Posted on 07/07/2007 5:32:53 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
IN the latest episode of a saga that split France’s last conservative government and threatens to divide the new one, Michèle Alliot-Marie, the interior minister, is to be questioned over what she knew about a plot to smear Nicolas Sarkozy three years ago in an apparent attempt to prevent him from becoming president.
A retired spymaster, General Philippe Rondot, claimed last week that he had revealed to Alliot-Marie, who was then defence minister, the details of the alleged conspiracy to blacken Sarkozy’s name.
Loyal as she then was to President Jacques Chirac and the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, who both loathed Sarkozy, she allegedly failed to warn him that he was the target of an effort to discredit him.
The claim came at the end of a dramatic week in which a power struggle won long ago by Sarkozy over de Villepin culminated in raids on the former prime minister’s office and home, prompting speculation that he might be charged with a criminal offence in spite of his insistence that he had done nothing wrong.
The story has gripped France with its insights into Machiavel-lian intrigue in high politics. The conspiracy centred on false accusations in 2004 that Sarkozy, among other politicians and businessmen, held secret offshore accounts through the Clearstream International bank, based in Luxembourg. Bank records were forged to suggest they had received large bribes over the sale of French warships to Taiwan.
At the time, Chirac was determined to stop Sarkozy from standing for the presidency. He distrusted the younger man’s naked ambition and resented an affair Sarkozy had conducted with Chirac’s daughter Claude, only to abandon her.
“To think that I’ve seen him in his underpants,” Chirac was reported to have commented after hearing about Sarkozy’s “betrayal”.
In fact there were two betrayals. Not only did Sarkozy dump Claude; he also ditched Chirac, his political mentor, by siding with Edouard Balladur, a rival for the Gaullist nomination in the 1995 presidential election. The Chiracs have never forgiven or forgotten.
Once he knew Sarkozy would be a candidate for president, Chirac threw his support behind de Villepin, 56, an amateur poet and part-time historian who had served as his chief of staff and foreign minister, but who had never been elected to anything.
When the Clearstream claims surfaced, Sarkozy was incensed. He confronted de Villepin, who was then interior minister, and rebuked him for ordering a counter-espionage service investigation, thus suggesting that there might be something in them.
Sarkozy subsequently said he expected justice to unmask “the lowly tactics of would-be plotters. I want to know who put me on those lists, why and how?”
He was careful never to take a public stand against Chirac over the affair, even though he was convinced the president was behind it. “I mustn’t confuse the defence of my honour with my obligations towards my country,” he said.
Sarkozy had dreamt of winning the presidency since boyhood. He was not going to allow de Villepin, a man he considered a political lightweight, to thwart him. Brilliantly, he turned the tables and used the Clearstream scandal to discredit his rival.
Since Sarkozy was elected president nine weeks ago, the pace of the investigation has accelerated markedly. Last week, in a clear sign that it was nearing a conclusion, two judges searched de Villepin’s premises.
The raid was prompted by the discovery of files on the spy chief Rondot’s computer, which he had attempted to wipe clean. In them, Rondot noted that two of the Clearstream plotters had told him they were acting on orders from de Villepin.
The judges now want to establish the extent of de Villepin’s knowledge and whether he kept Rondot’s investigation going long after it was clear the accusations had been fabricated. “The more people hound me, the further we’re getting from the truth,” de Villepin told a newspaper yesterday. “I refuse to become a scapegoat, that would be too easy.”
Careful not to gloat in public, Sarkozy’s office would say only that he “of course” had no comment to make on a matter in the hands of French justice.
This leaves the moot point of whether any charges will reach Chirac, already under investigation for alleged corruption during his time as mayor of Paris. He claims all his actions as president are covered by presidential immunity and that he is under no obligation to answer for them.
Now apparently caught in the crossfire is Alliot-Marie, 61, who was allegedly briefed by Rondot in May 2004 that de Villepin was involved in the Clearstream plot but did not tell Sarkozy.
Last January Alliot-Marie � once said by Chirac to possess “the nicest pair of legs in the party” � ruled herself out of standing in this year’s presidential elections and endorsed Sarkozy, almost certainly in return for a promise of high office.
He may feel he has invited a cuckoo into his nest. Evidence of strained relations between the two has already surfaced. She let it be known she will do all she can to stop Sarkozy interfering in how she runs her ministry.
He has named close supporters to the posts of national and Paris police chiefs. Another ally was appointed to head the counter-espionage service and Sarkozy wants him to merge it with the internal security agency. Alli-ot-Marie told Le Monde that a merger would be “premature to say the least”.
De Villepin, who underwent 17 hours of questioning by the investigating judges last December, a first for a serving prime minister, is beginning to be seen as the sacrificial victim of the affair. The judges are reported to be close to charging him with conspiring to implicate Sarkozy in the scandal.
This autumn he is due to publish a work on Napoleon, whose title, The Dark Sun of Power, was widely considered to be a dig at Sarkozy. Following the recent revelations, the word in Paris is that the title of the book probably applies to its author, too.
Liberals are the same the world over. Forged smear campaign documents from CBS or the French socialist, no difference.
And I remain convinced that the Clintons are the powers behind the throne for most of these lying smear campaigns in the USA.
“Liberals are the same the world over”
This sort of stuff has existed for millenia. Politicians as a class are the same the world over, and have been throughout recorded history. What is different in the modern US is that the media is supporting one side versus the other, and for that reason there are two sets of rules being followed, one for sandy burger, another for Libby.
Lovin’ it!
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