Polish parliament to investigate blunder over missiles found in Iraq

WARSAW (AFP) Oct 07, 2003 The Polish parliament will open an investigation into an embarrassing diplomatic incident in which the defense ministry mistakenly claimed that its troops had discovered a recent batch of French missiles in Iraq, a senior parliamentarian said Tuesday. "The joint defense and foreign affairs committees will investigate to determine who is responsible for this incident," said Stanislaw Janas, head of the parliamentary defense committee, speaking on public radio.

"The information had a bomb effect," said Pawel Piskorski, member of the foreign affairs committee.

"Its release without adequate verification risks undermining Poland's credibility in the international arena for a very long time," he said.

The Polish defence ministry said Saturday that a Polish patrol had found the four anti-aircraft missiles south of Baghdad.

But on Monday, the military was forced to backtrack, following a strong rebuke from France, stating that the troops made an "error of interpretation" when they said they had found the missiles manufactured that year.

The missiles had the markings that read 07-01-KND 2003, which the troops mistook for the year of production.

Chirac strongly denied Saturday the remarks of the Polish defense ministry, according to which Roland (short-range surface-to-air) anti-aircraft missiles built in 2003 might have been found in Iraq.

"There cannot be any missiles there in 2003 because the missiles haven't been built for the past 15 years," Chirac said at the European summit in Rome on Saturday.

Poland's defense ministry is scheduled on Monday to disclose the results of its internal investigation into who is personally responsible for the blunder.

"There cannot be any missiles there in 2003 because the missiles haven't been built for the past 15 years," Chirac said at the European summit in Rome on Saturday.

From an April 30, 2003 NewsMax article

Pentagon Joins French Boycott
Charles R. Smith
Wednesday, April 30, 2003

No U.S. Military Jets at Paris Air Show

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is reported to be unhappy with France at the moment. Rumsfeld's displeasure with Paris is about to be put on display – or, to be more accurate, not on display.

The Pentagon has decided to cancel all flying demonstrations of U.S. military aircraft and limit the numbers of top uniformed officials attending the 2003 Paris air show. The move is one of many planned actions to be taken in the near future to limit military contacts with Paris.

The decision to limit appearances of aircraft and uniformed brass at Paris is not going over well inside the U.S. defense industry. Some top-level officers who expect to retire to industry jobs are openly grumbling that Rumsfeld's decision will hurt the U.S. defense industry.

The main fear is that France will win military export contracts because it will have a monopoly on flight demonstrations at the Paris air show.

However, senior defense officials feel that the recent performance of U.S. airpower over Iraq serves as a clear demonstration of why American aircraft are sought out by the majority of buyers around the world. For example, Poland just closed a deal with the U.S. to purchase 48 F-16 Falcon jet fighters in a deal reported to be worth over $3.5 billion.

"One can't help notice that the Russians and French are very good at making ejector seats," quipped one defense official.

French Missiles in Iraq

The Pentagon restrictions came after U.S. Army and Australian special forces teams discovered advanced versions of a French-made surface-to-air missile system in Iraq. U.S. Air Force officials are certain that Iraqi French-made Roland missiles downed at least one A-10 "Warthog" attack jet and may have killed two USAF pilots in an F-15E Strike Eagle.

Australian special forces teams working in Iraq’s western desert uncovered 51 Iraqi MiG fighters hidden near an abandoned airfield. The Aussie soldiers also discovered a cache of Roland 2 missiles and a launcher near the hidden MiG jets.

The Australian special forces members were critical to the success in the Iraqi western desert against possible missile attack against Israel.

In addition, U.S. airborne troops from the 101st division recently stumbled onto a French-made Roland 3 missile system, complete with radar, computer and fire control electronics. The French army first deployed the Roland 3 advanced missile in 1995. The Roland 3 unit supplied to Iraq would be a clear violation of the U.N. arms embargo placed on Iraq after the first Gulf War.

French defense ministry officials recently denied that the Roland 3 was supplied to Iraq. However, French defense industry insiders speculated that Iraq might have acquired the Roland 3 unit illegally from "mafia" sources, suggesting that Paris has a problem with black market theft inside advanced military projects.

Euro-Military Alliance

The strain in U.S.-Franco relations is also showing at a mini-defense summit in Brussels between France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. The move is seen as an attempt by Paris to form a new Euro-military alliance to replace NATO.

Belgian officials nervously denied that the meeting is an attempt to form a separate defense structure, hoping not to inflame already troubled relations with America. Brussels-based defense officials noted that the four nations have pledged to increase their defense spending by 0.45 percent.

"The object is to evaluate where we stand and what we need to do to meet our objectives," stated a top Belgian defense official.

Relations between Paris and Washington were strained even prior to the Iraq war. U.S. intelligence officials frequently noted that France actively conducts economic and military espionage in the United States. According to counter-intelligence estimates, only Russia and China have larger spy networks inside the U.S.

French Weapons in China

France has also come under fire for supplying advanced arms to other potential U.S. adversaries such as China. In fact, the Chinese navy currently employs a version of the French Tavitac, a modified version of the U.S. NTDS (Naval Tactical Data Systems) Link 11. The Link W system employed by China is an unlicensed copy of the U.S. Link 11 supplied to the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) by France.

France also has supplied surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft radars to China. A recent Pentagon report to Congress on Chinese military modernization concluded that France is assisting the PLAN in building advanced submarines.

"A new version of the Song-class conventional submarine is expected to incorporate advanced Air Independent Propulsion. This report details other Song innovations: a skewed seven-blade propeller, submerged antiship cruise missile launch capability, and flank array sonars of French design," noted the U.S. military report.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.