A French Connection?

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

And now the most riveting two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

A French Connection?

While the French government says it -- "condemns with the utmost firmness" the six-missile attack on a Baghdad hotel Sunday that killed an American colonel and wounded 17 others, a new report says half of the missiles fired into that hotel were made in France.

What's more, the three rockets were produced after the U.N. (search) arms embargo was imposed on Iraq in 1990, according to the report in The British Sun. The French government, however, has strongly denied being a part of any violations of U.N. sanctions.

Getting Does Not Prompt Giving…

A daily newspaper in Iraq says Germany -- which has refused to put any money into the rebuilding of Iraq -- did spend $100 million for an exhibit at an Iraqi trade fair two months before the war in Iraq began, while sanctions against doing business with Iraq were still in place.

Related

The Al-Zaman newspaper then notes that after World War II -- "Germany would not have reached its political, social and economic [status] without the complete and total commitment of the U.S. and the Marshall Plan (search)."

Presidential Support Is Anti-American?

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy (search) has called the President's reasons for war a -- "fraud" and accused him of lying repeatedly.

But noted historian Arthur Schlesinger (search) -- who was special assistant to Kennedy's brother in the White House -- is worried there's not enough dissent, insisting -- "To rally around the president during a time of war is not in the American tradition." Schlesinger, speaking at Northwestern University and quoted in the school's newspaper, went on to denounce what he calls "America's new strategy" of preemption, saying it is like the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor before World War II.

No Position?

A spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch (search) says our characterization of her organization last week as -- "vehemently anti-war" is untrue. She says her organization has not taken a position on the Iraq war or any war.

We accept her point, but we note we have been unable to find anything favorable her organization has had to say about the U.S.-led coalition or its performance in Iraq. Indeed, the executive director of the organization called the start of the war a -- "horrendous crisis."

FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report

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