France: Mitterand's son accuse of Angolan arms-smuggling

[Oh Jerusalem]

Un enfant terrible. :o

French detain Mitterrand's son over arms

PARIS, June 24 (UPI) -- Late French President Francois Mitterand's son is under investigation for money laundering and arms sales to Angola, The Independent reported Thursday.

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, 58, has been under investigation since 2000 on the arms suspicion, and now faces new allegations he set up a bogus fish-processing factory in Mauritania.

Mitterrand denies the allegations and accused Judge Philippe Courroye of trying to destroy the memory of his late father.

Meanwhile, Mitterrand's bank accounts are frozen and he is officially penniless. Judge Courroye is said to be questioning the late president's son on how he came to make payments totaling $725,000 in cash to a company called Iwik in Mauritania.

The company was created by Mitterrand in 1997 to build a fish-processing factory but evidence shows it remained inactive until after Mitterand was arrested in December 2000.

Mitterrand insists he created the factory as part of a personal initiative to boost the economy of one of the world's most destitute countries.

The new accusations arise from evidence given to Judge Courroye by Olivier Collonge, a former director general of Iwik, who said he was given cash.




Copyright 2004 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.

[Fredo]

But France is a real obsession for you :o

and you know , corruption and arm smuggling isn't a French bad habit only ( but i am sure you know it )

go on with your France bashing campaign , you seem to love it
if at least France can bring you happyness , it's already something ;)

Shalom

[Oh Jerusalem]

Originally posted by Fredo
But France is a real obsession for you :o

and you know , corruption and arm smuggling isn't a French bad habit only ( but i am sure you know it )

go on with your France bashing campaign , you seem to love it
if at least France can bring you happyness , it's already something ;)

Shalom
Bon jour, Fredo! :)

I suggest you create a study of when my French-bashing posts began in a time-line comparison of when Israel and US bashing posts by several French forum members were already in full swing.

Coincidence? Non!

If you can't take it, don't dish it it out. Merci.

[Semsem]

<go on with your France bashing campaign <<

Fredo don't play the innocent one. France is a "hostile" State.

[Oh Jerusalem]

France is a "hostile" State.
That is an understatement. :o

France's secret dirty wars (http://www.newstatesman.com/site.php?newTemplate=NSArticle_NS&newDisplayURN=200406280013)
Becky Tinsley
Monday 28th June 2004

In looking after their interests abroad, the French have overlooked bribery, corruption and even genocide. Becky Tinsley reports on a foreign policy based on the cash register

When it comes to foreign policy, opinion polls as well as a sampling of Hollywood blockbusters show that Americans see themselves as the good sheriff, selflessly sorting out a strange and unpredictable world. But as they chew over the congressional report on 9/11, they are clearly struggling to come to terms with the reality of their latest foreign adventure.

In contrast, the French foreign ministry is unambiguous about its role: France is the birthplace of human rights and the cradle of the Enlightenment. Thanks to giants such as Voltaire, France inspired others - for example, in the United States - to liberate themselves from oppressive, corrupt aristocratic elites.

So much for self-image: in practice, the French are running the cash registers in a Wild West whorehouse. Not only do the French, like Edith Piaf, regret nothing: their determination to keep their arms exports booming pushes them to sidestep their own laws, not to mention the international conventions they have signed. While all countries tend to pursue a foreign policy based on self-interest, the French have a network of arms salesmen and military advisers working in concert within their perceived spheres of influence to supply mass murderers.

In an age when world leaders apologise for slavery or the Irish potato famine, and pledge adherence to an ethical foreign policy, the French prefer to overlook the parallels between their conduct in Algeria and the Americans' antics at Abu Ghraib prison. There are few revisionist voices questioning France's ability to embrace such paragons as Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein in any given conflict. One searches for a French politician of the stature of Robin Cook hurling intellectual grenades at their own government's moral inconsistencies.

The Elysee Palace's routine disregard of its clients' human rights records makes President Jacques Chirac's new status as hero of the left and guardian of Europe's conscience on Iraq all the more ironic. This is the same Jacques Chirac who, as French premier in the 1970s, sold Saddam Hussein two nuclear power plants ("This deal with France is the very first concrete step towards production of the Arab atomic bomb," gushed Saddam). Chirac later declared himself "truly fascinated by Saddam Hussein since 1974". France went on to sell the Ba'athist regime $1.5bn of weapons.

