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Chirac's War for Oil
FrontPageMag ^ | 4/16/04 | Kenneth Timmerman

Posted on 04/16/2004 4:59:13 AM PDT by pookie18

Frontpage Interview has the pleasure to have Kenneth Timmerman, author of the new book The French Betrayal of America, as its guest today.

A senior writer at Insight Magazine, Mr. Timmerman has spent twenty years reporting on Europe and the Middle East. He is also the author of Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America . Visit his website at www.KenTimmerman.com.

FP: Mr. Timmerman welcome back to Frontpage Interview, it is a pleasure to have you with us again.

Timmerman: Thanks, Jamie. Frontpage is one of the rare bright spots in today's media, which is dominated by the centers of spin.

FP: President Bush's critics say Iraq was a war for oil. You seem to agree, but in your new book, you claim that war was being waged by French president Chirac. Could you explain this to our readers?

Timmerman: If you read the French press, or the glowing accounts of Chirac's opposition to the U.S. effort to build an international coalition to oust Saddam Hussein that appeared here in America, you might actually believe that the French were standing on principle.

I reveal that Chirac was defending something quite different when he sent his erstwhile foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, around the world to buy votes against America at the United nations. Chirac was determined to maintain Saddam Hussein in power so that two extraordinarily lucrative oil contracts, negotiated by the French, could go into effect. Very little has been written about this until now.

The deals were negotiated separately by CFP Total and by Elf Aquitaine during the mid to late 1990s. At the time, both companies were state-controlled. They have since been privatized and combined into the world's second largest oil giant, TotalFinalElf.

Through my sources, I obtained a copy of one of these contracts. It spans 154 pages, and grants the French exclusive right to exploit one of Iraq's largest oil fields at Nahr al-Umar for a period of twenty years. Under the deal, the French were given 75% of the revenue from every barril of oil they extracted - 75%! That is absolutely stunning. Not even during the pre-OPEC days were foreign oil operators granted such extravagant terms.

I discussed the contract with an independent oil analyst, Gerald Hillman, who estimated that during the first seven years alone, it would earn the French around $50 billion. Elf-Aquitaine negotiated a virtually identical deal with Saddam to expand the gigantic Majnoon oil field as well. Put together, those two deals were worth $100 billion to the French. That's 100 billion good reasons for Mr. Chirac to keep Saddam in power.

FP: The contracts were dependent on Saddam?

Timmerman: That's correct, although I am sure the French are trying to put pressure on the Iraqi Governing Council to honor these scandalously corrupt deals.

Because of the United Nations sanctions, the French were allowed to do some initial scoping out work on the oil fields, but they couldn't begin actual production until the sanctions were lifted. So this was a clear quid pro quo. As Hillman told me, what the French were saying in this contract was very simple: "We will help you get the sanctions lifted, and when we do that, you give us this." And that is precisely what the French were trying to do at the UN. I've called these $100 billion deals from Saddam to Chirac the largest bribe ever paid in history. It was Chirac's War for Oil.

FP: Were there personal payoffs to President Chirac? Your book portrays him as shockingly corrupt, but what's the proof?

Timmerman: Most American newspapers hardly ever write about France, so Americans have no idea that Mr. Chirac was on the verge of being indicted by an investigative magistrate in 1999 on corruption charges. Never before in French history had a sitting president been under such assault from the legal system, which traditionally has been under the boot of the ruling party.

That particular case involved Mr. Chirac's alleged misuse of public funds during his 18 years as Mayor of Paris, where he established an extensive system of political patronage grafted to a national political party. Among the schemes that came to light, which I detail in my book, were kickbacks Chirac's party demanded from contractors on virtually every public works contract - right down to maintenance contracts in the public schools!

Chirac's party wasn't alone in this; indeed, virtually everyone from the Communists to the Far Right benefited from similar schemes. But clearly, Mr. Chirac was deeply involved on a very personal level in organizing the clandestine financing of his political party.

There's one great scene I describe in my book, which came to light during these court cases, where a visitor allegedly brings Chirac and his chief of staff a suitcase full of cash. Chirac is in his office in the palatial Paris town hall, and opens a door to reveal a safe built into the wall. It just so happens that the safe is located in the private toilet in his office. So Chirac flushes the toilet to cover the noise as he dials the combination to the safe, just in case some political opponent has planted a listening device inside his office.

