|
Stardate
20030123.1503 (On Screen via long range sensors): Chris Hitchens writes for the Mirror that apparently the Iraqis have been engaging in some big-time bribery.
A very senior former inspector, who is a highly-regarded international civil servant, told me that he had been offered his own personal Swiss bank account by a top official in Saddam's government, on condition that he produced a favourable report.
HE declined the offer, which he later discovered had been accepted by some junior members of his staff.
The Iraqis later tried to poison his food, which he had to have flown in from Bahrain thereafter.
It's completely believable. But of course it also begs the question: just who have they bought, and how high up does this go? Could this be part of what the French and Germans might be trying to hide?
Update: According to this post from Germany, French exports to Iraq in 2002 were worth €660 billion. If so, it's a major part of their economy and if they lose it France will be in deep trouble. But it's hard to believe that number, since the CIA World Factbook says the total GDP of France was $1.5 trillion (with € and $ roughly at parity). I think there's a mistake in there somewhere.
Still, the point is a valid one: if the French economy now is heavily dependent on trade with Iraq, then war might well cause their economy to collapse.
Update: Rats; when I wrote the above entry I was looking at an entry in English written by a blogger in Germany but I forgot to actually plug in the URL, and now I can't find it again. Sorry about that. Anyway, I have a suspicion that it was supposed to read "660 million" rather than "billion" in the original.
Update: I have the best readers in the world. John comes through for me; here's the link I should have plugged in above. He also says that the article it links to actually does say "million" instead of "billion".
Meanwhile, another reader (no name given) points to this article which suggests that the actual number is higher. Of course, it's "Arabic News" so it's anybody's guess whether it's accurate. But what it says is that French trade with Iraq was $1.5 billion in 2001 and was expected to rise to $2 billion in 2002. That is definitely a big chunk of change, and given how much trouble the French economy already is in, losing that really could be pretty serious. But I don't think it's enough to explain Chirac's behavior. There's something else going on.
include
+force_include -force_exclude
|
