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Like many of you, I have been struggling to understand why the French have behaved as they do regarding the United States. As this is one subject fraught with opinion but very little fact, a bit of digging seemed to be in order. Some of the trail led to Africa, where France has continued its century-long, "sphere of influence" (read as "assumed ownership") of parts of that continent. France has regularly behaved in a such a well-documented, murderous manner that, were it the United States, it would prompt an unheard-of level of universal international condemnation.

BU GHRAIB, Iraq, April 27 — They were killed perhaps three weeks ago, blindfolded, their hands bound behind their backs, then shot by a government that was itself about to die. Even as American troops neared the huge prison here, Iraq continued to execute suspected spies.In the last two days, relatives looking for loved ones have unearthed 14 bodies, not inside a cemetery, but in a pit just outside Block 5, which was reserved for foreigners. Neighbors said they had found 10 more corpses on the prison grounds — like the others, all in civilian clothes and apparently killed...

Intelligence examines cargo flight from Baghdad to Belarus SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COMFriday, April 25, 2003 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has obtained safe haven in Belarus, several intelligence agencies believe. Western intelligence sources said several intelligence agencies in the Middle East and Europe base this assessment on new information about a March 29 flight from Baghdad to Minsk. They said the flight of a chartered cargo plane could have transported Saddam, his sons and much of his family to Belarus. "There's no proof that Saddam was on the plane but we have proof that a plane left on that day...

ABC reporting Tariq Aziz is in custody!

Saddam Hussein sought to protect George Galloway by severing the Iraqi intelligence service's contacts with the Labour backbencher, according to an official document found by The Daily Telegraph in Baghdad. This letter, found in the files of the Iraqi foreign ministry, explained that any disclosure of Mr Galloway's "relationship" with the Mukhabarat, which operated as both secret police and intelligence service, would do great harm to his political career. A letter from Izzat Ibrahim, Saddam's deputy on the Ba'ath Party's Revolutionary Command Council, dated May 6, 2000 stated that: "It is better not to engage the Mukhabarat in the relationship...

Senior Iraqi officers have scattered across the Middle East after fleeing Baghdad as the assault on the city began, according to some senior Iraqis in London who have kept close links with key figures within the country. All of them have false passports and could try to later hide in countries like Pakistan or Malaysia or Indonesia, said Ali Haitham Rashid Wihaib, who was Saddam Hussain's former head of protocol. He added that the Syrian authorities were keeping some of their "embarrassing guests" including generals and ministers hidden because of the US pressure. He, claimed in a daily, that Saddam...

NATO troops arrest former Bosnian Muslim commander in Srebrenica Friday April 11, 2003 SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) NATO-led peacekeepers in Bosnia have arrested Naser Oric, a Bosnian Muslim wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, NATO in Bosnia said Friday.Oric, 35, was the wartime army commander in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, where the worst massacre of civilian Muslims during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war took place. He was arrested late Thursday.However, Oric, who was in charge of the defense of the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica from Bosnian Serb forces during the war, is accused of war crimes...

US says Iraqi leaders trying to escape abroad AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar, April 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Friday Iraqi leaders were trying to escape from Iraq to other countries and said it had issued troops with a list of 55 people to be captured or killed. "(There are indications of) regime-associated individuals attempting to escape by fleeing into other coutnries," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a daily briefing at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar. Two days after U.S. forces swept into central Baghdad, the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein and his entourage remains unknown. Brooks said U.S....

VIENNA, Austria - Austrian far-rightist Joerg Haider accused U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair of being "war criminals" who violated international law by striking Iraq). In an interview for Wednesday's issue of the Austrian weekly magazine News, the former Freedom Party leader also renewed an offer to give Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri refuge in Haider's home in the southwestern province of Carinthia, where he is governor. Haider, who made two controversial visits to Iraq last year and reportedly met with Saddam Hussein, has spoken out harshly and repeatedly against the U.S.-led war. Bush and...