France helped Iraqis escape

The Washington Times ^ | 5/6/2003 | Jagrmeister

[ellery]

jackal bump.

[Smile-n-Win]

Battle Plan: Close their embassy, sink their one carrier, embargo all their military sales, bomb the Mirage plant, apply a NO-FLY zone over France for all military flights. Then, we'll sit down and talk about their future. Am I too extreme?????

Sounds like a good plan to me.

[may18]

you dont need to sink their carrier, its propelleor drops off on its own, and it only operates 5 months per year ;p

actually, if this is true its going to cause huge waves

[headsonpikes]

Vous americains are so simpliste!

France must do what France must do to preserve her dignity and gloire!

Cowboys!!!

[holdmuhbeer]

It happened you can count on it.

[JudgemAll]

"France formally denies this type of allegation, which is not only contrary to reality but is intended to discredit our nation," she said. "It is certainly time for rumors of this type — totally unfounded and a dishonor to those who spread them — to stop."

Obviously the French are still into the mode of denial, conspiracy accusations, deactivation of investigations and the usage of imperious respect demanding terms. They are not into paying their debts to the system nor are they willing to seek any type of mediation or investigation in finding out who got the Iraqis out.

Obviously their behavior only helps increase suspicion.

[pointsal]

gee whiz...is this a surprise.

[AFPhys]

Powell said he doesn't know about the truth of this story yet, but that he will check it out. I, too, hope that it isn't true (for a change I'll give the french the benefit of the doubt), but if it is true, it better make a tsunami, not merely a few waves.

[AFPhys]

A second Bush administration official
said, "It's like Raoul Wallenberg in
reverse," a reference to the Swedish
diplomat who supplied travel documents
to help Jews escape Nazi Germany in
World War II. "Now you have the French
helping the bad guys escape from us."
Asked about the passports, Nathalie
Loiseau, a spokeswoman for the French
Embassy, said French authorities have
not issued any visas to officials of the
former Iraqi regime since the beginning
of the war in Iraq, either in Syria or
elsewhere.
"France formally denies this type of
allegation, which is not only contrary to
reality but is intended to discredit our
nation," she said. "It is certainly time for
rumors of this type — totally unfounded
and a dishonor to those who spread them
— to stop."
The French passports allow the
wanted Iraqis to move freely among 12
EU countries that are part of the
Schengen agreement on unrestricted
travel. Britain, Denmark and Ireland are
not part of the Schengen pact.
The intelligence on the French
passports came after reports indicated
that a French company covertly sold
military spare parts to Iraq in the weeks
before the war.
Other intelligence reports indicated
that a French oil company was working
with a Russian oil firm to conclude a deal
with Saddam's government in the days
before military action began March 19.
The French government also denied
U.S. intelligence indicating that a
Chinese chemical company used French
and Syrian brokers to circumvent U.N.
sanctions in providing Iraq with
chemicals used in making missile fuel.
Regarding the French passports for
fleeing Iraqis, Pentagon officials have
expressed frustration that few of the
most senior leaders identified on the list
of top 55 officials of the Saddam regime
have been captured.
The capture yesterday of an Iraqi
biological weapons scientist, Huda Salih
Mahdi Ammash, brings to 19 the number
of senior Iraqi leaders who have been
caught. One has been reported killed.
Only one of the captives is ranked in
the top 10.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said
Sunday that he did not know how many
Iraqi officials had been given haven in
Syria.
"Some have been made available to
us," Mr. Powell said on CBS' "Face the
Nation."
"Let me put it that way: Who we knew
were there are no longer there," he said.
"They've been made available to us, and
they will be before the bar of justice of
the Iraqi people."
Mr. Powell said other wanted Iraqis
have been identified to the Syrian
government "to see whether they can be
located."
"But my sense from President Bashar
al-Assad is that he has no interest in
serving as a haven for any of these
individuals," Mr. Powell said. "So I think
if we can give him information and give
him specific names and anything else we
can say about these people, I think he
would try to respond."
It could not be learned whether Mr.
Powell and the Syrian president
discussed Iraqis who might have
transited through Syria to other nations.
Mr. Powell said Syria has been
"helpful" in the past two years in dealing
with the war on terrorism, primarily
through U.S. and Syrian intelligence
liaison.
The secretary also told Mr. Assad that
"there may be people in Syria that we
don't know about but you know about"
who should be turned over to U.S. forces.
"This is the time for you to locate
these individuals and turn them over to
Iraqi justice and not allow Syria to
become a haven for materials that might
be coming out of Iraq still, or came out of
Iraq or individuals who are trying to seek
haven," he said.
Under pressure from the United
States, Syria in the past several weeks
expelled more than 30 Iraqis, many who
came from Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.
After first granting sanctuary to
former Iraqi intelligence official Farouk
Hijazi, Syria turned him over to U.S.
officials in Iraq.
Congress is considering legislation
that would impose economic sanctions on
Syria for its support of terrorism and to
pressure it to withdraw its forces from
Lebanon and stop building ballistic
missiles.

[MeekOneGOP]

See Zee monkey

French Military Victories

Spot the Difference

Separated at birth/one and the same?

[WoofDog123]

"Norway and Iceland are not in the EU at all, so I don't think they are part of Schengen"

Correct in that they aren't part of the EU, but they joined schengen a couple of years ago...

"Norway is part of the Schengen co-operation. Since March 2001, all passport control between Norway, Iceland and the other Schengen countries has been abolished. (However, Norway does not have national ID cards. Hence, it is recommended that Norwegians bring their passports when travelling within the Schengen Area.) "

http://www.brussel-eu.mfa.no/Schengen/Schengen.htm