In the 1990s, the French oil giant TotalFinaElf spent six years developing the Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields, representing 25 per cent of Iraq's oil reserves. Alcatel won contracts worth $75m, its main task being to upgrade Baghdad's phone system; Renault sold Iraq $75m worth of farming equipment; and, once the trade embargo was partially lifted, France controlled 25 per cent of Iraq's imports. It is estimated that, in 2001 alone, 60 French firms did $1.5bn in trade under the now-suspect oil-for-food programme. In December 2003, when the US announced it was barring opponents of the Iraq war from bidding for US-financed projects worth $18bn, France professed astonishment. The then French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, said Iraq's sovereignty should be resolved before reconstruction could begin.



France was more enthusiastic about invading Afghanistan, and it has duly reaped the economic rewards. According to de Villepin, France has made Afghanistan a priority for financial assistance. It pays its 18 per cent share of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office budget, which in turn funds reconstruction. However, unlike the Germans, who are giving an additional $390m (£214m) over the next four years, the French have so far sent only an extra 33.7m (£22.4m) and are being bad-mouthed for not stumping up more in the present deteriorating security situation.

France has total armed forces of 450,000, of whom 5,000 are stationed in African states with which France has a "defence agreement". However, only 550 could be found for Afghanistan, where the Taliban are now resurgent in the south and east, and warlords in the north make the prospect of free and fair elections unlikely.

To be fair, the French are paying for the philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy to go to Afghanistan to "evaluate their needs and expectations". Meanwhile, Alcatel is installing the mobile-phone network for Kabul and five other cities.

In the Balkans, France still enjoys a cosy relationship with Serbia, despite the death of Francois Mitterrand and allegations about his son's business dealings. "Everyone has seen Radovan Karadzic chauffeured around the suburbs of Sarajevo," says Bernard McMahon, an aid worker in Bosnia. "It happens all the time. Karadzic gets out of the car and greets his people like he's a hero. The French peacekeepers must know he's there, because he couldn't be more obvious."

McMahon is a retired British army officer who has been in Bosnia since that war began. He says local Muslims feel betrayed, as war criminals move about freely while French soldiers look the other way. "People believe the French tip off the Serbs every time there's an operation."

Sympathetic observers point to France's large aid budget. At 0.41 per cent of GNP, it is slightly larger than Britain's 0.34, but much more than America's 0.14. A high proportion of this sum goes to Africa and pays for the global network of 1,000 Alliance Francaise centres, a brave attempt to hold back the global spread of US political hegemony, bubblegum culture, and the English language. But Richard Youngs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace questions France's commitment to propagating democracy, suggesting that its aid is focused on projects which spread French culture, rather than schemes that foster human rights and transparency in government, or fight corruption.

Linda Melvern, author of two studies on the Rwandan genocide, believes that French policy then, as now, is "almost beyond belief. The more one looks into their actions, the worse it gets. The French Senate inquiry into Rwanda was a whitewash . . ."

Her third book about Rwanda will concentrate on the role of France. She has a leaked memo confirming that the French supplied members of the interim government responsible for the massacres with satellite phones to direct operations across the country. "They hand-delivered them by courier," she says. "In the run-up to the massacres, the French had 47 senior officers living with and training the genocidaires. French policy is about influence and money and Francophonie," says Melvern. "They are very professional at manipulating the UN system. By controlling Boutros Boutros-Ghali, their candidate for UN secretary general, they determined what information about the Rwandan genocide reached the outside world."

Perhaps it is unfair to suggest that business interests might be tipping the balance against France's taking a stand on human rights in Sudan. Jemera Rone of Human Rights Watch explains that TotalFinaElf has oil concessions in southern Sudan that it cannot touch until the peace deal between Khartoum and the south sticks. The French are wary of giving the regime in Khartoum a hard time about its ongoing ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Darfur, in case it walks away from the southern peace deal, thus imperilling Total's prospects.

Burma is not part of the Elysee Palace's francophone project, but it is of great concern to TotalFinaElf, which has been involved in developing the Yadana gas pipeline project for nine years. The company boasts of "morally irreproachable behaviour on the part of our teams", but it seems its stirring declaration applies only to the salaried employees with written contracts. The Nobel prizewinning democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi says simply: "Total has become the strongest supporter of the Burmese military system."

Lord Alton of Liverpool, a regular visitor to Burma, believes there is a concerted attempt to end sanctions, cleverly orchestrated and probably bankrolled by supporters of the regime. "The leaders of the National League for Democracy and Burma's ethnic minorities are quite clear: no embargo should be lifted until significant moves have been made towards democracy. Rewarding a regime that has committed genocide against the Karen, imprisoned political dissidents and coerced vast numbers into forced labour would be a classic example of western economic interests triumphing over humanitarian and human rights concerns."

