[PokeyJoe]

I heard that the delivery date on the French weapons was 2002.

We have a smoking gun.

. . .and it's pointed at Chirac's head.

[John H K]

I realize people really don't like this being pointed out, but in the case of small arms (and even things like ATGMs, machine guns, etc) finding someone in posession of arms from Country X doesn't mean country X directly sold them or gave them the arms.

I don't like France any more than anyone else, but I suspect that the overwhelming majority of the newer arms that Iraq has were bought through third-party transactions.

There are hundreds of countries in the world that it's perfectly legal for France or China or Russia to sell arms to, and there are plenty of those countries, or simply arms dealers, willing to make money by then reselling those arms to Iraq and smuggling them in. I doubt any of the original manufacturing countries really care or are concerned about it, but it's also likely true that Jacques Chiraq wasn't sitting around directly signing orders to sell weapons to Iraq in the past few years.