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French Block Airlift Of British Troops To Basra
The Telegraph (UK) ^
| 9-16-2003
| Henry Samuel/Michael Smith
Posted on 09/15/2003 5:51:44 PM PDT by blam
French block airlift of British troops to Basra
By Henry Samuel and Michael Smith
(Filed: 16/09/2003)
The French government has told an airline that it is not to ferry British troops to Basra, a ban that will be seen as reflecting Paris's opposition to the occupation of Iraq.
Corsair, which has been chartered numerous times to transport UK forces around the world, pulled out of a contract to fly reinforcements to Basra at the weekend.
About 1,400 more troops are being sent to Basra as part of an attempt to prevent the "strategic failure" predicted by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, with a similar number expected to be announced within weeks.
A Corsair Airbus A330 was chartered to fly troops of the Royal Green Jackets from Brize Norton, Oxon, but at the last moment the French transport ministry grounded the aircraft citing safety concerns.
Transport ministry officials were reported yesterday as saying the move had nothing to do with safety but was a result of the intervention of the foreign ministry.
The foreign ministry denied the report, saying there was "no political motive". But British defence officials appeared to confirm that the ban was political and not technical.
"We have used them time and time again to fly troops into trouble spots," one said. "They have been everywhere for us. We always thought they were pretty robust."
A Corsair spokesman said most of the flights undertaken for the MoD took troops to training exercises. For security and insurance reasons they rarely flew to war zones.
"We did fly to Pristina during the Kosovo crisis, but only once it had been cleared for civil aviation."
Basra is already open to civilian aircraft.
TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: airlift; basra; block; british; corsair; france; french; iraq; nonallyfrance; troops
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
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1
posted on
09/15/2003 5:51:47 PM PDT
by
blam
To: blam
Guess it's time for the Brits to march across the Channel. 1,400 troops sounds like it should be just about enough.
2
posted on
09/15/2003 5:54:09 PM PDT
by
steveegg
(I have one thing to say to the big spenders; BLIZZARD OF RECALL TOUR!)
To: blam
More French treachery. What faggy little backstabbers they turned out to be.
3
posted on
09/15/2003 5:54:21 PM PDT
by
dennisw
(G_d is at war with Amalek for all generations)
To: steveegg
Let them use the Chunnel. Or, barricade it.
-PJ
To: blam
The French really are pi$$ing me off!
5
posted on
09/15/2003 5:54:58 PM PDT
by
mystery-ak
(Happy Birthday, Mike...wish you were here.)
To: blam
eff the French.....I'm in a REALLY bad mood today....and they aren't helping.
6
posted on
09/15/2003 5:55:04 PM PDT
by
goodnesswins
(Whiners & PC'ers.......members of the new OFFENDED Political Party)
To: dennisw
What faggy little backstabbers they turned out to be.They stink, too.
7
posted on
09/15/2003 5:55:54 PM PDT
by
cardinal4
(Hillary and Clark rhymes with Ft Marcy park...)
To: blam
The French will shoot themselves in the foot economically in order to try to save face politically. Pathetic.
Prairie
8
posted on
09/15/2003 5:55:56 PM PDT
by
prairiebreeze
(Brought to you by The American Democratic Party, also known as Al Qaeda, Western Division.)
To: blam
When do we invade.....
To: blam
This needs to get to O'Reilly's attention. He'll blow a gasket when he learns about it.
To: blam
What hell is France's problem?? .
THIS IS TOTAL BS
11
posted on
09/15/2003 5:56:34 PM PDT
by
Mo1
(http://www.favewavs.com/wavs/cartoons/spdemocrats.wav)
To: blam
In Geneva, two days ago before France's latest treachery,
PLOwell plots with the French and the Emperor-of-Terrorists.
12
posted on
09/15/2003 5:57:12 PM PDT
by
Diogenesis
(If you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us)
To: Grampa Dave
Frog alert
13
posted on
09/15/2003 5:58:27 PM PDT
by
steveegg
(I have one thing to say to the big spenders; BLIZZARD OF RECALL TOUR!)
To: blam
attempt to prevent the "strategic failure" predicted by Jack Straw,I'd be inclined to say Straw didn't say this, except it's from the Telegraph. If he DID say this,....WTF???
Prairie
14
posted on
09/15/2003 5:58:48 PM PDT
by
prairiebreeze
(Brought to you by The American Democratic Party, also known as Al Qaeda, Western Division.)
To: blam
Sieze Paris and torture them.
Force them to eat Velveeta and cheeze whiz.
Sieze the truffle fields. Big Fungus will put up the money
To: blam
About 1,400 more troops are being sent to Basra as part of an attempt to prevent the "strategic failure" predicted by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, with a similar number expected to be announced within weeks.
France's attempt to murder British Troops.
The rabbit hole apparently runs deeper than even conspiraicists here at freerepublic have thus far speculated.
We are now very apparently at WAR with France.
Destroy her.
She is indeed part of the state sponsorers of terror against Jews, Americans and Western Civilization.
I still anticipate out right war to break out in Europe... with France as its center... this year, in some form or another.
This millenia is the millenia of proxy shadow wars...
Time to kill the anglophobes I guess...
To: blam
France needs to be invaded again - only this time, we can just sit back and thumb our noses at them and laugh - never again should American and British blood be shed for those backstabbing ingrates...
17
posted on
09/15/2003 6:04:46 PM PDT
by
Chad Fairbanks
(... you'd look like the Venus de Milo, if I just cut off your arms...)
To: blam
Frand is a disgrace.
18
posted on
09/15/2003 6:05:09 PM PDT
by
DoughtyOne
(France, where they treat allies like their next door neighbor's and best friend's wives.)
To: Chad Fairbanks
I've got a good idea. Let's give France's land to Israel and Israel's land to France. Perhaps the French will religion then.
19
posted on
09/15/2003 6:07:03 PM PDT
by
DoughtyOne
(France, where they treat allies like their next door neighbor's and best friend's wives.)
To: DoughtyOne
Funny...
Frand=France
Yikes!!!
20
posted on
09/15/2003 6:07:39 PM PDT
by
DoughtyOne
(France, where they treat allies like their next door neighbor's and best friend's wives.)
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