Another reason that I hate France

[etothepii]

Wash Times Link

Iraqi govt. papers: Saddam bribed Chirac



BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Documents from Saddam Hussein's oil ministry reveal he used oil to bribe top French officials into opposing the imminent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The oil ministry papers, described by the independent Baghdad newspaper al-Mada, are apparently authentic and will become the basis of an official investigation by the new Iraqi Governing Council, the Independent reported Wednesday.

"I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a governing council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted."

Such evidence would undermine the French position before the war when President Jacques Chirac sought to couch his opposition to the invasion on a moral high ground.

A senior Bush administration official said Washington was aware of the reports but refused further comment.

French diplomats have dismissed any suggestion their foreign policy was influenced by payments from Saddam, but some European diplomats have long suspected France's steadfast opposition to the war was less moral than monetary.

"Oil runs thicker than blood," is how one former ambassador put his suspicions about the French motives for opposing action against Saddam.

Al-Mada's list cites a total of 46 individuals, companies and organizations inside and outside Iraq as receiving Saddam's oil bribes, including officials in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Sudan, China, Austria and France, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Communist Party, India's Congress Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

[CalHunter]

Al-Mada's list cites a total of 46 individuals, companies and organizations inside and outside Iraq as receiving Saddam's oil bribes, including officials in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Sudan, China, Austria and France, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Communist Party, India's Congress Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

About the only one missing from this list is Germany. And they had economic reasons to begin with. So much for moral high ground. Can anybody say hypocrites?

[akbound]

Hey CalHunter,

Maybe Germany didn't receive oil bribes........could have just been special interest of Germany's manufacturers of chemical production equipment? Huh? We already know it was a Germam engineer that designed and facilitated the construction of the underground bunker system that Saddam used for protection. (Did him about as much good as the former occupants of the Reichs Chancellery bunker complex.)

Pretty good at designing bunker systems......just not as good at propping up the governments that build them. (Horrible record of said governments on human rights issues as well!)

And yet the United States is to blame for all of the world's problems. The nerve of some people!

Dave

[stork]

I wounder what would happen if everyone were to E-mail that to the French embassy? Can you imagin getting 3 million E-mails in a few days?

[Deleted User]

[Deleted by Admins]

[akbound]

Hip,

We haven't forgotten what some French did during the American Revolution. (Though they had their self serving interests as well). But it does in fact seem that some of their countrymen have forgotten how we have assisted them much more recently.)

Having been one's ally once and rendering assistance......several centuries past.....does not give you the right to desecrate your ally's war dead....because we currently disagree!

I can respect your having a difference of opinion. I can respect your not agreeing upon my current course of action. I can even tolerate your displaying that in protest. But I have no tolerance for some snot nosed POS urinating on our war dead.....that died helping to liberate their country....their liberties.....! That sir....is indefensible....intolerable.....and unforgivable! And for the individuals that did it.....may they rot in H**l!

Dave

[stork]

But notice that the treaty was only concluded AFTER we had a victory. They were just jumping on the band wagon, even way back then.

[kevin1]

Yeah , like we needed another reason ... [:'(]

[CalHunter]

ORIGINAL: stork

But notice that the treaty was only concluded AFTER we had a victory. They were just jumping on the band wagon, even way back then.

Let's be honest here stork. That is the only way the french ever get close to a military victory. They ahve to sneak up on it and jump on somebody else's bandwagon.

Hip, I don't think any of us can completely nor adequately convey to you how infuriating it truly is for some frenchman to urinate on the grave of a dead U.S. soldier who died helping to liberate and defend the french. I know you are not military minded so it would be almost impossible for me or anybody else to explain successfully why this is such an egregious wrong.