What always blows my mind in these situations is the silence on our part regarding the French failure to release this information. Why? What do we have to lose? If the sources are French, then they should take it up with their government.......unless, the sources are folks we are trying to protect.....which is the silent component in the article. There is the nub.
I still think there is something really, really bad that the French are trying to hide. No one would be surprised if they had sold parts, or even uranium, to Iraq. Heck, we all think they did something like that anyway.
But Chirac is absolutely irrational about his opposition. I thought it strange at the time. They were way too obvious in their opposition to the US...not the usual sneering criticism and refusal to cooperate, but actively trying to get allies who would oppose us.
Remember when Chirac told the Eastern Europeans to shut up, and threatened them with not being able to join the EU? That was not smooth diplomacy, but rather a ham-handed threat.
I still think that there is something really bad yet to be discovered, and the French are in it up to their eyeballs.