Is this the "French Connection" we were looking for?

Self | 30 October, 2005 | Paperjam

[paperjam]

Okay, Freepers, I need your help here.

I think I may know what happened to get Wilson’s wife outed. For the most part I think I can prove it. I just need a little more information. The kind of stuff I can’t get to. But, I now know it all was a last ditch effort to stop the war before Saddam was captured in Iraq on 14 December, 2003

Please don’t go thinking I’m off my rocker, I don’t normally attempt investigative sourcing, but I do think there are legs under this story and they might begin here.

[paperjam]

There is still more to the story but here’s what I have so far;

We know now that the forged Niger documents came from France through Russo Martino. It seems that France wanted to plant false documents in the hands of the British and Americans to "set up" Britain and America in the hope that when the mistake was revealed it would undermine the case for war, which it wanted to prevent.

See: http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/19/wniger19.xml

Those documents were passed on to the US Embassy in Rome on 11 October, 2002 from an “Italian journalist.” They were then passed on to the CIA. The embassy faxed the documents to the State Department's Bureau of Nonproliferation (NP) on October 15, 2002, which passed a copy of the documents to INR.

On November 22, 2002, during a meeting with State Department officials, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director for Nonproliferation said that France had information on an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger. He said that France had determined that no uranium had been shipped, but France believed the reporting was true that Iraq had made a procurement attempt for uranium from Niger.

See: http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/2004_rpt/iraq-wmd-intell_chapter2-g.htm

The documents from the Italian journalist are those that were later passed to the IAEA and discovered to have been forged. In March 2003, the Vice Chairman of the Committee, Senator Rockefeller, requested that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigate the source of the documents, the motivation of those responsible for the forgeries, and the extent to which the forgeries were part of a disinformation campaign. Because of the FBI's investigation into this matter, the Committee did not examine these issues. It’s a damn good thing that the Italians were still on the hunt as they may have saved the day be blowing the whole incident open.

It turns out that Wilson’s second wife is named Jacqueline Wilson. She is also a former French Diplomat. Jacqueline Wilson, as the ex-spouse of a senior US diplomat received tens of thousands of dollars for special projects and reports to President Omar Bongo's daughter, Pascaline Mferri Bongo. In her latest filing, Wilson reported that she was paid 60,000 dollars between August and November 2000 to ''support action of president of Gabon to fight AIDS pandemic (and) develop a strategy.'' As to work performed, she reported sending ''letters to the office of National AIDS policy at the White House.''

She worked for them at least through November of 2000 and is whereabouts unknown at this time. However, it turns out that Gabon is also a pretty big oil producer in Africa. Now, this is a good place to remind everyone that Joseph Wilson was a US Ambassador to Gabon from 1992 to 1995.

See: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=98

One of the oil companies in Gabon is one called Elf. On Oct. 29, 1997 Elf Gabon reported a new onshore discovery and at the time they had a 60 % stake in the development, in association with the Gabonese government, which retains the remaining 40%.

See: http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/discover/dix75048.htm

However, as of 1996 the company was already hurting by reduced output in their other wells and the country was in trouble with imports becoming so cheap that in-country manufacturing fell to very low levels. Elf was rocked by allegations of slush funds and corruption and a trail of the executives of Elf, which concluded in Paris just last year told a story of slush funds and misappropriation going back for decades.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3733578.stm

In 1999, Total merged with Fina and Elf to form TotalFinaElf. More on this to follow!

See: http://www.total.com/en/press/press_releases/pr_1999/990723_board_elf_aquitaine_meets_1898.htm

This is where it gets interesting.

“One day after President Bush's demand that Iraq comply with United Nations arms control resolutions, three French parliamentary deputies flew to Iraq on what they described as a personal visit to urge Baghdad to comply with the demands.

The visit set off a political storm in France, where much is riding on the outcome of the diplomatic struggle over Iraq. While a humanitarian gesture, the trip also illustrated in part how countries are positioning themselves for an end of trade penalties. One of the three legislators, Thierry Mariani, 44, of President Jacques Chirac's Union for a Presidential Majority, told French television that the purpose of the trip was to urge Iraqi compliance with the United Nations' demands. But he was also quoted in Le Monde as justifying the trip with "the defense of French economic interests in Iraq."

Last year, France ranked No. 1 among European countries doing business with Iraq, with $1.5 billion in trade, followed by Italy, with $1 billion. Among the countries that trade with Iraq under the oil-for-food program, France ranked third, with $3.1 billion in trade since the program's start 1996. French trade under the program was surpassed only by Russia, with $4.3 billion, and Egypt, according to United Nations diplomats.

