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France
To Protest U.S. Disinformation Campaign: Report
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Chirac maintained his opposition to an unauthorized war against Iraq
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WASHINGTON,
May 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The French government
will officially complain it is the victim of an organized campaign of
disinformation by the U.S. media over the past nine months and that the
White House does nothing about it, the Washington Post
said Thursday, May 15.
The
unprecedented complaints will be included in a letter signed by French
ambassador Jean-David Levitte to be delivered Thursday to U.S.
government officials and Congress, French officials told the daily.
The
officials said they have no doubt that the sources of the
disinformation, aimed at discrediting France with allegations of
complicity with the toppled Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, came from
within the U.S. administration, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
A
senior administration official consulted late Wednesday, May 14, by the Washington
Post dismissed the French charges as "utter nonsense."
French-U.S.
relations began cooling last year when Paris opposed pressure by the
administration of President George W. Bush to get a UN Security Council
resolution authorizing military force against Iraq for its alleged
weapons of mass destruction.
Relations
further deteriorated when France opposed the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization giving Iraq-related security assistance to Turkey, just
before the U.S.-led war in March and April 2003 that toppled the Saddam
regime.
The
French ambassador includes in his letter a two-page list of newspaper
articles beginning with a New York Times story in
September alleging French weapon sales to Iraq, to the latest report in
the Washington Times last week.
As
a part of the frantic smear U.S. campaign against France for its staunch
opposition to the U.S.-led war on Iraq, the Washington
Times claimed
Tuesday, May 6, that Paris supplied a number of former Iraqi officials
with passports allowing them to escape from Anglo-American forces.
The
Washington Post said the French official believed the
primary suspects of spreading such allegations were "hard-line
civilians within and close to the Pentagon".
The
French official also complained that there were no visible efforts by
the White House or other U.S. government departments to discipline those
involved or even find out who they were.
The
allegations of French cooperation with the Saddam regime, particularly
the issuing of French passports to Iraqi fugitives, have prompted calls
from U.S. lawmakers for an investigation.
As
the U.S. called on the United Nations to
lift economic sanctions on Iraq, France, along with Germany and
Russia, insisted
that the United Nations should be the one to decide how and when the
sanctions should be lifted.
Powell
threatened on April 22, that France would suffer
consequences for its staunch anti-war stance.
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