France: Sarkozy Election (July 7th People's Independent Inquiry Forum)

Title: France: Sarkozy Election

freedomfiles - May 17, 2007 10:18 AM (GMT)

Some interesting backgrounders on the French elections and the new President, Nicolas Sarkozy :

QUOTE

Sarkozy and the "Decline" of France:The Great Illusion
by Jean Bricmont
May 15, 2007
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...&articleId=5647

Two thirds of French people think their country is in decline. That is without doubt the principal reason why Nicolas Sarkozy was elected President of the Republic. Moreover, the main way the media contributed to his triumph was by years of constant propaganda on the theme of "the decline of France", along with the related theme of "security".

There are various ways to counter that notion. One is to show that the selection and interpretation of the statistics used to "prove" France's decline are extremely biased. (For example, on the subject of youth unemployment, see Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C., "An Economist View of the French Election".)

Another approach is to ask what solutions are proposed by the heralds of "decline".

The declinists cleverly mix up two problems. One is the decline of France in relation to the emerging countries, especially in Asia. The other is the supposed decline of France in relation to other industrialized countries, especially the United States and Britain. The first form of "decline" is merely the reflection of a very positive development: the fact that large parts of the Third World are catching up with the industrialized West. But, since it would make no sense to propose imitating China and India, the declinists propose imitating the Anglo-American model, which is supposed to avoid decline by a series of measures: flexible work conditions, destruction of hard-won social protections and public services, tough security enforcement and moral rearmament.

But let's take a closer look at their favorite model, the United States. The Americans have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to invade Iraq. Thousands of their soldiers have been killed, tens of thousands wounded, and they are completely stuck. They can't win, because they have succeeded in turning the immense majority of Iraqis against them, and they can't leave, because it would mean the end of their empire. And so they are going to be bogged down in Iraq for many years, losing still more men, money and prestige, while causing unspeakable and useless suffering to the Iraqi people. And why are they in Iraq? Among other things, thanks to manipulation of public opinion concerning weapons of mass destruction. The Americans have intelligence services that spy on the whole world, a free press with immense resources, universities packed with specialists on every conflict and problem on earth. And yet, they have not been able to understand the most elementary realities, that even a child traveling to the Middle East could understand, that is, that they are hated primarily because of their support to Israel, and that their intervention in the region is bound to provoke massive rejection.

If that blend of incapacity, ignorance and arrogance is not symptomatic of a society in decline, then it's hard to imagine what "decline" is all about. Slight gaps in GNP and unemployment rates are minor technicalities in comparison. France, in contrast, which in 2003 still had an elite described as "aging, outdated, behind the times"--but still able to think--did not go along with that madness.

But that's not all. The rest of the world, and especially France, is constantly called upon to do as the United States does. Now, let us imagine that by the wave of a magic wand, the rest of the world really starts to imitate the United States. Where will they get all the petroleum and other raw materials that the United States imports in vast quantities, on which its society is totally dependent to preserve its way of life? Where will they get the immigrant workers, often undocumented, that is, without rights, or the floods of cheap imported goods which are not even really paid for, since they are financed by ever-expanding trade deficits, but which enable workers who have lost their industrial jobs to continue to consume the things they need? And finally, where will they get the brains that the United States drains from the rest of the world; because it is cheaper to offer high salaries to lure people who are already well educated than to finance a genuine system of mass education?

The fact is that the American model is impossible to imitate, because its very survival depends on the existence of a world outside the United States which is quite different. It is true that the situation of Europe is fairly similar, but it is precisely our degree of proximity to the "American model" that is the proper gauge of our decline. Moreover, without the military power of the United States, neither France nor Europe can even try to prolong a situation that is untenable in the long term.

It is rather amusing to see Sarkozy, who is supposed to embody "the France that works hard and wins", score his greatest electoral hit among retired voters. His program, like that of George W. Bush, is not turned toward the future in a realistic way, but on the contrary attracts people who long for the good old days when Europe and the United States were far more powerful than they are today. The fantasy of power is another sign of decadence.

Sarkozy's election is an undeniable victory for the United States and for Israel. But it runs the very real risk of being a pyrrhic victory, because the decisive battles of our times are taking place outside of Europe: in Asia, in Latin America and in the Middle East. And there, the United States is losing on all fronts. We are living in a world that we no longer dominate and to which we shall have to adapt, and not by nostalgia for the past.

Jean Bricmont teaches physics in Belgium. His new book, Humanitarian Imperialism, will be published by Monthly Review Press. He can be reached at bricmont@fyma.ucl.ac.be

QUOTE

Deconstructing the Founding Myths of France's Greatness
by René Naba
May 13, 2007

This article is intended to struggle against the ideas carried by the French Right and newly elected President Sarkozy's views and discourse. It is an insight into French history and collective imagination, that sheds a crude light on many aspects of this history and the way French people see themselves and their country. More widely, it is a strong attempt at questioning all national and historical myths in which identities often entrench themselves.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...&articleId=5632

numeral - October 18, 2007 09:00 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

Sarkozy, Mossad's spy - Le Figaro

user posted image

French judiciary police is investigating documents on the French President Nicolas Sarkozy's spy activities for the Zionist regime's Spy Agency, Mossad, Le Figaro daily reported.

Le Figaro in an article titled "Mossad's infilteration into the public movement union (the French ruling party)" worte that the police is studying an electronic letter sent to 100 members of high ranking French police officials about Sarkozy's espionage for Mossad.

According to the daily, former Zionist regime's prime minister, Menachem Begin, in 1978 proposed then commander of the regime's spy agents, Rafael Itan, to employ three French political activists who were willing to cooperate with the Zionist reigme for spy missions.

Nicolas Sarkozy was one of the citizens who started its cooperation with Mossad in 1983 as the fourth French member of Mossad, Le Figaro revealed.

mk

Figaro

For some reason the g...e translation when copied alternates French and English.

