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“Corruption scandal? Which corruption scandal?”

Brian reminds us that if Dr Kelly’s death was embarrassing for the BBC and the British government, the capture alive of Saddam Hussein is potentially very embarrssing for the French President Jacques ‘the Crook’ Chirac.

Following his story, I decided to check out TF1, the major TV channel, to see what coverage – if any – there was about the Bagdad story. It certainly is not front page news in Paris.

For good reason…

One of the leading stories in France today is the report of an investigative judge into the sale of frigates by what was then Thomson-CSF to Taiwan in 1991. Under the ethical trade (!) clauses in this 14 billion French Franc contract (about 1.9 billion US dollars), if it were proved that bribes had been paid, the guilty party would have to pay damages of up to 600 million US dollars.

The government at the time was the Socialist Party and the prime minister would probably have been Pierre Bérégovoy, who committed suicide by firing an indeterminate number of bullets into the wrong side of his head shortly before being called to appear in court on charges of channelling public funds into the bank accounts of most of his Socialist buddies, or arch-crook Edith Cresson, she of the dentist-gigolo hired at the European Commission who called English MPs a bunch of public-school homosexuals. I forget which.

Naturally the damages will all be paid by the French government, i.e. the taxpayers. The notion that the political party or the politician that stole the money should be held somehow responsible? Where would it end…

“Corruption scandal? Which corruption scandal?”

9 comments to “Corruption scandal? Which corruption scandal?”

  • January 29, 2004

    Did Irish Oil Concerns and Peace Campaigners Receive Saddam’s Bribes?

    Tim Blair today posts a complete list (with translation) of those accused by Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada of accepting Saddam’s oil bribes.

    So who’s on it besides George Galloway?

    “Irelande: 1 – Riad Taher (11 million barrels) 2- Afro Eastern (2 million barrels)”

    Who?

    Riad el Taher, who allegedly received 11,000,000 barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein, was a shareholder of former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds’ Bula Oil Company while it was desparately awaiting Saddam’s signature on a lucrative oil exploration contract. And Riad el Taher, at the same time, as chairman of the Peace organization Friends Across Frontiers, was campaigning to have the Irish government ease Bula’s “foreign investment” into Iraq, and urging the Irish government to deny the US the same rights at Shannon airport that it provided to the USSR during the Cuban Missle Crisis.

    And the other “Irish” entity allegedly receiving 2,000,000 barrels of oil in bribes from Saddam was allegedly giving him illicit kickbacks, helping him build his palaces.

    Small world.

    Read the whole thing.
    http://www.blog-irish.com/daoil.htm

    Bran

  • Excellent remark about Bérégovoy and the suicide with “indeterminate number of bullets”.
    Indeed, last time I heard, the man, French Prime minister at the time, shot himself in the head.

    Twice.

    Compared to the archvillain Mitterrand, Chirac is just a back alley fledgling pickpocket.

  • eric

    Heh. Sounds like Abu Nidal, who managed to ‘commit suicide’ by shooting himself in the head 4 or 5 times.

  • Sounds like Abu Nidal, (…)

    Well… technically speaking, yes, I guess.

    As for the rest, there’s an abyss between terrorism cleanup and the shady passing of a French Prime, under the rule of an utterly corrupted President.

  • Quite a few people shot themselves under Mitterand. Even De Grossouvre (sp?), an intelligence man. He shot himself at the Elysee Palace. Next to the President’s office, of course.

  • Gustave La Joie

    Yes, I don’t think that “Tonton” Mitterand had him killed (the noise and mess next door would have been upsetting). I heard that de Grossouvre was an old Pétiniste friend of Mitterand.

    Can anyone confirm this please?

  • Gustave La Joie

    Yes, I don’t think that “Tonton” Mitterand had him killed (the noise and mess next door would have been upsetting). I heard that de Grossouvre was an old Pétiniste friend of Mitterand.

    Can anyone confirm this please?

  • From Instapundit:

    Charles Pasqua, the French politician named as a recipient of the bribes in the article, used to be close to Chirac until he endorsed his opponent during the 1995 presidential campaign. Since then, Pasqua has left Chirac’s political party. To sum up, Chirac isn’t really tainted by these accusations.

  • skeptical

    if pasqua didn’t paid back chirac, who damn was behind patrick maugein, the self claimed “chirac best friend” ? he received 25M barrels, 500 MUSD ! for his beautiful eyes ?