There's another scene I describe in the scene, where a well-known arms dealer arrives in Geneva from Baghdad, carrying the torn half of a $1 bill. Under instructions from Saddam Hussein, he meets with an Iraqi government employee, then goes down to the UBS bank, where they withdraw several million dollars in cash. Later, at a pre-arranged meeting place, an emissary for a prominent French politician arrives. "You'd never ask their name, they 'd never ask you your name," the arms dealer told me. "You have half of the dollar, and he has half of the dollar. You match the serial numbers and make the exchange. That was how it worked."

There have long been rumors that Chirac financed his RPR party with cash from Saddam Hussein, but no one has ever come forward with material evidence to substantiate the claim. If my arms dealer source is accurate - and I believe he is - we now know why. Cash payments are by nature untraceable.

FP: Can the United States ever trust the French again -- after all they did last year to muster an anti-American coalition vs. Saddam?

Timmerman: Mr. Chirac has shown through his behavior that France is no longer the ally that it once was. I am heartened by the change of foreign minister. Dominique de Villepin, whose theatrical silliness and weird obsession with Napolean I profile in the book, has gone on to greener pastures; as Interior Minister, he now runs the French counter-espionage service and their secret police. The new foreign minister, Michel Barnier, is much more low key, and will focus on Europe more than America.

He has stated that he will try to repair relations with the United States. But from all the U.S. diplomats and senior Bush administration people I've spoken with recently about this, I think the key phrase is "Trust, but verify." The French have a lot of work to do to demonstrate that they won't stab us in the back as they did last year at the United Nations.

This said, we don't really need the French for much, unless the President decides he must return to the United Nations. Going to war without France is like going deer-hunting without an accordeon.

FP: What is it about the French do you think that makes them so predisposed to admiring anti-American dictators and mass-murderers like Saddam Hussein?

Timmerman: I think the problem, to paraphrase Condi Rice's recent testimony, is structural. The French Socialist economy has spawned vast state-owned enterprises that are unable to compete in a free, fair market. To maintain the socialist welfare state, with its ten to twelve percent unemployment rates, the French desperately need to cut backdoor deals with dictators and authoritarian states. Hence, their current fondness for the mullahs in Tehran, and the Chinese communists.

Iraq was a special case. I was invited in the late 1980s to visit the Iraqi Army staff college, and was surprised when I saw a plaque donated to the college by visiting French general Pierre-Marie Gallois, the "father" of the French strategic nuclear force. Many in the French Gaullist elite saw in Saddam Hussein an Iraqi De Gaulle, a fellow spirit: someone willing to stand up to superpowers, and take his country on a "third way." That third way, of course, led directly through Paris, in opposition to Washington.

One of our biggest problems as we go forward with France will be the safeguard of our nuclear weapons secrets. I tell the story in my book of our extensive nuclear weapons cooperation with France, and end with a question: should U.S. taxpayers continue to subsidize the French nuclear weapons establishment?

My answer is a clear, resounding: No.

FP: Mr. Timmerman, it was, once a again, a pleasure to speak with you.

Timmerman: And a pleasure to speak with you as well Jamie.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: cfptotal; elfaquitaine; france; oilforfood; totalfinalelf
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1 posted on 04/16/2004 4:59:13 AM PDT by pookie18
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To: pookie18
... TotalFinalElf.

Didn't Canada's then-PM Jean Chretin's son-in-law work for TotalFinalElf?

2 posted on 04/16/2004 5:37:29 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: GailA; marron; Grampa Dave
Bump.
3 posted on 04/16/2004 9:20:39 AM PDT by Shermy
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To: Shermy; Miss Marple; Ernest_at_the_Beach; BOBTHENAILER; PhilDragoo; backhoe
"The deals were negotiated separately by CFP Total and by Elf Aquitaine during the mid to late 1990s. At the time, both companies were state-controlled. They have since been privatized and combined into the world's second largest oil giant, TotalFinalElf."