QUOTE

The strange accusations of a cybercorbeau
JEAN-MARC LECLERC. JEAN-MARC LECLERC.
Publié le 12 octobre 2007 Published October 12, 2007
Actualisé le 12 octobre 2007 : 07h19 Last October 12, 2007: 7:19

A OFFICINE t wanted destabilize Nicolas Sarkozy during this presidential campaign? Une enquête confiée à la Direction centrale de la police judiciaire doit l'établir. An investigation entrusted to the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police must establish. Fin mars 2007, dans la dernière droite de l'élection, tous les directeurs départementaux de la sécurité publique, soit une centaine de hauts fonctionnaires, ont été destinataires d'un étrange courriel. At the end of March 2007, in the final right of election, all departmental directors of public security, or a hundred officials, were recipients of a strange email. Le futur président y était taxé, ni plus ni moins, d'avoir été recruté dans les années 1980 par le Mossad, le service secret israélien. The future president was taxed, neither more nor less, having been recruited in the 1980s by the Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

Le texte envoyé se présente sous la forme d'une « note de synthèse » de deux pages. The text sent comes in the form of an "executive summary" of two pages. Son titre : « L'infiltration du Mossad israélien dans l'UMP. Its title: "The infiltration of the Israeli Mossad in the UMP. Nicolas Sarkozy : le quatrième homme. » Au-dessus, un pseudo-logo de la « DGSE ». « Tout cela respire la manip à plein nez, avec des relents d'extrême droite » , prévient un cadre dirigeant au ministère de l'Intérieur. Nicolas Sarkozy: the fourth man. "Above, a pseudo-logo of the DGSE." "All this manipulation breathes the full nose, with smacks of extreme right," warns a senior manager in the Ministry for the Interior.

Selon l'auteur du message, en 1978, le gouvernement de Menahem Begin aurait commandité l'infiltration du parti gaulliste pour en faire une sorte de partenaire d'Israël. According to the author of the message, in 1978, the government of Menachem Begin ordered the infiltration of the Gaullist party to make a kind of partner for Israel. L'opération aurait été montée par Rafael Eytan, maître-espion israélien. « Trois citoyens français prédisposés à collaborer » auraient donc été ciblés : Patrick Balkany, Patrick Devedjian et Pierre Lellouche. The operation was mounted by Rafael Eytan, the Israeli influence. "Three citizens french predisposed to cooperate" would therefore have been targeted: Patrick Levant, and Patrick Devedjian Pierre Lellouche. Balkany est présenté comme le chef du « réseau ». Flake is described as leader of the "network".

En 1983, Patrick Balkany aurait recruté le « jeune et prometteur » Sarkozy, le « quatrième homme du Mossad » . In 1983, Patrick loopholes alleged to have recruited "young and promising" Sarkozy, the "fourth man Mossad." Une cinquième recrue serait venue compléter le dispositif dans les années 1990 : Manuel Aeschlimann, député-maire d'Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine). A fifth rookie to be added to the device in the 1990s: Manuel Aeschlimann, Deputy Mayor of Asnières (Seine). Le cybercorbeau affirme que ce proche de Sarkozy est « chargé d'établir des contacts avec des responsables iraniens en France » . The cybercorbeau asserts that it is close to Sarkozy "to establish contacts with Iranian officials in France." Une assertion d'autant plus perfide que sa ville d'Asnières accueille effectivement une forte communauté iranienne. An assertion all the more perfidious that his city welcomes Asnières actually a strong Iranian community.

Aucune empreinte None footprint

Embarrassé, l'état-major policier d'alors a dû rapporter en haut lieu le contenu de ce courriel farfelu et la qualité de ses destinataires. Embarrassed, the General Staff officer then had to bring in high places the contents of this mail eccentric and the quality of its recipients. Aussitôt, une enquête a été diligentée, confiée à la PJ. Immediately, an investigation was conducted, entrusted to the PJ. Les policiers ont découvert que le message est parti d'un cybercafé du Val-d'Oise. The police discovered that the message is from a cybercafe in Val-d'Oise.

Mais le corbeau a bien choisi le lieu de ses persiflages : dans ce commerce où l'anonymat est la règle, puisque la loi n'impose pas de présenter ses papiers pour accéder aux ordinateurs, il n'y avait pas de vidéosurveillance. But the raven has chosen the venue for its persiflages: in this trade where anonymity is the rule, since the law does not submit his papers to gain access to computers, there was no video surveillance. Aucune empreinte, aucune trace d'ADN n'a pu être exploitée. No footprints, no trace of DNA could be exploited. L'expertise des machines n'a rien donné. The expertise machines have nothing. Pas plus que l'analyse sémantique du texte. Nor does the semantic analysis of the text.

Et l'enquête se poursuit à la demande du parquet. And the investigation is continuing at the request of prosecutors. Au risque de donner à cette affaire une importance qu'elle ne méritait pas. At the risk of giving special importance this case that it did not deserve.

whatsacubit - October 22, 2007 04:36 PM (GMT)

Hi numeral,

This is really strange.

We have to remember that Figaro is an "old establishment" conservative paper, (more akin to Harold MacMillan than to Margaret/Tony Thatcher/Blair) although it has some reservations about Sarko.

A recent article (10-Oct-07) came to the conclusion that although he's a neocon, he wasn't all that bad, because French neoconnery wasn't as bad as the American version.

World domination with two-hour lunch breaks? [I made that last bit up.]

Anyway, Figaro's article is totally dismissive of the claims against Sarko and the other politicos. (Because they are conspiracy theories, no less!)

So what on earth is the poorly drafted Iranian article up to?

It tries to give the impression that both Figaro and the French police are taking the accusations seriously.

Whereas, Figaro implies that the police are well aware that they have been wasting their time having to examine the cyber café (for DNA!)

They are of course disappointed about anonymous internet access, and that there weren't any surveillance cameras in the café.

Aren't we all? [I made that last bit up.]

It claims as an indisputable fact that the accused "were willing to cooperate with the Zionist regime". [I corrected the bad spelling.]