The French oil giant TotalFinaElf has the largest position in Iraq, with exclusive negotiating rights to develop Majnoon, a field on the Iranian border with estimated reserves of 10 billion barrels, and Bin Umar, with an estimated production potential of 440,000 barrels a day, according to oil industry executives.”

See: http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2002/0919threats.htm

“French oil giant TotalFinaElf has exclusive exploration contracts worth €60bn - €75bn to develop the massive Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields in southern Iraq,” said David Perle former US Assistant Defense Secretary before Saddam was ousted. “What’s distinctive about the Total contract is that it’s not favourable to Iraq, it’s favourable to Total.” He said oil experts who had analyzed the deal described it as “extraordinarily lopsided” in favour of the French company with the well connected Canadian shareholders. The one thing Perle didn’t know was that this very lucrative deal was contingent on UN sanctions being lifted, a move that assured Saddam a lot of support at the UN, especially if he was entering contracts with big payofffs like this.

See: http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/2005032901363934

As of September 2003, TotalFinaElf officially became Total.

Now known as TOTAL, after a name change from TotalFinaElf, the company is the world's fifth largest integrated oil and gas company. It is based in Paris, operates in 120 countries with exploration and production activity in 44 countries and production in 27. The company has 2.4 million barrels per day of production, which compares with 4.2 million barrels daily for Exxon Mobil Corp. and 3.5 million barrels/day for BP plc. The company has 11.2 billion barrels of reserves and has been averaging a 2.5 percent annual growth in production but saw a 10 percent increase between 2001 and 2002.

The new TOTAL was created through two successive mergers, the first when the former Total joined with Belgian oil company Petrofina to form Totalfina, and the second when Totalfina combined with French oil company Elf Aquitaine to create TotalFinaElf. The new company reflects this prestigious Franco-Belgian oil and gas heritage, whose origins go back to the 1920s. The dynamic synthesis of the three companies’ corporate cultures and expertise represents a wealth of technological and human capabilities that favorably position Total to help invent the future of energy.

See: http://www.mbendi.co.za/coto.htm

I’m betting that France used Russo Martino to get the fake documents to the Italians. They in-turn were to get them to the British and the US as hot ticket items knowing that we were posturing for war. As a backup, I think they got to Wilson’s second wife Jacqueline to get Wilson on board to get to Niger. His third wife Valerie, working in the CIA, put forward his name to go most likely on her own as a concern over WMD’s and Uranium for Iraq. Wilson goes pro bono, with the exception of trip fees hence no security statements need be signed. True to form, Wilson comes back announced that the Niger documents were forgeries and that no sales of Yellow-Cake occurred. This should have put a stop to things but Bush went ahead with the British White Paper they put together citing other sources in his State of the Union Address. Wilson panics and puts together a paper for the NYT’s refuting Bush, the documents he used, and the reasons for going to war. This causes too much attention of Wilson and Novak interviews him for a story he’s going to run the NYT’s article and his trip to Niger as well as Valerie and her work at the CIA. Wilson has no choice but to scream an outing by White House officials who confirmed she works with the CIA and the CIA files paper with the Justice Department to investigate. The rest is history in the making.

The only thing I can’t prove yet is how Jacqueline got to Wilson and if she did it both before he went and after the State of the Union address. That would prove everything. I think we need his phone records.

It was all done in an effort to save France’s economy which was already stagnant and close to $100 billion dollars (70 billion Euros) in lucrative and lopsided oil contracts for developing the Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields in southern Iraq. I won’t even go into all the money they were making in Oil for Food as well as everything else they were doing.

I think France used Wilson’s second wife either through TOTAL or through Gabon to get to Wilson and get him to deny the Niger documents as forgeries as their plan B. Either way, once they were found out to be fake, Frances plan would cement and the war would be averted either by the UN or the American public. Eventually, Iraq would be sanction free and France would reap the benefits.

[PilloryHillary]

Bump for later reading.

[gondramB]

"It was all done in an effort to save France’s economy which was already stagnant and close to $100 billion dollars (70 billion Euros) in lucrative and lopsided oil contracts for developing the Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields in southern Iraq."

I'm unclear on how the fake documents would have helped the French economy.

