Posted on 11/11/2007 7:32:49 PM PST by Pikamax
France is top intelligence provider on Iran: US lawmaker 9 November 2007
WASHINGTON (AFP) - France is one of the top intelligence sources on Iran for the United States, Democrat Ellen Tausche, chairman of the House of Representatives subcommittee on strategic forces, told a press conference Thursday.
"Iran is deadly dangerous. They have been isolated from us for a very, very long time, and we don't have very good intelligence. I am glad we use a lot of international intelligence, especially the French and (Britain's) MI6," she told reporters.
Asked if the US administration's warnings about Iran's alleged secret nuclear weapons program should be believed, Tausche said: "You shouldn't, you should believe the French."
The lawmaker added that on Wednesday, after meeting with President George W. Bush, French "President (Nicolas) Sarkozy was totally unambiguous about Iran, and (said) that there was reason to be concerned about (its) ambitions."
On October 29, French Defence Minister Herve Morin dismissed comments by the head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, that there was no evidence Iran was building nuclear weapons.
"Our information, matching those of other countries, gives us the opposite feeling," Morin said at the end of a visit to the United Arab Emirates.
AFP
The lawmaker added that on Wednesday, after meeting with President George W. Bush, French "President (Nicolas) Sarkozy was totally unambiguous about Iran, and (said) that there was reason to be concerned about (its) ambitions."
Can anybody explain the above contradiction? Or is this just typical AFP confusion?
Exactly. I have met Tauscher on a few occasions and was amazed at her ignorance. Was this a deliberate “outing” of France to ensure their intel sources would be cut off?
Believable...considering our main intelligence agency would rather (and is mainly bound by law to) gather intelligence via the Library of Congress and satellites. Nothing like boots on the ground.
Yes, after WWII...some very old timers warned America of the communist in this country and what’d that outcome would be. That’s what we’re seeing today...that outcome. They were right on the money. We’ve been infiltrated with a bunch of commie traitors...they hate America, they hate freedom...
Very well indeed. I think its an incandescandt but who the hell knows?
>> Can’t these idiots button their lips!!! Geesh!!
Punishing France for voting Sarkozy to power?
Care to lay some cash on that?
Ditto.
Democrat Ellen Tausche needs her tongue ripped out while she’s waiting for the gallows.
I expect ALL of her DemboTard lips are loose. >:-(
Israel will NOT attack Iran. Israel can not afford the backlash...we’ll do it...Bush’ll not let ‘em...hide and watch...Besides, France is itching to get into that fight....and they are fine warriors.
Yet another example of why Democrats CANNOT be trusted with National Security matters. Their lips are as loose as their reasoning, genitalia, and anal orifices.
French fine warriors??? IDK... Sarkozy notwithstanding, I find that hard to believe...
French rifle for sale, never fired, dropped once...
Yes, they are. Lots of the military were extremely disappointed France wasn’t part of our Iraq invasion. They spoke of what fine warriors they are.
Why do you say this?
Iran is completely different than Syria. Syria was heading to hit Israel. Israel had to get permission to hit Syria from us. It took months to finally get the permission. It took commandos entering Syrian territory and bringing back radioactive proof before we’d give ‘em permission. Now...what can Israel do to convince us to let them hit Iran? Nothing...If we weren’t in Iraq or the ME...that’d be a different situation. It’d be hard to put up US aircraft and block Israeli aircraft...if we weren’t there. We’ll not be out of Iraq for years. If we hit Iran since it’d be most likely a night attack...then Israel could look like us and be part of those attacks. No one would ever know as in Syria who really hit ‘em.
Right you are. The IDF is more acrobatic/proficient in the area than we are, since they live and thus drill there.
I know such quips are adored by some here on FR (although that has dropped after Sarkozy won the election), but the truth of the matter is that the French are, and have always been, fine warriors. What has always let them down, particularly in the recent past (recent being WW2 onwards) is leadership. They ahve been plagued by a sporadic outbreak of weak-kneed leaders. However the French fighting man is not what is commonly portrayed (a cheese-loving peacenik eager to get home to his mommy before soiling his 3-day stale underpants).
And this has been proved again and again ( even after the WW2 era) across several continents (most recently being Afghanistan, something that many people forget even though the French have been there from day one, and still are), to across several conflict zones (e.g. a couple in Africa). And when their leadership do not get in the way the French military can be quite un-PC (e.g.when the French intelligence service blew up a GreenPeace ship - the RainBow Warrior - that was protesting against its nuclear tests and had gotten too close. I believe it was the divers that attached limpet charges to the ship).
And the French intelligence services have been helping the US since before 9/11, and after (even during the whole 'freedom fries' rhetoric). While the politicians in France were acting the fool, and here O'Reilly was calling for wine boycotts, according to reports the French intel services and their American counterparts never broke contact. And you have to consider that French intel has a robust HUMINT element to their intel (i.e. human intelligence), as opposed to our primarily SIGNINT elements (signal intelligence, which can be deceived by a nation that has a strong intention to ....for lack of time i will not go deep into this, but do a search on how India managed to hide their nuclear test preparations for the CIA by simply knowing when the satellites were passing overhead, and how the CIA found out that tests had been done by hearign reports on CNN about seismic movements in that area). Other countries like Russia have a strong HUMINT intel in some of those 'prime' areas, but the thing about the Russians is that they are not that trustworthy in terms of intent and information veracity.
Anyways, it gives some a warm feeling to see the French as simply vichy cowards, but the good thing is that the real powers that be realize that all the names in the blogosphere do not change the way things truly are.
But hey, I hear that French Leclerc Main Battle Tanks have 1 gear for going forward and 6 for reverse .....and similar nonsense
Way to put that out there lady!
Invested in defeat they are
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