The Figaro article does not quote directly from the poison-pen email, it claims Sarkozy was "recruited", but its strongest accusation against the others is that they were merely "targeted".

So what's the game here?

The Iranian web site is saying stuff, in poor English, about Figaro and the police that is easily refuted.

We might reasonably guess from Figaro's mention of "semantic analysis of the text" that the French language in the email was also poor.

That is not the same as refuting the accusations contained in the email, of course, but maybe we are expected to think that it is.

So what is the purpose in deliberately distorting Figaro's article?

Reporting it accurately would have had the same impact, maybe more, but without ridiculing itself.

I'm sure this reminds me of a Lt. Colombo plot.

The Antagonist - October 22, 2007 11:15 PM (GMT)

A brief caveat with regard to French 'news' papers and media:

QUOTE

France’s new model of media control
By André Schiffrin

It has been difficult to start a debate in France on the conglomeration of publishing, newspapers and television. But the recent election of Nicholas Sarkozy has finally focused the attention of part of the French press on the political control of the media. Sarkozy has been amazingly open about his close ties to the billionaires who own newspapers, publishers and television companies, calling them his friends. They reciprocated by directing their newspapers to support his every move.

The most obvious example related to the attempt by the Hachette-owned Journal du Dimanche to print the story of Sarkozy’s wife refusing to vote during the elections. The editor was scolded and the story killed. After that the paper servilely covered every photo op. When Sarkozy and his prime minister donned Clintonesque shorts, the headline proclaimed “France is on the move” and when Sarkozy made a point of including his wife in the 14 July celebrations, the headline was “The star couple”. We can be sure that in future no gimmick, no matter how tired, will fail to produce the appropriate praise.

France has produced a new model of media control, somewhere between Berlusconi and Putin. Sarkozy does not need to emulate Berlusconi in actually owning the titles: his friends will do that for him.

The figures are well known. Two thirds of all French newspapers and magazines are owned by Dassault and Lagardère, France’s leading arms’ manufacturers. Lagardère’s affiliate, Hachette, also owns the majority of French publishing houses, as well as controlling a large part of the book and magazine distribution network. In the recent election, only Bayrou, the centrist candidate, complained about the media being controlled by groups whose primary customer is the government. That the Socialist Party failed to discuss the issue at all underlines its weakness and timidity.

In most countries conglomeration has happened because it increases profits. In the United States, the long established Knight-Ridder chain of papers was sold because it was making only 19.6% profit a year (most papers average 26%). But French newspapers have been barely profitable. The main reason to buy them is to exert influence, as Serge Dassault frankly admitted when he bought Le Figaro, wanting a paper to express his own views.

All of the press has been worried by recent moves by the billionaire Bernard Arnault, who wants to buy La Tribune, the leading financial paper; its coverage directly affects his interests. The parallel to Rupert Murdoch’s recent acquisition of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal is clear.

whatsacubit - October 23, 2007 03:12 PM (GMT)

Hi Antagonist,
Of course you're right, Figaro is more conservative than ever, but it still does not help to explain my confusion about the Iranian report of Figaro's article.

Indeed, if anything, it makes it more difficult than ever to understand why Figaro dismissed the accusatory email as not just a conspiracy theory, but a right-wing conspiracy theory. See the part about the "stench of the far right wing".

And d'oh!, having spent an hour honing my translation yesterday I forgot to paste it in.

QUOTE

The strange accusations of a cyber-poison-pen-writer

JEAN-MARC LECLERC.
Publié le 12 octobre 2007
Actualisé le 12 octobre 2007 : 07h19

Did a den of rogues want to destabilise Nicolas Sarkozy during the presidential program?

The PJ (Police Judiciaire) is investigating an email sent during the presidential [election] to one hundred people of high rank in the police force.

It affirmed that Sarkozy, like Balkany, Lellouche, Devedjian and Aeschlimann, had ties to Mossad.

A rogue's den where things are woven. A lair of slander and denunciation. Ambiguous words had arrived from Berlin, a den of conspiracies, where more than ever there seemed to be woven abominable plots.

At the end of March 2007, in the final run-up to the election, all the departmental directors of public security, one hundred senior officials, were recipients of a bizarre email.

The future president was accused, neither more nor less, of having been recruited in the 1980s by Mossad, the Israeli secret service. The text sent purported to be a "note of synthesis" of two pages.

Its title:
"The infiltration of Israeli Mossad into the UMP. Nicolas Sarkozy: the fourth man".
Above, a fake-logo of the "DGSE".

[UMP = Sarkozy's parti, Union for Popular Movement]
[DGSE = France’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6 equivalent?]

"It reeks of manipulation, with the stench of the far right-wing", warns a chief in the ministry for the Interior.

According to the email, in 1978, the government of Menahem Begin would have financed the infiltration of the Gaullist Party to make it a kind of partner of Israel.

The operation would have been assembled by Rafael Eytan, the Israeli master-spy.

"Three French citizens predisposed to collaborate" would thus have been targeted: Patrick Balkany, Patrick Devedjian and Pierre Lellouche.

Balkany is described as the chief of the "network".

In 1983, Patrick Balkany had recruited the "young and promising" Sarkozy, the "fourth man of Mossad".

A fifth recruit would have come to supplement the squad in 1990s: Aeschlimann Manuel, deputy mayor of Asnières (in Haut-Seine).

The cyber-poison-penner claims that this affiliate of Sarkozy is "tasked to make contacts with Iranians in responsible posts in France".

An all the more perfidious assertion because indeed the town of Asnières hosts a strong Iranian community.

No Fingerprints

Embarrassed, the police chief then had to report upwards the contents of this eccentric email and the status of its recipients.

Straight away, an investigation was expedited, entrusted to the Police Judiciaire.

The officers discovered that the message came from a cyber café in Val d'Oise.

But the poison-penner chose well the location for his buffoonery: because in this business where anonymity is the rule, the law does not force one to show ones papers to access computers, and there was no vidéo surveillance.