[Oh Jerusalem]

(continued)

Perhaps the nation that brought us the Enlightenment has the best of motives in lobbying enthusiastically - as it currently is - to end the EU sanctions on selling military equipment to China, imposed after the 1989 crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests. French exports increased 32 per cent to 4.6bn (£3.1bn) last year, and Chirac's backing for China is unwavering. He has warned Taipei not to provoke its giant neighbour; and he did so, undiplomatically, during a state visit to Paris by the Chinese president in January.

Maybe the French believe that human rights in China are improving. They would do well to consider the British manufacturer who supplies supermarkets with salads, and who sourced walnuts from China. He received customer complaints from people who had found human teeth in their food. Further investigation revealed that the walnuts were being cracked open by Chinese political prisoners using their teeth.

Andrew Wood from the Campaign Against Arms Trade says: "France is consistently in the top four arms suppliers and, in recent times, has been the lead supplier to developing nations as well as conflict zones like the Middle East and India/Pakistan."

A director of one of Marconi's military equipment businesses remarks that "the rest of us are amateurs. The French have a network of unaccountable government agencies and retired military officers helping arms manufacturers promote their goods. They link aid deals, credit guarantees and sweeteners, and they get the big sales. The British are getting better at this, but we're not in the same league as the French."

Amnesty International has criticised France for the lack of transparency of these agencies, and for their involvement in military services consultancies, particularly in Africa. "The French government still fails to ensure its export-licence and end-use monitoring systems prevent such transfer falling into the hands of those who have been responsible for human rights violations."

A book by Andrew Swindells due to be published early next year reveals the cynicism with which French interests are pursued in "la France Afrique". "Everything with France is about business, and nothing would make them blush. Officials shrug and say, 'Many people have died: c'est la vie.'" He believes that the Elf (part of the ubiquitous TotalFinaElf) corruption trial of 2003 gave us all a lesson in how France does business abroad.

But perhaps the most damaging consequence of France's policy is its vigorous defence of the annual 41.5bn (£27.5bn) of European Union agricultural subsidies, of which it takes 22 per cent, the largest share. Most NGOs believe little will improve in Africa while the EU, the United States and Japan dump cheap surpluses there. Farming accounts for 70 per cent of employment in Africa, and genuine fair trade is seen as one of the few ways to make globalisation work for the developing world. However, Oxfam claims, the French government is leading the anti-reformists, refusing to consider substantive reform until 2006.

Alongside the blatantly commercial focus of French foreign policy is France's desperation to keep its place on the UN Security Council. The Elysee's self-image is one of a wise and shrewd world power stiffening Europe's nerve against bloated US imperial ambition. No doubt the French are sincere - but listen carefully, and you will hear the ring of a cash register.

[Fredo]

Bonjour, Fredo! :)

I suggest you create a study of when my French-bashing posts began in a time-line comparison of when Israel and US bashing posts by several French forum members were already in full swing.

Coincidence? Non!

If you can't take it, don't dish it it out. Merci.

Shalom Oh Jerusalem

there is no need to study when your French-Bashing posts began since it's not the point.
You complain that there are Israel and US Bashing posts by several French
members and i can understand it , but why then do you do the same ?
Don't do to the others what you wouldn't like them to do to you.
If you have a problem with some French members then attack them directly
on the forum or by private message but there is no need that you attack
France or all French unless you really have hate and disdain for French people in general which is an other problem... ( and would explain your crusade against France).
Bashing From other people isn't an excuse to do the same otherwise i would have entered in a large campaign of bashing of the USA , Israel and Canada
since most of the members who repeatedly INSULT and bash France and French people are from these 3 countries. But if i have a problem with these members i let them know by private messages ( which i already did ) or on the forum and not by bashing their country. I have nothing against Canadians
Americans or Israelis and i don't see any reason why i would be insulting towards them or their country.

You are allowed to have any opinion about our governement or the governement's foreign policy , i am not fully satisfied with it myself , for exemple concerning some points of our policy towards Israel ( i took this exemple since it is the one who is the most likely to interest you )
You can critisize France on many points ( like many other countries including Israel ) but as long as your critics are fair and justified by facts i have no problem with it.

but no need for a French bashing campaign

toda raba.

[Fredo]

<go on with your France bashing campaign <<

Fredo don't play the innocent one. France is a "hostile" State.

I am not playing the innocent one , see my reply to Oh Jerusalem.