Through my sources, I obtained a copy of one of these contracts. It spans 154 pages, and grants the French exclusive right to exploit one of Iraq's largest oil fields at Nahr al-Umar for a period of twenty years. Under the deal, the French were given 75% of the revenue from every barril of oil they extracted - 75%! That is absolutely stunning. Not even during the pre-OPEC days were foreign oil operators granted such extravagant terms.

I discussed the contract with an independent oil analyst, Gerald Hillman, who estimated that during the first seven years alone, it would earn the French around $50 billion. Elf-Aquitaine negotiated a virtually identical deal with Saddam to expand the gigantic Majnoon oil field as well. Put together, those two deals were worth $100 billion to the French. That's 100 billion good reasons for Mr. Chirac to keep Saddam in power.

FP: The contracts were dependent on Saddam?

Timmerman: That's correct, although I am sure the French are trying to put pressure on the Iraqi Governing Council to honor these scandalously corrupt deals. ==========================================================

The French probably paid for the No War for Oil signs and bumperstickers.

4 posted on 04/16/2004 9:30:39 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 John F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: Liz; SierraWasp; Southack
The French Socialist economy has spawned vast state-owned enterprises that are unable to compete in a free, fair market. To maintain the socialist welfare state, with its ten to twelve percent unemployment rates, the French desperately need to cut backdoor deals with dictators and authoritarian states. Hence, their current fondness for the mullahs in Tehran, and the Chinese communists.

We can throw Germany into this same vile cesspool. One wonders what backdoor deals the Russians and Putie had with their buddy the $oddomite?

5 posted on 04/16/2004 9:34:10 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 John F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: pookie18; Shermy
Boycott the French list

It is time to break out the Boycott France List again!

Boycott their products, services, companies and don't go on vacation to their $hitty country.


French Products to Buycott.

Make it a lifestyle to avoid French products or products made by what appear to be a non French company in America. The reality is that many of these companies like Wild Turkey are owned by the French.

Let them fear the American Street---our combined wallets.

"France has burned too many bridges!"

Lets keep burning those bridges that the slimey and worthless frogs keep trying to build post Iraq.

$crew the $limey Frogs with a Boycott and no vacations in Slimey Frog Land!


French Products to Buycott

We can resist their wines which usually come in behind the good Napa Valley Wines and Australian wines in blind tasting without French Judges like in the Winter Olympics.

We can do without French Products and services for the rest of this decade. Here is a list of French companies and their products to avoid for the rest of this decade. Please keep this list and send it to your relatives, friends and fellow conservatives via e and snail mail!

*New additions to the list.

Air France

Air Liquide

Airbus

Alcatel - Based in Paris France, Provider of communications equipment, including ADSL equipment, terrestrial and submarine optical networks, public switching, fixed wireless access and intelligent networks.


Allegra (Allergy Medication) - Produced by Aventis Pharmaceuticals based in Strasbourg, France

Aqualung (Including: Spirotechnique, Technisub, US Divers, and SeaQuest)

AXA Advisors

*Bacou-Dalloz-Makes Industrial protective devices

Bank of the West - Owned by BNP Paribas

Beneteau (boats)

BF Goodrich - Owned by Michelin

BIC (Razors, Pens & Lighters) - Started in 1945 by Marcel Bich. Originally based just outside of Paris. Began trading on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1972. 40.5% Publicly traded. Bich family still owns 33.5%.

Biotherm (Cosmetics)

Black Bush

Bollinger (Champagne)

*Browning Firearms**

Car & Driver Magazine

Cartier

Chanel

Chivas Regal (Scotch)

Christian Dior

Club Med (Vacations) - Owned in part by Paris based CDC (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations)

Culligan (owned by Vivendi)

Dannon (Yogurt & Dairy Foods)

*Danone -Lea and Perrin, Evian and other food/water

*Decatholon Super Sport Stores or MVP Sport Stores*

* Dassault Systemes-(CATIA design software)*

DKNY - LVMH acquired 100% of Gabrielle Studio Inc., the privately owned licenser of Donna Karan trademarks back in 2001.