No fingerprint, no trace of DNA could be exploited.

Expert analysis of the machines did not provide anything.

Nothing too from the semantic analysis of the text.

The investigation continues at the request of the judiciary.

With the risk of giving this matter an importance which it did not deserve.

justthefacts - February 26, 2008 04:44 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

February 14, 2008
French pupils to learn the names of Nazi child victims

The Jewish children of Izieu at the Izieu Childrens Home shortly before they were deported to death camps on 06 April 1944

Charles Bremner in Paris

France’s wartime cooperation with the Nazi Holocaust has become the latest front in President Sarkozy’s struggle to impose his ideas on an increasingly recalcitrant nation.

The President has stirred up a hornet’s nest with an instruction that every ten-year-old pupil should know the identity of one of the 11,000 Jewish children who were deported from France to their deaths at Nazi hands.

“The children must know the name and life story of a child who died in the Shoah,” Mr Sarkozy said.

The order, announced at a dinner on Wednesday with Jewish leaders, has been attacked by Mr Sarkozy’s opponents as a self-serving diversion at a time when he is wallowing in unpopularity after his marriage to Carla Bruni, the Italian super-model.

It is also being linked with Mr Sarkozy’s controversial embrace of religious values. Jewish on his mother’s side and a nonpractising Catholic, Mr Sarkozy has come close to breaching France’s century-old barrier between government and religion.

Jewish leaders have given his order a cautious welcome. Serge Klarsfeld, the veteran Nazi-hunter, called it “a good way to talk about this tragedy”.

Teachers, child experts, parents and Jewish intellectuals are unimpressed. “This is completely out of line,” said Marie-Odile Rucine, chief paediatrician for Paris public hospitals. “It is an aberration from the psychological point of view.”

The teachers accused Mr Sarkozy of dangerous meddling. “How can one understand this idea of weighing down such young children with the memory of a dead Jewish child?” said Luc Berille, leader of UNSA, the left-wing main teachers’ union.

The strongest Jewish criticism of Mr Sarkozy’s Holocaust order came from Simone Veil, a former Cabinet minister who survived deportation as a child. She said that it was disgraceful and unjust to inflict such a duty on schoolchildren Pascal Bruckner, an influential writer-philosopher, said that Mr Sarkozy was exploiting France’s guilt over its collaboration with the Germans in deporting 75,000 Jews. Since President Chirac recognised the crimes of the occupied state in 1995, the Holocaust has been taught in schools, and survivors visit classrooms. France now marks an annual Holocaust memorial day.

In a reminder of France’s continuing unease with its wartime record, the widow of the late President Mitterrand has delivered a fierce attack on a new TV drama about his period working for the Vichy regime. Danielle Mitterrand said that Mitterrand at Vichy blackened his name.

Mr Sarkozy’s idea springs from his belief that French children must become more involved in their country’s history, especially with the wartime generation dying out. He earlier stirred charges of exploitation when, on taking office last May, he decreed that all secondary schools must annually read to their pupils a letter from Guy Môquet, a 17-year-old resistance fighter, on the eve of his execution by the Germans in 1942.

The Holocaust order has also caused confusion because it appears to contradict Mr Sarkozy’s line during his election campaign. He won right-wing support but raised eyebrows by arguing then that France should shed its “culture of repentance” because it had “never committed a crime against humanity” during the occupation.

Henry Russo, an historian, wrote in Libération, the left-wing newspaper, that for Mr Sarkozy “the past has become a depository of political resources where everyone can pick what they want to serve their interests”.

Mr Sarkozy’s supporters note that he has always been deeply attached to the power of history and faith and that he set this out in his book The Republic, Religions, Hope, published in 2004. In his speech to Jewish leaders, Mr Sarkozy said that France should be secular but positive about religion.

Vichy’s collaboration

— In October 1940 in the “Montoire interview”, Philippe Pétain, the Vichy Chief of State, agreed collaboration with Adolf Hitler

— On August 20, 1941, French police proceeded to arrest every male Jew aged between 18 and 50

— In 2006 the French state and railway operator SNCF were found guilty of colluding to deport Jews and ordered to pay compensation

Source

justthefacts - February 26, 2008 04:46 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

Survivor slams Sarkozy's Holocaust education plan

Published: 02/17/2008

A French Holocaust survivor and former European Parliament president slammed Nicolas Sarkozy's new Holocaust education proposal.

Simone Veil told the French magazine L'Express that "her blood turned to ice" in response to the French president's initiative to pair every fifth grader with the profile of a child killed by the Nazis. Sarkozy announced his new idea in a speech last week to the CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jewry, and Sarkozy has been castigated since in the French press.

"It's unimaginable, unbearable, dramatic, and above all, unjust. We cannot inflict this on little 10-year-olds. We cannot ask a child to identify himself with a dead child.This remembrance is far too heavy to carry," said the onetime Auschwitz deportee. "Even us, former deportees, have had a lot of difficulty after the war, to talk about what we experienced."

Last Friday, during a conference on education in the Perigord region of France, Sarkozy defended his proposal to pair up every 10- to 11-year-old in the country with the detailed story of a child killed during the Holocaust, saying it would teach children not "to redo the same errors that others did."

In response to criticism that such a program would be too emotionally disturbing, Sarkozy said, "We don't traumatize children by giving them the present of a country's memory."

Source

The Antagonist - February 26, 2008 04:53 PM (GMT)

QUOTE (justthefacts @ Feb 26 2008, 04:46 PM)

QUOTE

Why not go the whole hog and twin them all with Iraqi Genocidal Holocaust children too?

Maybe it's because "we don't do body counts" and nobody knows who the butchered Iraqi children are.

justthefacts - February 26, 2008 05:01 PM (GMT)

I couldn't possibly hazard a guess what that translates as.

justthefacts - May 13, 2008 01:22 AM (GMT)

QUOTE

Six days after the July 7 carnage [i.e. July 13th - the day that Sarkozy named Lindsay Jermaine as the 4th bomber, in Brussells] Ms Lewthwaite phoned the helpline to say her husband was missing. Soon afterwards police officers arrived and she was taken for questioning while their house was searched.