BTW , could you precise please what you mean by " hostile "

merci

[Oh Jerusalem]

Shalom Oh Jerusalem

there is no need to study when your French-Bashing posts began since it's not the point.
You complain that there are Israel and US Bashing posts by several French
members and i can understand it , but why then do you do the same ?
Don't do to the others what you wouldn't like them to do to you.
If you have a problem with some French members then attack them directly
on the forum or by private message but there is no need that you attack
France or all French unless you really have hate and disdain for French people in general which is an other problem... ( and would explain your crusade against France).
Bashing From other people isn't an excuse to do the same otherwise i would have entered in a large campaign of bashing of the USA , Israel and Canada
since most of the members who repeatedly INSULT and bash France and French people are from these 3 countries. But if i have a problem with these members i let them know by private messages ( which i already did ) or on the forum and not by bashing their country. I have nothing against Canadians
Americans or Israelis and i don't see any reason why i would be insulting towards them or their country.

You are allowed to have any opinion about our governement or the governement's foreign policy , i am not fully satisfied with it myself , for exemple concerning some points of our policy towards Israel ( i took this exemple since it is the one who is the most likely to interest you )
You can critisize France on many points ( like many other countries including Israel ) but as long as your critics are fair and justified by facts i have no problem with it.

but no need for a French bashing campaign

toda raba.
Until you publicly address the French anti-Israel crowd on this forum in the same manner that you're so quick to address me, don't bother pontificating to the rest of us. :o

[Oh Jerusalem]

Shalom Oh Jerusalem

there is no need to study when your French-Bashing posts began since it's not the point.
You complain that there are Israel and US Bashing posts by several French
members and i can understand it , but why then do you do the same ?
Don't do to the others what you wouldn't like them to do to you.
If you have a problem with some French members then attack them directly
on the forum or by private message but there is no need that you attack
France or all French unless you really have hate and disdain for French people in general which is an other problem... ( and would explain your crusade against France).
Bashing From other people isn't an excuse to do the same otherwise i would have entered in a large campaign of bashing of the USA , Israel and Canada
since most of the members who repeatedly INSULT and bash France and French people are from these 3 countries. But if i have a problem with these members i let them know by private messages ( which i already did ) or on the forum and not by bashing their country. I have nothing against Canadians
Americans or Israelis and i don't see any reason why i would be insulting towards them or their country.

You are allowed to have any opinion about our governement or the governement's foreign policy , i am not fully satisfied with it myself , for exemple concerning some points of our policy towards Israel ( i took this exemple since it is the one who is the most likely to interest you )
You can critisize France on many points ( like many other countries including Israel ) but as long as your critics are fair and justified by facts i have no problem with it.

but no need for a French bashing campaign

toda raba.
I'm not happy with my previous response to your call to me to cease and desist.

I definitely had prejudices against France prior to my recent negative posts about the country. A relative was simultaneously saved and made to suffer by French people during WWII. Nothing was done out of humanitarian passion but for the love of money. Disguised as a non-Jew, my relative blended in with the crowd in the French countryside. Whenever the subject turned to Jews, there was no lack of joyfull expression at what the Nazis were doing, ridding France for them of these people. And these weren't Vichy supporters.

Today's France hasn't changed much and it's not just because of France's Moslem population.

I have since childhood watched France endanger Israel by first turning its back on her militarily and diplomatically and then doing the best they could to assist Israel's enemies - ruthless enemies determined to destroy Israel.

The news items I post here on France bare out these feelings. France comes off appearing as a pig-headed, snobbish, elitist, hypocritical country, willing to let others rot so long as whatever it is is for the good of France.

Please, correct me if I'm wrong. Respond to my posts. Show me what's factually in error. Don't be like your fellow countrymen on this forum, who after we respond to their anti-Israel and anti-US rubbish showing facts contrary to their original claims, do not bother replying in return and instead obnoxiously start a new topic containing similar tripe.

When I see a sincerity by French posters here to accept contrary facts that disprove the fiction they post, I'll have much fewer reasons to maintain my prejudices against your country and its people.

[Fredo]

I definitely had prejudices against France prior to my recent negative posts about the country. A relative was simultaneously saved and made to suffer by French people during WWII. Nothing was done out of humanitarian passion but for the love of money. Disguised as a non-Jew, my relative blended in with the crowd in the French countryside. Whenever the subject turned to Jews, there was no lack of joyfull expression at what the Nazis were doing, ridding France for them of these people. And these weren't Vichy supporters.
I am sorry for what happened to your relative at the time and how he/she must have suffered , many bad things happened at the time , some French people definitely had bad behaviour ( without talking about pro-Nazi collaborators ) and i am not so surprised he heard some bad comments about Jews especially in the countryside , I never said we had only intelligent people , and some of them probably thought that Jews were partly responsible for their suffering. As for money being the motivation who lead some French to save some Jews , i am sure that it was indeed true for
some but not all , believe it or not but we do had and have people with an heart and not a wallet instead.

