Stardate 20030214.1518

(Captain's log): What a surprise.

Blix gave a mixed report and said he wanted more time for the inspections.
The US denounced Iraq and said that they are not cooperating.
Russia said that the inspections are working and should be given more time.
China said that avoiding war was the top priority.
France said that the inspections are working and should be given more time.
They suggested that the subject be tabled for a month and reconsidered in the middle of March.

French Foreign Minister de Villepin wore his robes of sanctimony:

De Villepin drew a rare burst of applause from the visitors' gallery when he announced, in a jibe at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, that his message "to give peace a chance" came from "an old country" in Europe.

"This message comes to you today from an old country ... that does not forget and knows everything it owes to the freedom fighters who came from America and elsewhere -- and yet has never ceased to stand upright in the face of history and before mankind," he told the council.

"It wishes resolutely to act with all the members of the international community. Faithful to its values, it believes in our ability to build together a better world," de Villepin said.

Richard Perle, the official-unofficial member of the government who seems to be saying what everyone else in the government is thinking, says that this is bunk. France is not motivated by high moral principles and a wish to prevent war; it's motivated by money because it's sold out to Saddam.

Richard Perle, a former US Assistant Defence Secretary, said the French anti-war stance was driven by economic interests. French oil giant TotalFinaElf has exclusive exploration contracts worth €60bn - €75bn to develop the massive Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields in southern Iraq, he said.

“What’s distinctive about the Total contract is that it’s not favourable to Iraq, it’s favourable to Total,” Mr Perle, the chairman of the Pentagon’s Defence Policy Board, said during an address in New York.

“One can suspect that there’s some arbitrage there, that in between the real value of that contract and the cash value of that contract there’s a certain amount of political support.

“It’s entirely possible that Saddam negotiated that deal because that along with the revenues, he could get something else.”

He said oil experts who had analysed the deal described it as “extraordinarily lopsided” in favour of the French company.

“This is not your normal oil exploration contract.”

Which brings me to my comment: