations the government of present potentate president is investigating against.

Similar 70-megawatt reactors (two of them) along with six charges of 26 points of uranium enriched to 93 percent -- in other words, enough weapons-grade uranium to produce three to four nuclear French devices were also sold to Baghdad. In fact, the latter country also purchased another one-megawatt research reactor, and France agreed to train 600 Iraqi nuclear technicians and scientists -- the core of Iraq's nuclear capability today.

The same Mr.Jacque Chirac then, the French Premier travelled to Iraq, in late 1974, and conducted deals on a broad range of issues, the most important of these were Iraq's purchase of nuclear reactors.

Later in 1975, Hussein travelled to Paris, where Chirac personally gave him a tour of a French nuclear plant. During that visit, Chirac said, "Iraq is in the process of beginning a coherent nuclear program and France wants to associate herself with that effort in the field of reactorsâ.

In June of 1981, Israeli warplanes struck the Osirak nuclear facility near Baghdad. This "unprovoked" action by Israel was a pre-emptive strike to deny Iraq the capability of producing nuclear weapons; weapons Israeli intelligence believed were in the works. Iraqi defences were taken by surprise and opened fire too late. The whole operation lasted one minute and twenty seconds, the reactor lay in ruins.

Israeli intelligence had followed the Iraqi military buildup in the late 1970s. Saddam Hussein had assembled an army of 190,000 men organized into 12 divisions, augmented by 2,200 tanks and 450 aircraft. Both the Isreali Labor government of 1974-77 and the Likud government of 1977-81 closely watched with apprehension what to do with the reactors. This was the same site at Osirak constructed with considerable French help.

The point to prove is that France has been a source of lot of troubles that the US has to go and clean up and why the French continues to obsessively harp on, âmore time to inspectorsâ and âpeaceful methodsâ. There is method in their madness.The concept of egalite,liberty, fraternity can be interpreted in more than one way.

Posted by ISHMAIL 2003-02-25 18:30:37|| 2003-02-25 18:30:37|| Front Page Top

11:00 raptor
10:44 raptor
09:36 raptor
08:48 raptor
07:56 Hiryu
05:11 Mike
04:34 bernardz
03:47 Peter
02:58 True German Ally
01:59 RW
01:42 Joe Katzman
01:24 True German Ally
01:07 RW
00:37 Anonymous
00:35 Anonymous
00:33 Anonymous
00:31 Bomb-a-rama
00:17 True German Ally
00:16 Bomb-a-rama
23:46 RW
23:22 RW
22:48 anon
22:47 True German Ally
22:37 True German Ally