Today's France hasn't changed much and it's not just because of France's Moslem population

Today's France is far different from France of WWII , not only the population has changed a lot in it's diversity and origins, but the mentality as well. I won't dare to tell you there is no antisemitism in France ,even without being a Jew, I am not blind, there is antisemitism and not only among the Moslem community . But it isn't as much scarefully widespread as your medias want you to believe. French aren't a bunch of antisemites blaming Jews for all their problems otherwise the most serious candidates to replace Chirac as president ( from left or right ) wouldn't be Jewish. For exemple ,Sarkozy , who has never hidden his Jewish origins is one of the most serious candidates from right and also the most popular of all the ministers of our actual governement .
The worrying thing about antisemitism in France, since it's what interest you, is the growing influence of the Moslem community. Not only they are the main perpetrators (and by far) of antisemitic acts but their favorite insult " don't be a dirty Jew "or " you are just a ing Jew " (sorry) start to be used by some non Moslems teens around 12-14 years old who just don't realise the gravity of their words.
Still it isn't so widespread , and i know what i am talking about since i have been in charge of groups of teens (some of them coming from difficult neighbourhoods) in my sport club, But don't worry we don't stand there with the arms crossed , parents and teachers at school do act since it's grave.
It's a problem of lack of education , that's why you encounter this new problem mostly with young teens , but growing up , with the education they receive ( studying Holocaust in History class for exemple ) they realise the gravity of such words and they don't use it anymore. Of course it can't be perfect and some keep prejudices against Jews...

I have since childhood watched France endanger Israel by first turning its back on her militarily and diplomatically and then doing the best they could to assist Israel's enemies - ruthless enemies determined to destroy Israel.


France-Israel relationship is an other story.

France indeed dropped Israel at the moment Israel needed help the most just to sell more weapons and to make money. I think this is one the biggest (if not the biggest) mistake that Charles De Gaulle has ever done
even with all the respect i have for all the good things he has done for France. It was huge mistake since this pro-arab politics brought us many troubles that we paid in the past and that we still pay nowadays but more over because you must never drop your allies ( yes some people here won't like it but France and Israel were allies) for anything and even less money.
It's also true that today's European and French foreign policy towards Israel isn't really fair on several points , i agree. I don't always understand myself what direction is heading our foreign policy.

The news items I post here on France bare out these feelings. France comes off appearing as a pig-headed, snobbish, elitist, hypocritical country, willing to let others rot so long as whatever it is is for the good of France.

BUT if France indeed does whatever needed for its good , it's also TRUE for many if not all other countries. Let me remind you How Israel tried to sell advanced radar technology to China and the Help given to the same China to build a fighter based on the knowledge IAI ( Israel aircraft Industries) acquired from the Lavi project. The radar deal has been cancelled due to American pressures since the USA saw a threat in letting China acquiring such advance technology. But we can also wonder if Israel cares about the way China could have used it , like attacking Taiwan for exemple... don't you think so ?

Well , just to tell you that what i reproach you for isn't your critics towards France , has long as they are fair and that you have a proof , what i reproach you for is your personnal crusade towards France and French people , like if France was the worst evil country on earth , the only one to act for its good only and the one responsible for all the problems in the world. it's not the case.
There is a lot to say about many countries behaviour , not just France...

You just keep on posting everything you can find about France in the simple goal to bash it.
you are not even looking for a constructive debate , you are looking for people to support youand your vision of France and French people.
We have understood you didn't like France and French, no need to remind it to us everyday...

When I see a sincerity by French posters here to accept contrary facts that disprove the fiction they post, I'll have much fewer reasons to maintain my prejudices against your country and its people.

OK , Show us the way... :rolleyes:

[Oh Jerusalem]

OK , Show us the way... :rolleyes:
Apres vous!

Novelist Nidra Poller delivers chilling message: No solution in sight to French anti-Semitism (http://www.jewishledger.com/articles/2004/05/05/news/news07.txt)
By Debbie Levison

May 7, 2004 - To hear Nidra Poller tell it, you'd think she was describing Germany of the 1930's: the rise of a popular right-wing government; a well-oiled propaganda machine; a ghettoized Jewish community; tolerance for rabid anti-Jewish rhetoric….

But Poller wasn't describing pre-WWII Germany, she was discussing the France of today, and her words were frightening.

Speaking at Congregation Beth El in Fairfield last week, Poller, an ex-patriot American writer who has lived in France since 1972, detailed the development of a society in which the most virulent forms of anti-Semitism are tolerated.

"Understanding the situation in France is like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. Beginning in the early weeks of September 2000 [at the start of the current wave of Palestinian violence against Israelis], there were massive Pro-Palestinian demonstrations where people began shouting ‘Death to the Jews,'" Poller said. "It was illegal, but no one stopped them. Soon it was all right to write ‘Death to the Jews' in graffiti on apartment buildings. Before we knew it, synagogues were being burned, buses carrying Jewish school children were stoned, and Jewish children and rabbis were beaten in the streets. Recently, there have been two ritual murders of Parisian Jews by Muslims."

