The French Connection

In light of the Oil-For-Food scandal playing out at the moment, I saw a documentary on TV that talked to a French lawyer about Jacques Chirac's involvement in the oil for food program.

Surprisingly he mentioned that there is virtually no way to try Chirac under French law until he has left office. Only serious treason under the French constitution allows for Chirac to be impeached.

Oh the irony of lefties comparing Bush to Hitler, when one of their best friends Chirac, practically has no accountability to his people while in office.

Chirac has been an enemy of the United States for a long time now. In another documentary I saw a while back called 'Saddams Friends', it went into detail about Chirac back in the early 70's, visiting Iraq when Saddam established his first ever nuclear 'power' plant. French scientists helped to build it.
During his visit to Iraq, Chirac also signed over around 70 Mirage fighters that were later used in gassing of the Kurds.

A read of the Belmont Club's recent articles about the French, and the comments by a few of his readers is very telling.

On 3 November, one of the Nimitz's escorts reported being overflown by a
plane bearing similar characteristics to the French built Atlantique, a
twin-propeller engine aircraft used for maritime surveillance and antisubmarine
warfare. Task Force 50 assets were unable to positively identify the aircraft,
although it appeared the plane tracked back to the west, either to Saudi Arabia
or Qatar, following its mission. No Gulf country has the Atlantique. On 9
November, an Atlantique-type aircraft again flew a maritime patrol profile in
the northern and central Arabian Gulf, even dropping a passive acoustic
listening device near a U.S. submarine operating on the surface. This time the
aircraft was tracked back to Doha, Qatar. It was later learned that two French
Atlantiques, deployed to Djibouti on the Red Sea, had flown to Qatar on 29
October for a bilateral training mission. The French made no excuses for their
activity, but it seemed strange that they should use a bilateral training
exercise to fly maritime surveillance patrol against U.S. ships during a period
of heightened tension.
Likewise, in early November, the French frigate Jean
de Vienne mysteriously deviated from her published schedule, which called for
port visits outside the Gulf, and instead loitered close to U.S. ships in the
northern Arabian Gulf until the crisis abated. The Jean de Vienne never actually
obstructed U.S. operations, but her presence and odd behavior were highly
suspect and a public statement from the French mission in Kuwait that the Jean
de Vienne was operating in close coordination with her coalition partners had a
disingenuous ring to it.

One of the readers also comments:

I was in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq on the Wimbrown VII. Our barge
had a one mile exclusion zone around it. One day while our CO was in Bahrain for
a conference a French helicopter flew into our exclusion zone. The guys in the
TOC were on the radio warning the French they were violating our airspace. The
French flew directly at us and then began circling the barge taking pictures.
The marines were calling down from their stinger position, begging to shoot the
helo out of the sky. The XO allowed them to fire pop flares straight up into the
air (not toward the helo). I remember seeing that photographer hanging out of
his helo and I remember feeling my anger rise. The Marines were out of their
mind crazy angry that they weren't allowed to shot these guys down. But, we
didn't do anything. The helo made about five circles and then flew away. We all
knew where the photos of our barge (patrol boats, little birds) were going

Chirac and perhaps France are the United States enemy #1, from pushing through the Euro [a tool to wage economic war against America], to dealings with America's enemies, and the blatant acts we read about here. Also many New Zealanders may still remember the French act of government terrorism against the protest ship the Rainbow Warrior.

How sweet would it be for President Bush to declare economic sanctions on France until Chirac steps down? It's probably never going to happen, but any country that has no accountability for it's leaders needs a serious shake up.

UPDATE:
Foxnews is also running an article titled 'The French Connection'. Not surprisingly Foxnews is the only major MSN organization picking up on this. I will only be happy when this is in massive headlines on the BBC website. I know I know, yeah right you say, well call me optimistic.

Reading Fox's article I came across this:
A French Investigator Watches
Eva Joly spent the better part of a decade as a French investigating magistrate looking into allegations of bribery involving French oil companies and senior politicians and political parties. Among her targets: Chirac's RPR party and Pasqua.
Her investigations brought convictions against more than 30 oil company executives, but thanks in part to France's immunity laws the top targets escaped.
There are several investigations going on concerning Mr. Chirac but he cannot even be heard as a witness because of this rule saying he has immunity, but as soon as he is out of office he will have to answer questions from the judiciary, Joly told FOX News.
Joly warned that anyone who pursues senior politicians in France faces real danger. Although no one has ever been charged with threatening her, Joly said her house was broken into, her telephones were bugged and her secretary was robbed. She said she feared for her life.
Now living in Norway, Joly will be watching closely as U.S. congressional investigators pursue the French connection to Oil-for-Food, hoping that an American investigation can succeed where the French probe failed.

This is the fellow I mentioned earlier. This is what he has to say:
Lawmaker: Reform Must Start at Top
French lawmaker Arnaud Montebourg said he believes that France’s perceived culture of corruption can be changed but that the changes must start at the top with Chirac.
Montebourg, a Socialist member of the French Parliament, said Chirac should be impeached because he is personally implicated in corruption.
“It's unacceptable for the world and for our reputation that our president is involved in such a way, so heavily, in very big cases of corruption, so I'm sorry to think that France is damaged by all this bad reputation,” Montebourg told FOX News.
Chirac has not faced prosecution in any scandals because French law gives him immunity from even being questioned until he leaves office despite any evidence against him.
Montebourg's party does not now have the votes in the French parliament to force impeachment and the French people don't seem to be clamoring to change the immunity laws.

What Foxnews doesn't mention is what he also said: 'The French people don't seem to care about this - they seem to expect a certian level of corruption with their politians'.

Will we ever see a Michael Moore movie screening in theatres across the world about this? Not after his warm reception in Cannes. Hey, no film awards for oil!