Posted on 10/10/2004 5:38:09 AM PDT by knighthawk
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.
Ping
Meanwhile, OUR PILOTS were patrolling the no-fly zones.
THE FRENCH ARE AS MUCH THE ENEMY AS AL-QA'IDA IS.
Ping
Thanks for the ping.
This is going to get real ugly.
bump
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