French media, she said, was also connected to the Palestinian violence from the earliest stages: prestigious French publications first carried the story of Mohammed al Dura, the boy who became a symbol of supposed Israeli aggression when he was killed cowering behind his father. Poller said that although it was later proven that Israeli bullets could not have reached the child, the credence given to the fabricated reports overshadowed the later findings.

The diminutive, expressive grandmother spoke softly and with a slight accent as she added more pieces to the growing puzzle: a constant barrage of anti-Israel propaganda in the press and anti-Israel sentiment in the government, combined with untethered Arab immigration to France and the new glorification of Islam in the society. "Young girls who were born in France are now wearing black from head to toe, just as they do in Saudi Arabia," she said.

What can be done to reverse the situation for the Jews in France? Not much, Poller says. After four years of increasingly pervasive anti-Semitism in the society, key elements are blocking a Jewish response. Firstly, that Arabs can act against Jews with impunity — even those who are caught on film beating Jews, and, unbelievably, even those who confess to murdering Jews — are not arrested or tried for their crimes. Secondly, anti-Semitism has pervaded the intellectual elite: countless books and articles against Judaism and Israel are circulated, so that there is a propaganda flood similar to the 1930s. Thirdly, the Muslim population is becoming more obviously unassimilated, more violent, and more politicized. And fourthly, there is systematic opposition to Israel and the United States.

The result is that Jews are blocked in.

"Jews cannot sue; they cannot speak out; they cannot write about what's happening. If one does, one is accused of ‘upsetting the harmony of France'. Jews are in a ‘virtual ghetto': their choice is either to be publicly anti-Zionist or to face exclusion or victimization. And the Jews think it will blow over! They are very Frenchified, have lived there for generations, and also they are afraid that if they make too much ‘noise,' they will lose the limited police protection they have now," Poller said.

Beth El congregant Jerry Gordon, an acquaintance of Poller's, arranged her lecture in conjunction with the Community Relations Commission.

"Nidra's message is most important for American Jews to hear, because it puts us all on notice about the dangers of the Arab "Islamist" seduction of France and other European nations, and tolerance of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American rhetoric and actions," he said.

"World-wide anti-Semitism is a real threat, particularly in Western Europe, and we have all been asleep while it has achieved menacing proportions. Nidra Poller is sounding a much-needed alarm," added Rabbi Leon Waldman of Congregation Beth El.

[Mediocrates]

I'd also add that our French contingent here is quick to pooh-pooh the fact that twice as many French are making aliyah from last year and that given the large number of Jews in France makes the number of olim small in comparison,

The number of French Jews who have emmigrated to the US is almost three times higher than that; about 8000 so when you add the two together and compare it to the actual figure for the population of French Jews commonly listed at 600,000 but is probably closer to 575,000 the actual amount of net emmigration is 1.8%

[Fredo]

I'd also add that our French contingent here is quick to pooh-pooh the fact that twice as many French are making aliyah from last year and that given the large number of Jews in France makes the number of olim small in comparison,

The number of French Jews who have emmigrated to the US is almost three times higher than that; about 8000 so when you add the two together and compare it to the actual figure for the population of French Jews commonly listed at 600,000 but is probably closer to 575,000 the actual amount of net emmigration is 1.8%

No no , we are perfectly aware of the growing number of French Jews leaving France every year either for Israel or for the USA .
That's a pity that all these people leave their country because they feel unsafe and/or dropped by the rest of the population.
though they are doing exactly what arabics want them to do...
But we can't prevent those people to leave.
If they think their life will be better in the USA or in Israel , it's ok.
Good luck to them in their new life.

[Oh Jerusalem]

Good luck to them in their new life.
Good luck to you in your old one.

[Oh Jerusalem]

That corrupt sh**ty little country called France!

How France's 'Mr Africa' operated (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1083177.stm)
By the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt

Jean-Christophe Mitterand - the oldest son of the former French President Francois Mitterrand - is in custody in Paris, detained for questioning about illegal arms deals and the misuse of company funds.

But France's "Mr Africa" was once right at the heart of the very particular relationship between the French Government and the African continent.

When Jean-Christophe was his father's Africa advisor in the 1980s, the relations between France and Africa, particularly her former colonies, were extremely - some said unhealthily - close and intensely personal.

Most of these countries were run by autocratic presidents who liked to deal directly with President Mitterrand, bypassing the Foreign Ministry and other official channels.

