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Monday, April 28, 2003

Documents unearthed in the wreckage of the foreign ministry in Baghdad are the first Iraqi files to emerge documenting French help for the dictatorship, the Sunday Times reported. Paris shared with Baghdad the contents of private trans-Atlantic meetings and diplomatic traffic from Washington, the documents reveal.

The Times reported:

The information, said in the files to have come partly from "friends of Iraq" at the French foreign ministry, kept Saddam abreast of every development in American planning and may have helped him to prepare for war. One report warned of an American "attempt to involve Iraq with terrorism" as "cover for an attack on Iraq."

Another, dated September 25, 2001, from Naji Sabri, the Iraqi foreign minister, to Saddam's palace, was based on a briefing from the French ambassador in Baghdad and covered talks between presidents Jacques Chirac and George W Bush.

Chirac was said to have been told that America was "100% certain Usama bin Laden was behind the September 11 attacks and that the answer of the United States would be decisive."

The report also gave a detailed account of American attitudes towards Saddam amid anxiety in Iraq that the country might soon become a target of American reprisals.

The newspaper found a document in folders marked France 2001 that said, "Information available to the French embassy in Washington suggests that there is no intention on the part of the Americans to attack Iraq, but that matters might change quickly.

"According to French information, a discussion about Iraq is going on in Washington between Colin Powell and the Zionist [Paul] Wolfowitz [the deputy defense secretary]. Powell was against a military attack on Iraq whereas Wolfowitz was in favor of a strong military operation against Iraq."

The report said "the Israelis have informed the French ambassador in Washington that they have no evidence of Iraqi involvement in the attacks."

Also noted: an account of a meeting between Hubert Vedrine, former Socialist foreign minister of France, and Powell after 9/11. Powell reportedly revealed that he would discuss with Moscow its alliance with Baghdad.

Powell, the report said, "is going to ask the Russian foreign minister how Russia could co-operate with a country that had expressed satisfaction at America being subjected to such attacks. He is going to ask for a new draft resolution from the United Nations security council on Iraq."

Bernard Jenkin, British shadow defense secretary, said the briefings showed France's "duplicitousness."

Anti-Human-Rights France Fights Saddam's Foes

The Daily Telegraph today quoted a letter from the Iraqi secret service dated March 28 saying that "one of our sources" had met the deputy spokesman for the French foreign ministry "with whom he has good relations."

The letter added that no French visas would be given to Iraqi opposition leaders, who wanted to attend the meeting, which opened in a Paris hotel on April 14, 2000, the Telegraph said.

The documents regarding the human rights group Indict show that pro-Iraqi elements, "Iraq and Arab brothers," gained access to the conference at the Hotel La Concorde Lafayette. Indict's attempt to mount a protest outside the Iraqi ambassador's residence was foiled by the authorities.

A month after the meeting, a letter headed "Role of Southern France" from Saddam's office authorized the finance ministry to pay $383,439 to undisclosed beneficiaries.

British Labor Member of Parliament Ann Clwyd, who heads Indict, told the newspaper that she would demand an apology from the French government for its "atrocious" attitude.

The files were retrieved from the looted and burned foreign ministry by the Telegraph last week.

They include a six-page letter dated February 1998 from Hussein to Chirac, welcoming his support in the campaign against U.N. sanctions and assuring him that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.

The newspaper published an editorial on the case headlined "France's friends in Iraq."

Copyright 2003 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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