Posted on 05/14/2005 8:54:07 AM PDT by phoenix_004
A senior French politician said on Friday he had been implicated in an oil-for-food scam in Iraq in an effort to discredit President Jacques Chirac, a fierce opponent of the US-led war in Iraq.
A US Senate report on Thursday said Senator Charles Pasqua - once a close Chirac associate and former interior minister in a conservative government - had received an allocation of 11 million barrels of oil with the personal approval of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The oil-for-food programme was dogged by allegations of massive fraud and charges Saddam used it to buy influence in the West.
Pasqua, who has immunity from prosecution as a member of the French Senate, again denied any link to Saddam’s Iraq and said he had urged the president of the French Senate to launch a separate probe into the allegations made against him, other French nationals and leading French companies.
Pasqua said: “Perhaps also, those who think that, through me, they can strike Jacques Chirac, are unaware that the nature of our relations has changed, at least politically.
“And if they think I could have influenced France’s policy, they are wrong,” “I’m capable of defending myself, that’s not the issue. (What is at issue is) the campaign that’s underway that is targeting a certain number of big French firms and French interests,” he said.
“In the United States, there is a real psychosis. This psychosis consists of them saying, ‘if France was hostile to the American intervention (in Iraq), it’s due to its economic interests or preferential relations it had with Saddam Hussein’.”
The French Foreign Ministry on Thursday criticised the US Senate for naming Pasqua, saying those accused had not been given a chance to defend themselves against the allegations. reuters
(Excerpt) Read more at swissinfo.org ...
"an effort to discredit President Jacques Chirac,":
An oxymoron regarding an ox-brained moron.
Why did I read this headline as "Weightlifter striving to lift mosquito"?
You've been watching too many replays of Bill Clinton's speeches ;)
That would have been really sad if I actually had done that from memory! LOL!
‘US striving to discredit Chirac’
What a coincidence. So is Chirac.
Hahahaha, but it did sound like something that Bubba would say :)
here's a good place to start your research
not here to convince a bunch of French back stabbers of anything...
I could care less about you and your friggin' country!
My father put his life on the line with millions of other Americans to liberate you ingrates in WWI and then we went back in there again in WWII and did it again and when the time came for Chirac and the rest of you ingrates to back us in Iraq, you turned tail...
you have the links READ THEM!
but don't think you're going to waste any more of my time with your inane comments!
Saddam's Global Payroll
It's time to take a serious look at the U.N.'s oil-for-food program.
BY THERSE RAPHAEL
The Wall Street Journal
Monday, February 9, 2004
On Dec. 5, during a trip to Baghdad, Claude Hankes-Drielsma faxed an urgent letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Mr. Drielsma, the U.K. Chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, had recently been appointed to advise the Iraqi Governing Council. What he saw in Baghdad left him shocked. "As a result of my findings here, combined with earlier information," he wrote, "I most strongly urge the U.N. to consider appointing an independent commission to review and investigate the 'Oil for Food Programme.' Failure to do so might bring into question the U.N.'s credibility and the public's perception of it. . . . My belief is that serious transgressions have taken place and may still be taking place."
Just how serious these transgressions were became clear late last month, when the Iraqi daily Al Mada published a partial list of names, compiled by Iraq's oil ministry, of those whom Saddam Hussein rewarded with allocations of Iraqi oil. Mr. Hankes-Drielsma, who says he was among the first to see the list in early December, says it is based on numerous contracts and other detailed documents and was compiled at the request of the Iraqi Governing Council.
The list, a copy of which has been seen by the Journal's editorial page, is in spreadsheet format and details (in Arabic) individuals, companies and organizations, grouped by country, who oil ministry and Governing Council officials believe received vouchers from the Iraqi regime for the purchase of oil under the oil-for-food program. Mr. Hankes-Drielsma said the recipients would have been given allocations at below-market prices and then been able to pocket the difference when a middleman sold the oil on to a refinery; 13 time periods are designated and with indications of how much crude, in millions of barrels, each recipient allegedly received.
The list reads like an official registry of Friends of Saddam across some 50 countries. It's clear where his best, best friends were. There are 11 entries under France (totaling 150.8 million barrels of crude),
The Oil-for-Food Scandal
The program was corrupt. The U.N. owes the Iraqis--and Congress--an explanation.
BY THERESE RAPHAEL
Thursday, March 11, 2004
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004801
Now I'm done...do your own homework from here out!
But the next time you clowns get in trouble over there, fight your own damn wars!
I have yet to see a link to Usama Ben Laden. You know, the guy you CLAIMED was giving money to France and was getting weapons from France.
As for your dad, he has my personal gratitude as have his comrade in arms, in whatever uniforms, that fought and often died to liberate a continent besieged by darkness. As you may know, 200,000 French soldiers and 115,000 French civilians were killed fighting for the same cause, and facing the same foes.
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