France 'sought secret UN deal' in bid to avert row

[kskiska]

The French government offered a surprise compromise to the US president, George Bush, in the run-up to the war in Iraq, according to a detailed investigation published in Vanity Fair this week.

The report undermines the public perception of France standing resolutely against the US and Britain in the United Nations security council as the two countries tried to win a second resolution in support of war.

According to a 25,000-word investigation into the diplomatic wranglings in that pre-war period, the French government was offering to cut a behind-the-scenes deal with the US government.

At a lunch in the White House on January 13 last year, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, an adviser to the president, Jacques Chirac, and Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador in Washington, put the deal to Condoleezza Rice, the US national security adviser.

In an effort to avoid a bitter US-French row, the French officials suggested that if the US was intent on war, it should not seek the second resolution, according to highly placed US sources cited by Vanity Fair.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1185847,00.html

[TahitiNut]

1. Another smoking gun ...

"The investigation also claims that Mr Blair and Mr Bush discussed war against Iraq only nine days after the attack on New York on September 11 2001, even though Mr Blair was insisting up until just before the Iraq war began on March 20 last year that no decision had been taken.

"Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to Washington, is quoted in Vanity Fair as saying Mr Blair told Mr Bush over dinner that the US president should not be distracted by Iraq from the war against al-Qaida."


This is yet another corroboration of Richard Clarke's recitation of the facts, and a repudiation of the lies spun by the Busholinis.

[burrowowl]

2. Knew Chirac wasn't all that

anti-war. He is a right-winger.
I take back my almost good thought I had about him.

[keopeli]

3. Oh come on. He sees the US going to war no matter what...

Do you think he wanted a row with the US? Uh, I don't think so. He went on 60 Minutes, for Christ's sake, trying to plead with the people here not to go to war like this, but to wait a few months for the inspection to finish. He offered a compromise, like good diplomats would, that would help both parties. He acted in good faith, but Bush* needed an enemy after he got rid of Saddam.

Let's lay off the French, please. They've had more than enough from us.

IMHO


KEO

[burrowowl]

8. I lived in France for 20 years

and all my socialist, etc. friends do not care for the crook.
Vive Arlette!

[SquireJons]

5. Haiti

Should have told you all you needed to know about Chirac. He's a poser...

[SquireJons]

4. Since When?

Since when did Vanity Fair become a foreign policy academic journal? This is at least the third time in the last 2 years Vanity Fair has published journalistic scoop. They published an interview with Perle (I think) in which he confirmed the flights that picked up the Bin Ladens (et al) when all other flights were grounded. And there was something else they reported first... but I can't remember the details now.

I thought Vanity Fair was like Southern Living, or Better Homes and Gardens, not a white paper for the NSC. What gives here?

[democracyindanger]

6. Here's an idea

Why don't we read the Vanity Fair article when it comes out instead of an article about the article? :shrug:

[SquireJons]

7. Do you read Vanity Fair? If so, why?

[ultramega]

9. FYI, the April Vanity Fair kicks ass. Bev Harris and BBV.

It has a huge article about computerized voting, with a detailed timeline of Bev Harris from when she first got involved with this issue, all through the whole process and with a great picture of her standing in front of her state capitol building. It's an awesome primer for anyone who needs to be introduced to the BBV scandals, and on the editors page at the very front of the magazine he does a very cynical summary of BBV and ends with the line "Have a nice day".

Then there is the article on Neil Bush's divorce, titled "The Inconvenient Laura Bush" which is a lengthly expose on her divorce from Neil, and includes tales of his cavorting with Asian prositutes (although I was disappointed they didn't mention his herpes). It seems to me there were a couple other articles that rocked in there, and as loathsome as Christopher Hitchens is, in all the programs, panels and discussions on Gibsons "Passion of Christ" that I watched, he (contrib ed to VF) is the only one who very vocally ripped Gibson a new one about this film (except maybe David Denby from the New Yorker) and also the only person anywhere who has pointed out the homo-erotic undertones and Gibson's obsession with violence. Everybody at DU should at least read the April VF just to see Bev Harris get treated like the hero she is by a major magazine.

[Ravy]

10. Hmm.. Let's ask Contradicta about that on Thrusday.... (n/t)

[oasis]

11. No second resolution? Chimpy's "show your cards" challenge to the

UN Security Council was just more Bush bluster.