[RVN Airplane Driver]

Makes plenty of sense to me...one thing for sure...we aren't hearing the whole story as presented by the MSM...Thanks for all the good work. Wouldn't it be great if a FREEPER were to blow this whole episode wide open like happened with the fake doc's on the Presidents Air Guard papers..

[stickandpucknut]

bumpity bump

[skinkinthegrass]

..sound somewhat reasonable, so many "switchbacks"...you may have connected the dots. :)

[NutCrackerBoy]

I didn't read all these details, but France's national interest lay in keeping Saddam in power and removing the sanctions. Isn't that why they opposed, even undermined, the war? I would not be surprised if France did a lot well before the war to try to prevent it.

I wonder why France signed on to UN 1441 in light of all that?

[gondramB]

"I didn't read all these details, but France's national interest lay in keeping Saddam in power and removing the sanctions. Isn't that why they opposed, even undermined, the war? I would not be surprised if France did a lot well before the war to try to prevent it."


So why create fake documents that would influence us in the direction of war? Italy was much more supportive of war - they seem like a more likely source on the surface.

[mo]

beautiful work.....cached those web pages???!!!

[mtbopfuyn]

Dunno about all this, but we're definitely not hearing the whole fishy story of who leaked what when and why.

[IVote2]

This is a long read, but I think the gist of it is that France had financial reasons to have Saddam continue in office thus NO war on Irag.

This does need to be investigated.

Jen

[gondramB]

"This is a long read, but I think the gist of it is that France had financial reasons to have Saddam continue in office thus NO war on Irag."

That part, I would think we would all agree with. I just don't understand yet how that translates into a motive to fake these particular documents - I'm not close minded on it - it just seems like the documents encouraged war so I would think they were most likely faked by someone who supported war.

[skinkinthegrass]

I'm unclear on how the fake documents would have helped the French economy...in the game of Chess, a Gambit, a set-up.

The Froggies, reveal the US copies to the UN, are fakes, thereby discrediting the US (thats why, US used UK's Iraq "White Paper", Traitor/Turncoat Wilson's Documents were "tainted" :) case for going to war against Iraq....preserving the Froggies' claim on Iraq's Oil Contracts.

[hummingbird]

BUMPING (with great interest!)

[THX 1138]

I'm unclear on how the fake documents would have helped the French economy.

Let's see if I follow this. Fake documents postpone the war, negotiations follow, possibly leading to the lifting of sactions against Iraq, and then:

“French oil giant TotalFinaElf has exclusive exploration contracts worth €60bn - €75bn to develop the massive Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields in southern Iraq,” said David Perle former US Assistant Defense Secretary before Saddam was ousted. “What’s distinctive about the Total contract is that it’s not favourable to Iraq, it’s favourable to Total.” He said oil experts who had analyzed the deal described it as “extraordinarily lopsided” in favour of the French company with the well connected Canadian shareholders. The one thing Perle didn’t know was that this very lucrative deal was contingent on UN sanctions being lifted, a move that assured Saddam a lot of support at the UN, especially if he was entering contracts with big payofffs like this.

[baystaterebel]

Finally someone else makes the connection of France, Total Fina Elf, and Iraq.

France had a lot to lose if the United States went to war in Iraq. And it did.

France knew two things:

1)That the invasion would lead to an investigation of the U.N.s oil for food program.

2)Within the by laws, rules, and charters of the United Nations and agreed upon by all belonging to the U.N, all contracts made by a dictator who has been over thrown/ removed that are detrimental to the country of origin are null and void.

Total Fina Elf/ France stood to lose something like 4-10 Billion dollars if the contracts they held were voided.

They were voided.

The false documents were meant to discredit information that led to the invasion of Iraq. It was meant to help France regain a foothold in keeping the oil contracts they signed with Saddam.

France was and still is neck deep in this. The United Nations as well.

[McGavin999]

I've thought for a long time Wilson is a spy for France. Since we know his first wife was a French intelligence agent it would only make sense. What if he married Valarie to get inside info from the CIA? When he married her he already knew she was no longer "covert" and would be working inside the puzzle palace. As you said, the whole trip to Niger could have been part of the plan to discredit the Bush administration.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping

[paperjam]

The fake documents were intended to throw the US off the war footing we were taking against Iraq.

France stood to lose billions over it, but their plan backfired because they didn't know that the British had put together a white paper on Niger uranium. That is what Bush used in his 2003 State of The Union Address.

[Chode]

i think they were going to use it like a get out of jail free card at the time and place of their chosing to make the US/UK look foolish and say the war is unjustified...