Yes, I am referring to the elements of French intelligence that would be aligned with Chirac on that, and there are likely intelligence veterans who feel about Chirac's policies as some here felt about Clinton's--I have a French friend who speaks of Chirac in the same tone as "the disgusting socialist Mitterand", as he puts it. Unfortunately Chirac is currently in a position where he can hire and fire at the executive level and issue overall policy directives, which is why I referred to it a French intelligence operation, without implying that everyone in French intelligence is happy with it. And yes, Russia also had a large stake in Iraqi oil, as did China, and some Western oil companies and other oil companies had smaller stakes as well; I emphasize France in this context because TotalFinaElf had the largest contract with Saddam and Wilson's background is in French Africa, but there are certainly other angles to it that are relevant to the big picture. I think Wilson was working for some much bigger interests.
Fedora, have you read TheLastHurrah (emptywheels) analysis? Pretty interesting, even if I don't agree with it. Judith Miller may have been backed into a corner on perjury charges... interesting on WHY...