Former French interior minister Charles Pasqua has given the United States Senate the proverbial two-fisted flip-off over its probe into the oil-for-food scandal. Pasqua, who has been implicated in the scandal, claims that the investigation into his alleged misdeeds is part of a “general campaign under way in the United States against France.” The International Herald-Tribune reports:
Charles Pasqua, a former interior minister of France who has been accused by U.S. lawmakers of involvement in corruption in the oil-for-food program for Iraq, said Monday that he was caught in the cross-fire of what he called a U.S. campaign against France.
At his first press conference to deny claims that he received millions of barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein’s regime, Pasqua said he had no link to a Swiss company that supposedly handled oil allocations on his behalf.
“I have the impression that I am being used, used in this campaign,” the former interior minister said. “And I don’t intend to sit idly by.”
This pundit hopes that Pasqua’s intention to not “sit idly by” doesn’t mean that he plans to unleash the full force and might of France’s military arsenal on the United States.
Last week, a U.S. Senate committee presented what it said was evidence that Pasqua and a British lawmaker, George Galloway, had received oil allocations from Saddam in return for backing his regime and its campaign against UN sanctions on Iraq.
…
Pasqua said he had asked the president of the French Senate, of which he is a member, for a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the allegations. He said he had not received a reply.
I don’t know what happened with Pasqua — very few people do know for certain. He may be Mother Theresa, he may be former French Foreign Minister Talleyrand (fond of chasing bribes… and women… Talleyrand is perhaps most famous to Americans for his role in bringing about The XYZ Affair, the 1798 gaffe which nearly led to a war between the U.S. and France). I must, however, point out this very strange pre-emptive defense already implemented by Pasqua:
“I have never been to Iraq. I have never met Mr. Saddam Hussein. I never received anything from the Iraqis, in any domain,” Pasqua said.
“If my name appears on documents as having benefited from allocations, it can only be the result of fraudulent behavior committed by certain people who used my name,” he said.
This is an awfully specific “hypothetical” allegation. “If my name appears on documents”? It sounds like, perhaps, Mr. Pasqua has stepped in it with this comment. We’ll see how it plays out.
Nathan Novak at 6:47 pm
Novak, good website. Send me an email sometime.
Comment by Jacob Folks — June 8, 2005 @ 10:21 am