*DMC THREADS

Dom Perignon

Durand Crystal

Elle Magazine

*Emile Henry French Cookware

*Enertec makes high speed recorders used in Recon aircraft p>Essilor Optical Products

*Essilon- Varilux Progressive Lenses for eye glasses

Evian

Fina Oil - Billions invested in Iraqi Oil fields -FINA GAS STATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES ARE NOT FRENCH-OWNED AND ARE NOT PART OF TOTAL-ELF-FINA ... FINA GAS STATIONS ARE OWNED BY ALON ISRAEL OIL COMPANY ..

First Hawaiian Bank

George Magazine

Givenchy

*Grey Goose Vodka

*GroupeSEB owns Krups, Moulinex, Roweta and Tefal Cookware

*Groupe Shneider, owner of Modicon and Square D

*Guerlain Fragrances

*Hachette Filipacchi owner publisher of many magazines sold in the USA. See the list below:***

Hennessy

Houghton Mifflin (books) International Herald Tribune - 181 ave Charles-de-Gaulle - F-92521 Neuilly - FRSource:World Business Council for Sustainable Development '00 [Domain Registration], [Corporate Profile]

Jacobs Creek - Owned by Pernod Ricard since 1989

Jameson (whiskey Owned by Pernod Ricard )

Jerry Springer (talk show)

Krups

****Lagardere****

Lancome

*Lea & Perrins a product of Danon

Le Creuset (Cookware)

L'Oreal (Health & Beauty Products)

Louis Vuitton

Marie Claire

Martel Cognac

Maybelline

Méphisto (Footwear & Apparel)

Michelin (Tires & Auto Parts) - Their phone number is: (33) 1 45 66 15 53 in France

Mikasa Crystal and Glass (purchased by ARC int'l in 2001)

Moet (Champagne)

Motel 6 - 33, Avenue du Maine- 75755 Paris Cedex 15 France

Motown Records

MP3.com

Mumms (Champagne)

Nissan (Cars) - Majority owned by Renault

Nivea

Normany Butter

Parents Magazine

*Perrier

Peugeot (Automobiles) - Pronounced "Pooh Joe", must be French

Pierre Cardin

Playstation Magazine

ProScan - Owned by Thomson Electronics, France

Publicis Group (Including: Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising)

RCA (televisions & electronics) - Owned by Thomson Electronics, France

Red Magazine

Red Roof Inns - Owned by the Accor group based in France

Renault (Automobiles) major owner of Nissan

Road & Track Magazine

Roquefort Cheese - All Roquefort cheese is made in France

Rowenta (Toasters, Irons, Coffee makers, etc)

Royal Canadian

Salomon (Skis)

Seagram's Gin

Sierra Software and Computer Games

*Sodexho Alliance* French Food Caterer for the US Marines

Sofitel (Hotels) - Owned by the Accor group based in France

Sparkletts (Water) - Owned by Danone, based in France

Spencer Gifts

Sundance Channel

Taylor Made (Golf)

Technicolor

T-Fal (Kitchenware)

The Glenlivet (Scotch) *Top Tobacco - Dist. by Republic Tobacco L.P., Glenview IL, made in France

UbiSoft (Computer Games)

Uniroyal

Uniroyal Tires - Owned by Michelin

Universal Studios (Music, Movies & Theme Parks) -

Universal Studios is owned by Vivendi-Universal, headquartered in Paris France

USFilter

Veritas Group

Veuve Clicquot Champagne

Vittel

Vivendi - Vivendi Headquarters, Paris France

Wild Turkey (bourbon)

*Winchester Firearms (US Repeating Arms)**

Woman's Day Magazine

Yoplait - France-based Sodiaal owns a 50% stake of Yoplait

Yves Saint Laurent

*Yves Rocher Cosmetics

*ZigZag (tobacco papers and roller products)*

Zodiac Inflatable Boats

*New additions to the list thanks to Freepers. If you have an addition, Freepmail me with the URL showing French ownership.

** Sad news but these two companies are owned by the Belgian Company Herstal, (French Light)

***List of 18 magazines sold in USA by Hachette Filipacchi with an estimated 50 million readers: American Photo, Boating, Car Stereo Review's Mobile Entertainment, Cycle World, ELLE Decor, ELLEgirl, Flying, Home, Metropolitan Home, Popular Photography, Premiere, Sound & Vision, Travel Holiday, Woman's Day Woman's Day Special Interest Publications.