She said: “The next day they showed me Jamal on CCTV and said his DNA proved he was one of the bombers.

Source

QUOTE

At an emergency European Union meeting of interior and justice ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy of France told reporters that it seemed that ''part of this team'' involved in the London attacks had been ''subject to partial arrest'' in the spring of last year, apparently in Operation Crevice.

Charles Clarke, the British home secretary, angrily denied the claim, telling the British Sky Television: ''It's completely and utterly untrue. I am absolutely staggered he should make that assertion.''

Source

QUOTE

There are a few news articles that mention Khan's connection to Operation Crevice, & also see this post re Conspiracy Theorist, John Reid). The connection was raised initially (around 14/7/05) by the claim made by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Source

QUOTE

British authorities thwart terror plot to blow up several aircraft
..........
Bush said during a visit to Green Bay, Wis., that the foiled plot was a “stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists.” Despite increased security since Sept. 11, he warned, “It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America.”

While British officials declined to publicly identify the 21 suspects, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said in Paris Thursday that they “appear to be of Pakistani origin.” He did not give a source for his description, but said French officials had been in close contact with British authorities.

The suspects were “homegrown,” though it was not immediately clear if they were all British citizens, said a British police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. Police were working closely with the South Asian community, the official said.
..........
© Canadian Press 2006

Source

Sinclair - May 13, 2008 07:18 AM (GMT)

QUOTE

Sarkozy seeks help from Blair
...
Leaving the country is no way to win an election in the long run, but for his previous unofficial meeting with Blair, according to French sources, Sarkozy spent a weekend in Florence. The two men first met in 2002...

In spring 2004, when he was finance minister, Sarkozy made his first request for a head-to-head with Blair. The Elysee Palace was not keen, but it is believed that Peter Mandelson intervened and a meeting was arranged for 25 May. Last October they met privately at a hotel in London, after the Elysee had asked Downing Street to turn down a request for an official encounter.

Most tellingly, Sarkozy's campaign team - 'The Firm' - has drawn direct inspiration from the Blairite spin tradition. According to Le Monde journalist Philippe Ridet, 'La Firme Nicolas' is a crack team of thirtysomething workaholic men, with the latest mobile phones, Ralph Lauren suits and an image-building obsession that stops at nothing: 'It's a political style we have never seen in France before.'

Observer June 25 2006

Bridget - June 17, 2008 01:20 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

Sarkozy, Citing Terror Threat, Will Deepen NATO Ties

By Francois de Beaupuy

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Terrorism poses the biggest threat to French security, President Nicolas Sarkozy said as he presented his 15-year military plan that will deepen France's involvement in NATO and defense ties with its European partners.

Terrorism is ``here, now'' he said. ``Today the most immediate threat is that of a terrorist attack,'' he told 3,000 senior members of the armed forces today in Paris.

The plan will allow Sarkozy to make good on his pledge for France to move back into NATO's military command structure, which it abandoned in 1966. With chances of a large-scale European conflict waning, France will scale back the size of its armed forces, while expanding intelligence and surveillance to better prepare for terrorist threats and regional crises in Africa and the area around the Indian Ocean, the plan says.

``France will always keep its full freedom over sending troops'' into a conflict, and won't leave any troops under NATO command in peace time, Sarkozy said. Control of France's nuclear weapons will remain ``strictly national,'' he said.

One of the biggest immediate threats to security comes from the standoff with Iran over its nuclear power program and whether it intends to enrich uranium to produce weapons.

``With our partners, we'll do everything to solve the Iranian crisis, which is today's number one threat to the world.''

Scaling Back

The first such defense review since 1994, the so-called white paper calls for cutting 54,000 soldiers and support staff from the armed forces. The plan will slow production of French- made combat jets and frigates, an aide to Sarkozy said yesterday. France will also make a ``massive'' effort to improve intelligence and surveillance, Sarkozy said.

Defense spending will reach 377 billion euros ($584 billion) by 2020, including 200 billion euros for military equipment, Sarkozy said. Procurement will increase by 3 billion euros a year and an unspecified number of military bases will be closed.

``We must invest more on equipment, which requires us to make choices'' given the budgetary constraints, Sarkozy said.

France, which had a budget deficit of 2.7 percent of gross domestic product last year, spends 2.3 percent of GDP on defense, soldiers' pensions and other security forces. That will drop to about 2 percent in a dozen years, according to the white paper's recommendation.

``We can't do everything at once,'' Sarkozy said. ``First, we'll bridge the main gaps, human protection, strategic transport and airborne mobility. In a second step, the modernization of the Air Force and the Navy will be stepped up.''

source

Bridget - June 24, 2008 04:11 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

Suicide at farewell ceremony mars Sarkozy trip to Israel
The Associated Press
Published: June 24, 2008

user posted image

Israeli security guards standing outside the car of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, left, after he was rushed into an armored vehicle during a departure ceremony for French President Nicolas Sarkozy at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

BEN-GURION AIRPORT, Israel: An Israeli police officer fatally shot himself in the head on Tuesday at an airport departure ceremony for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, authorities said, sparking fear of an assassination attempt and prompting bodyguards to whisk Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert away from the scene.

The shooting occurred while a military band was playing, and the leaders apparently didn't hear anything. Dark-suited men then quickly ushered Sarkozy and his wife up the stairs of their plane. In a panic, Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, rushed up the stairs ahead of her husband.

At the same time, security guards, with their guns drawn, rushed Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres toward their cars. The incident was over within minutes, and Olmert returned and boarded the plane to inform Sarkozy what had transpired, witnesses said.

Police spokesman Shlomi Sagi confirmed that a policeman guarding the airport committed suicide just as Sarkozy was about to board his plane as a band was playing.

Another police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, denied reports that there had been an assassination attempt on the French leader.