Favours

Discreetly they could ask for favours - arms, money, help with troublesome opponents, a good word on their behalf with the IMF, a comfortable retirement if things got difficult at home.

And the favours flowed both ways.

Their support raised France's international profile, their contracts always went to French companies, and several African leaders are believed to have made substantial donations to French political parties.

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand - with his direct line to the President - was the man who could make things happen.

Channels

The whole essence of the system was that things could be done which would not have been possible if they'd had to go through official channels, and be subject to public and parliamentary scrutiny.

When his father left office, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand lost his job and became a businessman, exploiting his African contacts in various private deals.

The deal now being investigated dates from 1993 and 1994, and involved the sale of Russian weapons and equipment to Angola.

At the moment Mr Mitterrand has only been held for questioning; it is not clear whether he will eventually face criminal charges.

[Mediocrates]

http://www.postwatchmagazine.com/2004/07/gaullist_africa.html

Whole villages in Bamileke Cameroun were napalmed by the French Army. Says French pilot, Max Bardet, who participated in some of the mass murders in the jungles. “They killed anything between 300.000 to 400.000 people; a veritable genocide. They virtually annihilated a tribe. It was a matter of spears versus rifles. The natives had no chance and they were butchered exactly like Attila the Hun erased villages.”

Cover:
Gaullist Africa Resurrected
By Ntemfac Aloysius Nkong Ofege

The French are coming! Oh yes, they are! On January 19th, 2001, President Chirac of France will lead his throng to a newly beautified Yaounde, Cameroun’s capital city. Another France-Africa Summit will be underway. The theme of this year’s summit is: holy thy breath: Africa and Globalisation, a frontal attack on US imperialism and its extreme form called globalisation. The view from way away is that the Yaounde Summit is yet another attempt to launch another attack on Anglo-Saxon values (which values, with hindsight do not include the Neanderthalian America neo-conservatism and the bush art of torturing and sexually abusing prisoners of war in Iraq). There are reasons enough for any English-speaking observer to be miffed. We explore the reasons for a legitimate anger at the French.

The Earlier Rwanda I

Some forty years ago, between 1952 and 1970, French soldiers murdered some 500.000 Camerounians – Bassas and Bamilekes in the main – in the jungles of French Cameroun.

The mass slaughter of what was then the Army for the Liberation of Kamerun (ANLK), led by a certain Martin Singap, was executed with the blessing of the now-dead Ahmadou, Ahidjo, then president of Cameroun.

Whole villages in Bamileke Cameroun were napalmed by the French Army. Says French pilot, Max Bardet, who participated in some of the mass murders in the jungles. “They killed anything between 300.000 to 400.000 people; a veritable genocide. They virtually annihilated a tribe. It was a matter of spears versus rifles. The natives had no chance and they were butchered exactly like Attila the Hun erased villages.”

French Defense Minister at the time, Pierre Guillaumat reveals that Ahidjo’s mentor at the time; Foccart dispatched a veritable war machine against the Bamilekes in Cameroun. “Foccart played an important role in this business,” says Guillaumat. “ Between them Ahidjo, Foccart and the French Secret Service crushed the Bamilekes.”

French military information, now unclassified, reveals that Foccart sent out five divisions, one tank unit, T26 bombers, and a veteran of the ill-fated Indo-China campaign, General Max “The Viking” Briand to savage the Camerounian nationalists.

Charles Van de Lanoitte, Reuters correspondent or Douala (1960-1961) says in one swoop some 40.000 people were killed in bassaland. Arrested nationalists were tortured to death and buried in mass graves. The greatest nightmare for the natives was to be arrested for those arrested never came back alive.

The balançoire, a torture system wherein natives were tied upside down and then flogged on the genitals as they swung from end to end was used massively in French Cameroun.

Bassas and Bamilekes involved in the independence struggle were arrested in their numbers and tortured to death. The death chambers were the infamous BMM (Brigades Mobiles Mixtes) cells scattered all over Francophone Cameroun. The torturer-in chief was no other than the late Fochive Jean.
The French Secret Service (the service for External Documentation and Counter-Espionage) created a local arm in Cameroun to fish out the Camerounian nationalists.

What the world is only just discovering with the direct participation of the French in the ultra mayhem in Rwanda –where 1.500.000 people were slain – is that French genocidal practices in Africa is not new. The French murdered the Arabs and destroyed infrastructure. The French organized another little mayhem in Vietnam until they were thrashed at Dien Bien Phu.
The French have always been guilty of supplying arms to rival warring factions in Africa. Standard French practice is to “flatter the president, fund the opposition, and then arm the rebels.”

