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Steve 1
10-10-2004, 06:15 AM
France-Iraq link in CIA report
BY BOB PORT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A major French arms maker was offering to refurbish surface-to-air missiles for Iraq - possibly illegally - just weeks before America went to war with Saddam Hussein, according to the report made public last week on Iraq's weapons.
The massive U.S. Iraq Survey Group report - some 966 pages - is still being studied by the press and defense experts. But it describes shadowy meetings between Iraqi defense officials and a Lebanese woman, who in turn met with "the French Thompson Company."
The woman, identified as Majda Khasem Al-Khalil, began negotiating with Iraqis in December 2002, according to meeting logs and correspondence recovered in Iraq by chief U.S. arms inspector Charles Duefler.
In late February 2003, with U.S. aircraft poised to strike in less than a month, Al-Khalil announced to Iraqi generals that "the French side" was ready to begin shipping in exchange for cash.
During months of talks, Al-Khalil delivered sample military gear to her Iraqi customers: night-vision goggles and protective Kevlar gear.
The Iraqis wanted to rebuild some 50 old Roland II anti-aircraft systems, according to the report.
The Roland II, made by the government-controlled French arms manufacturer Thompson-CSF, is a radar-guided rocket designed to lock onto and destroy a supersonic aircraft in seconds from up to 3.7 miles away. It advertises an 80% success rate.
The Iraqis also sought "hard cables" from French suppliers for their air defense headquarters in Baghdad as U.S. forces prepared to attack, the report says.
Such sales of advanced military technology to Iraq by France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, would have violated UN sanctions. But the report gives no indication that French authorities knew what was occurring.
Duelfer's investigators did find evidence of long-term Iraqi efforts to develop relationships with French businessmen who claimed they could influence French politicians.
The report describes a mysterious "Jean Claude," referred to as "Mr. Claude," who brought a tank carrier to Baghdad in 1998.
Another, possibly the same man, identified as "Mr. Cloud" in other Iraqi documents, is described as a French expert in electronic warfare - the art of detecting and jamming enemy electronics.
"Cloud" met with Iraqis in November 2002 to discuss "microwave, direction finding and passive radar technology," according to meeting logs recovered by the Iraq Survey Group.
A top official of the French arms marketer SOFEMA, which sells advanced avionics for military aircraft, also turned up meeting with Iraqis in recovered records.
French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte was outraged by the report.
"I consider it as unfair to expose names of individuals and companies of about 40 countries on the basis of unverified accusations without any prior contact with them and without giving them an opportunity to tell their side of the story," Levitte said.
Levitte criticized the U.S. for meanwhile censoring from Duefler's report the names of U.S. oil companies that obtained secret, illicit oil vouchers from Saddam to bypass the UN oil-For-food program.
Duefler's report details how Saddam's government secretly sought and obtained military hardware from numerous foreign arms dealers, with some nations "knowingly" involved, such as Ukraine, a U.S. coalition partner; Belarus, and North Korea.
Russia, another permanent UN Security Council member, was a big source. Syria often provided a secretive route for deliveries.
Russian engineers visited Baghdad to provide technical assistance for long-range missiles Saddam hoped to build in violation of UN restrictions.
From 2001 right up until the fall of Baghdad, a charter flight from Moscow to Baghdad each Monday carried smuggled high-tech military gear "such as radar jammers, GPS jammers, night-vision devices, avionics and missile components," Duefler's report says.
Illicit cash and equipment were smuggled from Russia to Iraq two or three times a month by diplomatic courier, with bribes paid to Russian customs officials to protect the shipments, according to the report.
Originally published on October 10, 2004

Forkin' Crazy
10-10-2004, 07:05 AM
Why doesn't that suprise me??? :mad:
Do you have a link to that article?
Amazing with all the new information that the Democrats still fault President Bush for our involvement in the war in Iraq... :o And still support Kerry...
Can you imagine what would have happened if we hadn't stolen all those votes in Florida? :angry2:

Steve 1
10-10-2004, 09:30 AM
Forkin' Sure
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/240473p-206267c.html

Steve 1
10-10-2004, 09:38 AM
"A major French arms maker was offering to refurbish surface-to-air missiles for Iraq "
WHILE our pilots were patroling NO LESS !!!!!!! The French fraud Kerrys friends are our enemy the same as Bin Laden.

058
10-10-2004, 09:40 AM
Why doesn't that suprise me??? :mad:
Do you have a link to that article?
Amazing with all the new information that the Democrats still fault President Bush for our involvement in the war in Iraq... :o And still support Kerry...
Can you imagine what would have happened if we hadn't stolen all those votes in Florida? :angry2:Why does that amaze you? Its not about Kerry, its about hating Bush and nothing else. The Democrats are running Herman Munster for president, a man that has the most liberal voting record in Congress and only when he showed up for a vote and a man that in almost 20 years in the Senate has introduced, sponsored or even co-sponsored absoluty nothing of substance. A record only he can be proud of. Yep....A fine Democrate indeed. I'm sure all the libs are very proud of him.

RealDarthPoncho
10-10-2004, 12:17 PM
"A major French arms maker was offering to refurbish surface-to-air missiles for Iraq "
WHILE our pilots were patroling NO LESS !!!!!!! The French fraud Kerrys friends are our enemy the same as Bin Laden.
As the liberal; media, politicians, here and abroad claim that Iraq had no links with Al Qaeda and international terror. The Jordanian Al-Zarqawi with direct ties with Osama Bin Laden is operating in that country. He could not mount the type of kidnappings and bombing attacks within Iraq without pre-established infrastructure. Neither could Al Sadr mount his so called "rebel" “insurgent” movement in Falluja without building a strong support infrastructure of equipment and man power. Both these terrorist could not operate in Iraq without the government of Saddam Hussein’s knowledge.
In 1968 we captured and killed the liberal’s favorite terrorist so called rebel insurgent leader, Ernesto “Che” Guevara. His mistake was writing a book outlining how to mount a successful guerrilla campaign that the CIA made mandatory reading for CIA officers. The moment we learned he left the imprisoned island of Cuba. The CIA poisoned the potential allies of his in the countries he could travel too in order to start a communist movement. They took away his ability to establish an infrastructure that cannot be built overnight. So the fact that both Sadr and Zarqawi can mount both in equipment and manpower “insurgent” terror activity within Iraq shows a clear pre-established terrorist infrastructure network within that country. France, Germany, and Russia willingness to be underground supplier’s to Iraq with weapons shows that if President Bush did not act, Al Qaeda could have obtained weapons of mass destruction indirectly from our allies via Iraq. This also shows that the coalition that John Kerry thinks should have been built would have been a poisoned one! Both Zarqawi and Sadr have another thing in common as do the majority of the key leaders of terror groups. They all moved their families to western so called democratic countries like: France, Germany, Russia and Canada for their safety. You can’t tell me that those countries did not know what these terrorists were up to in their countries. So to say the intelligence that made every country in the UN feel Iraq was a threat based on it, is know wrong is complete irresponsibility and potentially deadly if we elect John Kerry who cannot see the big picture because he can easily be led into a new position because he has no faith in America or himself! Sure it seems not likely that those countries were aiding Hussein’s Iraq, but than again they created a Union to regain the imperialist glory of a World controlled by Europe! Kerry’s foreign policy unwittingly helps them obtain that goal at the expense of America’s national security!

Froggystyle
10-10-2004, 02:22 PM
Like I needed ANOTHER reason to hate the french...