****Lagardere owns the Virgin Megastore group in France, which it bought from Richard Branson three years ago. Its Hachette media division publishes a battery of magazines including Elle , see *** Hachette Filipacchi above. Lagardere also has a stake in the Airbus manufacturing operation. The company is capitalised at over €5bn.

6 posted on 04/16/2004 10:40:16 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 John F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: Grampa Dave; Liz; Dog Gone; snopercod; BOBTHENAILER
"The French probably paid for the No War for Oil signs and bumperstickers."

Maybe, but I've come to believe our own home groan "Puker's for Peace," demonstrate and agitate ONLY because they don't want tax dollars spent on war, justified or not, because it robs them of government socialista programs they adore!!!

7 posted on 04/16/2004 10:42:38 AM PDT by SierraWasp (John Fallujah Kerry! Now we REALLY know what HE meant, by "Bring... It... On!!!" He sure DID!!!)
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To: SierraWasp
Our home grown pukers don't spend money on banners. They want everything life to be free. Those banners were printed by money from Move.on and other Soros funded groups.

I'm sure that when this all over, we will find massive French Company money involved in our politics for decades.
8 posted on 04/16/2004 10:53:29 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 John F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: pookie18
I can't believe that another good article is getting NO attention. 75% of revenues is astronomical. You have to wonder if Russia was given a similar contract.
9 posted on 04/16/2004 12:36:20 PM PDT by Eva
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To: Grampa Dave
bump
10 posted on 04/16/2004 12:36:40 PM PDT by Eva
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To: SierraWasp
Nah, our home grown protesters are all connected and financed by foreign socialists and communists who want to see America castrated.
11 posted on 04/16/2004 12:38:22 PM PDT by Eva
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To: Eva
You and I are in total agreement here:

Nah, our home grown protesters are all connected and financed by foreign socialists and communists who want to see America castrated!

12 posted on 04/16/2004 12:40:48 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 John F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: Grampa Dave
Did you see this other Frontpage article, The Hideous Career of Richard Ben Veniste
13 posted on 04/16/2004 12:49:56 PM PDT by Eva
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To: Eva
Thanks!

What a slime ball.

He has been protecting the Clintoon Criminals for about a decade. He used this latest show to further his protection of the CCs and to try electronically lynch GW.
14 posted on 04/16/2004 12:52:55 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 John F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: Grampa Dave
It strikes me that it is possible that Jaimie Gorelick and Ben Veniste may have worked together before to protect the Clintons. It has been said that Clinton even considered Gorelick to head the CIA, but I guess he thought that she was more valuable where she was.
15 posted on 04/16/2004 12:56:00 PM PDT by Eva
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To: Eva
There is no doubt that these two have had long private discussion in how to build that wall and to protect the Clintoons during the Clintoon administration and now.
16 posted on 04/16/2004 12:57:47 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 John F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: knighthawk
the tip of the iceberg is shown
17 posted on 04/16/2004 12:58:59 PM PDT by KC Burke (Men of intemperate minds can never be free....)
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To: MizSterious; rebdov; Nix 2; green lantern; BeOSUser; Brad's Gramma; dreadme; Turk2; keri; ...
Europe-list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.

18 posted on 04/16/2004 1:09:22 PM PDT by knighthawk (Some people say that we'll get nowhere at all, let 'em tear down the world but we ain't gonna fall)
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To: Calvin Locke
Yes, Ol petite Jean is having a good retirement now that he is no longer running Canada...He pretty much used his political position to get in good with Chirac & the CHICOMS, he must have a really nice portfolio now...
19 posted on 04/16/2004 1:12:28 PM PDT by MD_Willington_1976
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To: Grampa Dave; MeekOneGOP; BOBTHENAILER; SAMWolf; onyx; potlatch; ntnychik; devolve; Happy2BMe
Chirac blocked the Iraq war to keep his oil profits?

I'm shocked, shocked.

20 posted on 04/16/2004 3:01:07 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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