“We have been supplying arms to the FAR (Hutu dominated Rwandan Armed forces) by passing through Goma,” the former French Cooperation Minister, Michel Roussin told a reporter, “But we will reuse that if you publish it.”

The Elf PresidentII

On June 3rd 1999, the presidency of Cameroun put out a disclaimer saying that Cameroun’s president Mr. Paul Biya never “borrowed” the sum of 27 billion FCFA from the French Oil Company, Elf for his 1992 re-election bid.
The disclaimer was in reaction to an article in the French satirical journal, Le Canard Enchainé, taken up by Le Messager No 923 of June 4th 1999. The publication said that Mr. Biya requested and obtained the sum of 27 Billion FCFA from the IHAG-HANDAELSBANK of Zurich, which bank is owned by the Ditter Buhrle family. The Ditter Buhrle family deals in arms.
The big loan transited through Elf-Cameroun. Members of the Charles Pasqua racket in France that facilitated the loan got 15 Billion FCFA for their pains.
The publication said that the money to Pasqua was channeled through an offshore bank called Faraday in the Virgin Islands. Mr. Pasqua, who called on Mr. Biya before the elections to finalise the deal, personally made 9 Billion FCFA from the scam.

The disclaimer from Cameroun’s presidency dated June 4th never refuted the transaction. It only added that Cameroun’s Hydrocarbon Corporation, SNH had the right to borrow money through pre-financing deals.

OIL and the Foreign Legion

French design has always been to maintain a strong military presence in the Central and West African pre-carré under the so-called “military defense and cooperation treaties” signed with Francophone Africa at the dawn of independence.

Since independence, France has sustained some 8 military bases and about 10.000 troops in areas as diverse as Chad, the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroun and Zaire. These soldiers have always been used to main local dictators in place and sustain French neo-colonialism.

Frightened that the opposition would seep him out of power in 1992, Mr. Biya caused some 500 French troops to move from their base in the Central African Republic and take up positions about Yaounde’s Etoudi Palace. “What are 500 French troops doing at Etoudi?” was a provocative headline by the then Publisher of the Cameroon Post, Paddy Akoh Mbawa, based on a scoop revealed to the newspaper by a top army official. Cameroon’s military intelligence, SEMIL, mounted a manhunt for Mr. Mbawa, not so much, because the veracity of the story was challenged but because the military wanted to know how the journalist got the story.

Between 1962-1994, there were 18 direct French interventions in Africa to maintain French neocolonialism.

French sallies in Africa include:

1. The 1950-1970 forays into Cameroun at the behest of Ahidjo to savage militants of the banned Union des Populations du Cameroun, UPC;
2. The 1962 expedition to maintain Leopold Sedar Senghor in power in Senegal;
3. The 1964 and 1990 intervention in Gabon to maintain Leon Mba and Omar Bongo respectively;
4. Various expeditions in Chad in 1968, 1978, 1983, and 1986 to impose the following dictators: Tombalbaye, Malloum, Hissene Habre.
5. In 1990, the French-backed Idriss Derby. They have since given Mr. Derby the wherewithal to stay in power;
6. In 1978, the French barged into Zaire to save Mobutu. La Legion saute sur Kolwezi is a movie claiming French prowess in the Congo. After being outwitted by a Ugandan-Rwandan backed rebellion led by Kabila, the French took sides with the Bayamulenge-Rwandan Hutu posse that tried to topple Kabila in 1988;
7. The French intervened in Central Africa in 1979 to impose Kolingba. When troops in Central Africa rioted in 1997 over unpaid salaries, the French Foreign Legion moved in;
8. The French oil concern, ELF, was very involved in the 1996-1997 fight in the Congo on the side of Sassou Ngessou against the elected president, Pascal Lissouba;
9. Bongo remains in power in Gabon thanks to hi great cpacity to bribe French politicians through ELF;
10. The French intervened in Togo in 1986 to maintain the tyrant Eyadema;
11. French mercenary, Bob Denard, has, often with the backing of the French government, executed several coup d’états in the Comoros;
12. The French were directly linked to the mayhem in Rwanda. The SAM 6 missile that downed Habyarimana’s plane and triggered the Rwanda massacre came from a French military depot. Even before that, French forces intervened in Rwanda in 1989, 1990 and 1993 to stop the Rwandan Patriotic Front from toppling Habyarimana.
13. In 1994, the French launched Operation Turquoise which, in reality, permitted the Hutu-dominated, Rwandan Armed Forces, FAR to execute a return match against the Tutsi-led Rwandan patriotic Forces;
14. In 1992, the French sent 500 soldiers to keep Mr. Biya in power in Cameroun;
15. The French intervened in the Cote d’Ivoire in 2003 to prop up Laurent Gbagbo