The area police commander, Nissim Mor, said police were looking into the incident. "We are currently investigating the circumstances to see whether it was suicide or if he accidentally discharged his weapon," he said. "His mission was to secure an area to prevent people from reaching the ceremony."

The incident marred Sarkozy's three-day trip to Israel, a visit meant to improve relations between the two countries.

French presidential spokesman Franck Louvrier could not be reached for comment on his mobile phone. Another presidential spokesman who was on another scheduled flight out of Tel Aviv said he knew nothing about the incident.
[url=Israeli security guards standing outside the car of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, left, after he was rushed into an armored vehicle during a departure ceremony for French President Nicolas Sarkozy at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.]
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numeral - July 31, 2008 12:47 AM (GMT)

Is this conspiracy theory or what?

QUOTE

Mr Sarkozy and the CIA. Based on Thierry Meyssan's "Operation Sarkozy"
Mr Sarkozy and the CIA. Based on Thierry Meyssan's "Operation Sarkozy"

By Robert Thompson
Jul 18, 2008, 10:19

Editor’s Note: The article discussed below is included at the end of the document, both in translation and in the original French. Translation into English by Robert Thompson, with additional edits from Siv O’Neall.

A most interesting study dated 14th July 2008 by Thierry Meyssan, entitled Operation Sarkozy, has been brought to my attention on how the CIA managed to place one of its agents, namely Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, as president of the French Republic.

To make his point, Mr Meyssan does not content himself with vague conjecture, but puts together checkable facts relating to the relationship between our President and the CIA (the well-known terrorist organisation financed by the tax-payers in the USA), and the USA establishment in general, with a view to ensuring that French policy should be dramatically re-aligned to serve the interests of the present USA administration (not, of course, the people of the USA).

The links between various arms of the USA establishment and Mr Sarkozy are much closer than I could ever have imagined, although I was aware of a fair number of the facts reported and examined by Mr Meyssan. I had not however thought, and this is indeed my own fault, how closely these links tie up with other links with groups on both sides of the Atlantic allied, or similar, to the Mafia and other conspiratorial bodies based in Italy and neighbouring states as well as being well entrenched in the USA.

Acceptance of the arguments put forward by Mr Meyssan serves to explain many of the otherwise seemingly inexplicable decisions made by Mr Sarkozy since he took over from Jacques Chirac in 2007, as well as giving very personal private reasons (previously totally unknown to me, but then I am not a fan of the gossip columns) for the obvious dislike, and perhaps even hatred, which Mr Chirac has for his successor.

This article should be read by everyone as the implications are extremely serious for the future of the world. I make this claim not because France is still a great power -- it is not and most of us recognise this -- but it shows a more subtle means of achieving a coup d'état than using military or other violent means. Mr Meyssan very carefully tracks the whole story of Mr Sarkozy's rise within the ranks of the successive parties which have claimed to be "Gaulliste" (as following the broad lines of policy laid down by the General, later President, but many of us still think of him as the great leader during the Second World War from 1940 onwards). It is a tale of most cunning duplicity supported by hyper-intelligent backing from within the USA establishment.

If the conclusions reached by Mr Meyssan are correct, and I can see no reason to doubt his analysis of the facts, then Mr Sarkozy is even more dangerous than he has so far appeared to be, and the poor and the oppressed can expect to suffer almost anywhere in the world from his actions on behalf of his masters in the USA. The Arab world, above all others, can expect to be the victim of highly sophisticated concerted trickery as he does everything that he can to crush any moves which the people may try to make towards freedom from tyranny, wherever such moves might in any way limit the greedy ambitions of those who rule the USA.

Axis of logic

This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!

READ ROBERT THOMPSON'S BIO AND ADDITIONAL ESSAYS IN AXIS OF LOGIC'S "LETTERS FROM FRANCE"

This the article in question:

Thierry Meyssan 14/07/08
Translated for Axis of Logic from French to English by Robert Thompson

Operation Sarkozy: how the CIA planted one of its agents as President of the French Republic.

Nicolas Sarkozy should be judged on his actions and not on his personality.

But when his actions surprise even his own electors, it is legitimate to examine in detail his biography and to ask about the alliances which brought him to power. Thierry Meyssan decided to write the truth about the origins of the President of the French Republic. All the information contained in this article is verifiable, with the exception of two imputations, pointed out by the author who assumes sole responsibility for them.

The French people, weary of the over-long presidencies of François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, elected Nicolas Sarkozy and counted on his energy to revitalise their country. They hoped for a break with the years of immobilism and superannuated ideologies. They have had a break with the principles which form the foundation of the French nation. They have been stupefied by this "hyper president", every day grabbing hold of another new file, drawing the right and the left to him, thus disposing of all the land-marks to the point of creating complete confusion.

Like children who have just done something very stupid, the French are too busy finding excuses to admit the extent of the damage and of their naïvety. This makes them refuse all the more to see who Nicolas Sarkozy is, which they ought to have realised long ago.

The man is clever. Like an illusionist, he has diverted their attention by offering them his private life as a spectacle and in posing in celebrity magazines, to the point of making them overlook his political history.

Let the sense of this article be fully understood: it is not to reproach Mr Sarkozy with his links of family, friends and professional contacts, but to reproach him with having hidden his links from the French people who believed that they were electing a free man.

To understand how a man in whom all agree they see an agent of the United States and Israel has been able to become the head of the Gaullist party, then the President of the French Republic, one must go back in time. Far back. We must follow a long digression during which we shall introduce the protagonists who are today taking their revenge.

Family secrets

At the end of the Second World War, the USA secret services counted on the Italo-US godfather Lucky Luciano to control the security of American ports and to prepare the allied landings in Sicily.

Luciano's contacts with the US services passed above all through Frank Wisner Sr. then, when the 'godfather' was freed and went into exile in Italy, through his Corsican 'ambassador', Étienne Léandri.

