Someone give the French baby a bottle so it will quit crying.
The French government believes it is the victim of an "organized campaign of disinformation" from within the Bush administration, designed to discredit it with allegations of complicity with the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. In a letter prepared for delivery today to administration officials and members of Congress, France details what it says are false news stories, with anonymous administration officials as sources, that appeared in the U.S. media over the past nine months. A two-page list attached to the letter includes reports of alleged French weapons sales to Iraq and culminates in a report last week that French officials in Syria issued French passports to escaping Iraqis being sought by the U.S. military... The unprecedented letter, signed by French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, is an indication of the depth and bitterness of the breach between the two historic allies and NATO partners over the issue of Iraq. Although French officials maintain they have tried to overcome the differences and renew the partnership, they say the administration has expressed little interest in rapprochement. U.S. officials say they are still angry over France's leading role in opposing U.N. authorization of the war, and attempts to prevent NATO from giving Iraq-related security assistance to Turkey, and are contemplating the future U.S. relationship with France. But a senior administration official last night dismissed the French charge of organized disinformation as "utter nonsense."
(con't see link) |