[Atlantic Friend]

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

I am too. The "french conspiration" theory is...well, much too far-fetched to work here. Occam's razor goes against it.

[popdonnelly]

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

Here's two ways they would have helped. France had lucrative oil contracts with Saddam. And a French company may have been involved in selling yellowcake uranium. Publishing forged documents, and having them discovered to have been forgeries, would help shoot down both the yellowcake story and the rationale for going to war against Saddam. So France's oil leases might be protected, and the yellowcake sales would not be discovered.