In 1958, the United States, worried about a possible victory of the FLN in Algeria which would have opened North Africa to Soviet influence, decided to give rise to a military coup d'état in France. The operation was organised jointly by the Planning Direction of the CIA - in theory run by Frank Wisner Sr.- and by NATO. But Wisner had already sunk into dementia so that it was his successor, Allan Dulles, who supervised the action. From Algiers, the French Generals formed a Committee of Public Safety which exerted pressure on the civil government in Paris and forced it to give full powers to General De Gaulle without any need to use force.

However, Charles De Gaulle was not the pawn whom the Anglo-Saxons believed they could manipulate. To start with, he tried to find a way out of the colonial contradiction by giving wide autonomy to the overseas territories within a French Union. But it was already too late to save the French Empire since the colonised peoples did not believe in the promises from the metropolis and insisted on their independence. After having successfully led fierce campaigns of repression against the independentists, De Gaulle realised what had to be done. Showing rare political wisdom, he decided to give each colony its independence.

This U-turn was seen as a betrayal by most of those who brought him to power. The CIA and NATO then backed all sorts of plots to get rid of him, including a failed putsch and some forty attempts to assassinate him. However, some of his partisans approved of his political evolution. Around Charles Pasqua, they formed the SAC, a militia to protect him.

Pasqua is both a Corsican crook and a former member of the resistance. He married the daughter of a Canadian bootlegger who made a fortune during prohibition. He ran the Ricard company which, after having dealt in absinthe, a forbidden drink, made itself respectable by selling anisette. However, the company continued to serve as a cover for all sorts of deals in relation with the Italo-New Yorker Genovese family, that of Lucky Luciano. It was therefore not surprising that Pasqua called on Étienne Léandri (Luciano's "ambassador") to recruit strong arm men and build up a Gaullist militia. A third man played an important role in the formation of the SAC, De Gaulle's former body-guard, Achille Peretti -another Corsican.

Thus protected, De Gaulle drew up with panache a policy of national independence. While confirming that he belonged to the Atlantic camp, he questioned the Anglo-Saxon leadership. He objected to the entry of the United Kingdom into the European Common Market (1961 and 1967); he refused the deployment of UNO blue helmets in the Congo (1961); he encouraged Latin American states to break free of US imperialism (speech in Mexico, 1964); he expelled NATO from France and withdrew form the Integrated Command Structure of the Atlantic Alliance (1966); he denounced the Viet-Nam War (speech in Phnon Penh, 1966); he condemned Israeli expansionism during the Six Day War (1967); he supported the independence of Quebec (speech in Montreal 1967) ; etc...

At the same time, De Gaulle consolidated France's power by giving it a military-industrial complex including a nuclear dissuasion force, and by guaranteeing its supply of energy. He usefully separated the troublesome Corsicans from his entourage by giving them overseas missions. Thus Étienne Léandri became the dealer for the Elf group (now Total), while Charles Pasqua became the confidant of the heads of state in French-speaking Africa.

Aware that he could now defy the Anglo-Saxons everywhere at the same time, De Gaulle allied himself with the Rothschild family. He chose as Prime Minister the Director of the Bank, Georges Pompidou. The two men formed an efficient tandem. The political audacity of the first never lost sight of the economic realism of the second.

When De Gaulle resigned, in 1969, Georges Pompidou briefly succeeded him as President before being carried off by cancer. The historical Gaullists did not accept his leadership and were worried by his excessively anglophile attitude. They cried treason when Pompidou, seconded by the Secretary General of the Elyse Eduard Balladur, allowed "perfidious Albion" into the European Common Market.

The making of Nicolas Sarkozy

Having thus described the background, let us come back to our principal personage, Nicolas Sarkozy. Born in 1955, he was the son of a Hungarian nobleman, Pal Sarkösy de Nagy-Bocsa, who fled to France after fleeing the Red Army, and Andrée Mallah, a Jewish lady from Sallonica. After having had three children (Guillaume, Nicolas and François), the couple divorced. Pal Sarkösy de Nagy-Bocsa remarried with an aristocrat, Christine de Ganay, by whom he had two children (Pierre-Olivier and Caroline). Nicolas was not brought up by his parents alone, but passed to and fro in this recomposed family.

His mother became the Secretary of Achille Peretti. After having co-founded the SAC, De Gaulle's body-guard had pursued a brilliant political career. He was elected Député and Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the richest suburb of the capital, then President of the National Assembly.

Unhappily, in 1972, Achille Peretti was subject to serious accusations. In the United States, the magazine Time revealed the existence of a secret Corsican criminal organisation the 'Union corse ' which was said to control a large share of the traffic in drugs between Europe and America, the famous "French connection" which Hollywood brought to the screen. Based on parliamentary hearings and its own investigations, Time quoted the name of a Mafia boss, Jean Venturi, arrested some years earlier in Canada, who was no other than the commercial representative of Charles Pasqua for the drinks company Ricard. The names of several families were mentioned who were said to run the "Union corse", including the Perettis. Achille denied this, but had to resign from the presidency of the National Assembly and even escaped from a "suicide".

In 1977, Pal Sarközy separated from his second wife, Christine de Ganay, who then linked herself with the number two of the central administration of the Department of State in the United States. She married him and set up home with him in America. The world being small, as is well known, her husband was no other than Frank Wisner Jr., the son of the previous one. The functions of Junior at the CIA are not known, but it was clear that he had an important role there. Nicolas, who remained close to his step-mother, his half-brother and his half-sister, began to turn towards the United States where he "benefitted" from training programmes in the Department of State.

At the same time, Nicolas Sarkozy joined the Gaullist Party. He there met and had contacts with Charles Pasqua more speedily as he was not only a national leader, but also in charge of the local section in the Hauts-de-Seine.

In 1982, Nicolas Sarkozy, having completed his legal training and having been called to the Bar, married Achilles Pretty's niece. His best man was Charles Pasqual. As an Avocet, Maître Sarkozy looked after the interests of the Corsican friends of his mentors. He bought a property in Corsica, at Vice, and thought of making his name more Corsican by replacing the 'y' with an 'I': Sarkozy.

