Posted on 09/04/2002 1:56:47 PM PDT by kattracks
France said it was against publishing top-secret evidence on Iraq's alleged development of weapons of mass destruction, saying the public arena was not the place to wage such a campaign.
"These are not issues which we can deal with publicly. This calls for serenity and seriousness, and we should therefore beware of any leaks and any saber-rattling proposals," Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told France Info radio.
On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would in the coming weeks release damning information about Baghdad's alleged efforts to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, to prove the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
The foreign minister said that France and Britain had shared information on the proof of such a weapons program. and it "is out of the question to divulge these exchanges."
De Villepin said it was important to act responsibly in evaluating whether a "country could own chemical or biological weapons, and if it could turn into a threat."
He added it was important that France evaluate such risks together with its European partners.
"The international community is today very worried, which justifies our determination in the face of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."
Washington on Wednesday stepped up its war rhetoric, with President George W. Bush calling Saddam Hussein a "serious threat" and saying he would take his case against Iraq to the United Nations next week.
De Villepin said "France, the world, cannot accommodate such a risk, and that is why we demand with insistance the return of the UN (weapons) inspectors to Iraq and that the country conforms with the demands of the international community."
If it did, he stressed, it was up to the UN Security Council to decide on any international action.
UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998 in the face of an imminent US and British missile attack on Baghdad, and have since been barred from returning despite insistent UN demands.
-PJ
In a few weeks it will be a glass parking lot...
It should be melted down into a spare gun turret on the US battleship New Jersey. And that ridiculous glass structure should be turned into gunsight lenses for US sniper rifles.
Themselves...
Seems like a great target for a $50,000 daisey cutter.
Saudi Arabia.
No doubt there is something there they don't want decent people (i.e. anybody but politicians) to see, such as French complicity in Iraq nuclear weapons programs. After all, the French were building the reactor the Israelis destroyed in 1981. Who says they aren't neck deep in Saddam's current programs?
Yes. They have stepped in the frommage this time. And they should pay, the amoral socialist bastards. Starting with a COMPLETE embargo of French goods. What useful product comes from France nowadays anyway? Their fashion is deplorable. Mostly looks loke something from the "Wizard of Oz", like overgrown Munchkins. Same for other French exports. Not much useful going on there these days.
Yes. Perhaps he is afraid. J'accuse!
I think you're right ..
When one sleeps with the dogs...
May they all suffer a simultaneous and fatal thermo-baric encounter.
This could be accomplished if Iraq was conquered, Non?
Ann is leading edge, thinks "out of the box".
The new, "enlightened", european process of debate...
From now on when meeting a Euroweenie we simply need to ask: Are you from the part of Europe whose ass we kicked or whose ass we saved.
It is very obvious that Germany as well as France is in trouble with the Intell Data that Tony Blair has in his hands. Germany and France both have been selling to Iran for two decades what should never have been sold, the technology and equipment to make WMD!
If this data gets out, France and Germany will be promoted from the Axis of Whining Weasels to the Axis of Evil.
Of course they will scream and shout and say no in public. Then, in private, they will get down on their knees and promise anything to GW and Tony if that intell data doesn't get out for the world to see how bad France and Germany have been in arming Saddam/Iraq and Iran.
Only if we could hit a camel on the ass in there...
"I know nut-tingk!"
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