Muted Reaction in France to Saddam Bribery Allegations
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
October 8, 2004 7:00AM EST

By Eva Cahen
CNSNews.com Correspondent
October 08, 2004

Paris, France (CNSNews.com) - Allegations in the Iraq Survey Group's report that Saddam Hussein used the U.N. oil-for-food program to bribe senior officials and businessmen in France and elsewhere drew little reaction here Thursday.

French media focused instead on the ISG report's finding that there were no weapons of mass destruction stockpiles.

A spokesman for the Minister of Foreign Affairs said the report was being studied carefully.

"It will be necessary to make sure, very precisely, that the information is accurate, in the measure that we understand that these accusations against companies and individuals have not been verified with those concerned, nor with the authorities of the concerned countries," said spokesman Herve Ladsous.

President Jacques Chirac, on an official visit to Vietnam and China, did not comment on the charges.

The report, based on Iraqi intelligence documents and interrogations of imprisoned Iraqi officials, charges that Saddam gave certain French individuals lucrative oil vouchers in the expectation they would use their influence on the government in Iraq's favor.

Iraqi officials sought to improve relations with France because they wanted it to use its influence in the U.N. Security Council to lift sanctions against Iraq, it said.

Former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, interrogated in prison, said the French were willing to cooperate in order to gain advantageous oil contracts in Iraq once the sanctions were ended.

The report also said Iraqi officials even considered financing a candidate in the 2002 French presidential elections.

It said an intelligence memo to Saddam confirmed that a French official had given the Iraqis assurances that his government would veto any Security Council decision to attack Iraq.

One of the people named in the report as receiving oil vouchers was Charles Pasqua, a former interior minister. Pasqua denied the charges in January, when the allegation first appeared in a leaked report published by an Iraqi newspaper.

French newspapers on Thursday carried reports on the ISG document, concentrating on its finding that Saddam was not hiding WMD stockpiles.

Broadcast reports opined that President Bush's reelection campaign would be harmed by the findings because they provided evidence that he had been wrong when he claimed Saddam posed an immediate threat.

News stories that did mention the allegations regarding France emphasized that the report had been commissioned by the U.S.

They also pointed out that, in a list of alleged beneficiaries of Saddam's largesse contained in the ISG report, the names of American companies and individuals had been removed before the report was released.

The ISG report said the American names were removed because of U.S. privacy laws.

(One British name was also initially removed, but in a copy of the report released to British journalists, the name was given -- George Galloway, a former lawmaker in Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party and vociferous critic of the sanctions, who was kicked out of the party.)

The news reports also said that some of the individuals named as having receiving Iraqi vouchers had already denied it when claims came up last January.

Other reaction Thursday came in the form of a denial from a former Socialist defense minister, Pierre Joxe, whom the report said received a $1 million payment for his political party from Iraq some years before the oil-for-food program was launched.

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