The following year, he was elected Mayor of Neuilly-sure-Seine in the place of his uncle-in-law, Achilles Pretty, stricken by a heart attack.

However, Nicolas did not take long to betray his wife and, from 1984 onward, he had a hidden liaison with Cecilia, the wife of the most famous French television personality at the time, Jacques Martin, whom he had met when celebrating their marriage as Mayor of Neuilly. This double life lasted for five years, before the lovers left their respective spouses to set up a new household.

Nicolas was a witness at the marriage, in 1992, of Jacques Chirac's daughter, Claude, to an editorialist at Le Figaro. he could not stop himself from seducing Claude and to have a brief affair with her, while living officially with Cecilia. The betrayed husband committed suicide by taking drugs. The break between the Chirac's and Nicolas Sarkozy was brutal and permanent.

In 1993, the left lost the parliamentary elections. President François Mitterrand refused to resign and entered into a cohabitation with a Prime Minister from the right, Jacques Chirac. His ambition was to become President and thought of then forming a tandem with Eduard Balladur comparable with that of De Gaulle and Pompidou, and he refused to be Prime Minister again and left the place to his "friend for over thirty years", Eduard Balladur. Despite his dubious past, Charles Pasqual became Minister of the Interior. Even if he kept a firm grip Moroccan marijuana, he took advantage of his position to legalise his other activities by taking control of the casinos, gaming and racing in French-speaking Africa. He also established links in Saudi Arabia and in Israel an became an honorary officer in the Mossad. As for Nicolas Sarkozy, he was Minister of the Budget and government spokesman.

In Washington, Frank Wisner Jr. took over from Paul Wolfowitz as being responsible for political planning in the Defence Department. Nobody commented on the links which he had with the French government's spokesman.

This was when the tension within the Gaullist Party came back as thirty years earlier between the historic Gaullists and the financial right, in the person of Balladur. The novelty was that Charles Pasqua and with him the young Nicolas Sarkozy betrayed Jacques Chirac to come closer to the Rothschild tendency. Everything went wrong. The conflict reached its peak in 1995 when Édouard Balladur put himself forward against his ex-friend Jacques Chirac for the presidential election, and was beaten. Above all, following the instructions received from London and Washington, the Balladur government opened negotiations for adhesion to the European Union and to NATO of the States in Central and Eastern Europe, freed from Soviet control.

Everything went wrong in the Gaullist Party where the friends of yester-year were ready to kill one another. To finance his electoral campaign, Édouard Balladur tried to get hold of the Gaullist Party's black funds, hidden within the double accounting system of the oil company Elf. Hardly had the old Étienne Léandri died, when Judges looked into the company and its bosses were incarcerated. But Balladur, Pasqua and Sarkozy never managed to recuperate the booty.

Crossing the desert

Throughout his first term, Jacques Chirac kept Nicolas Sarkozy at a distance. The man became discreet during this long period of crossing the desert. Discreetly, he continued to make links in financial circles.

In 1996, Nicolas Sarkozy having finally managed to end an endless divorce procedure married Cécilia. As witnesses they had the two billionaires Martin Bouygues and Bernard Arnaud (the richest man in the country).

Last act

Well before the Iraq crisis, Frank Wisner Jr. and his colleagues at the CIA were planning the destruction of the Gaullist line and the rise in power of Nicolas Sarkozy. They acted in three stages: firstly the elimination of the leaders of the Gaullist Party and taking over this body, then the elimination of the principal rival on the right and the investiture by the Gaullist Party for the presidential election, and finally the elimination of any serious challenger from the left in order to be sure of carrying off the presidential election.

For years, the media were kept excited by posthumous revelations by a real property speculator. Before dying of a serious illness, he had registered for reasons never made clear a video confession. For even more obscure reasons, the "cassette" fell into the hands of a highly placed member of the Socialist Party, Dominique Strauss-Khan, who passed it on indirectly to the press.

Even if the confessions of the speculator did not lead to any judicial sanction, they opened a Pandora's box. The principal victim of the successive affairs was to be the Prime Minister Alain Juppé. To protect Chirac, he alone took on all the criminal offences. Putting Juppé out of the way left the way clear for Nicolas Sarkozy to take over the running of the Gaullist Party.

Sarkozy then made use of his position to force Jacques Chirac to take him back into the government, despite their mutual hatred. He was definitively to be the Minister of the Interior. What a mistake! In this post, he controlled the Préfets and the interior intelligence network which he used to put his appointees into the major branches of the administration.

He also dealt with Corsican matters. The Préfet Claude Érignac had been assassinated. Although no-one had claimed it, the murder was immediately interpreted as a challenge made by the independentists to the Republic. After a long hunt, the police managed to arrest a fleeing suspect, Yvan Colonna, the son of a Socialist Député. Without regard for the presumption of innocence, Nicolas Sarkozy announced this arrest accusing the suspect of being the assassin. This news was too good two days before a referendum being organised by the Minister of the Interior in Corsica to modify the status of the Island. However that may be, the voters rejected the Sarkozy project which, according to some, favoured Mafia interests.

Although Yvan Colonna was later found guilty, he has always claimed his innocence and no material evidence has been found against him. Strangely, the man refused to talk, preferring to be found guilty than to reveal what he knows. We here reveal that the Préfet Érignac was not killed by nationalists, but shot by the hit-man, Igor Pecatte, immediately sent off to Angola where he has been taken on by the Elf group. The motive for the crime was closely linked to the previous functions of Érignac, in charge of the African networks of Charles Pasqua at the Ministry of Cooperation. As for Yvan Colonna, he has been a personal friend of Nicolas Sarkozy for many years and their children are in friendly contact with one another.

A new affair came to light: false listings were circulating which untruthfully accused certain personalities of hiding bank accounts in Luxembourg, with Clearstream. Among the personalities defamed: Nicolas Sarkozy. He took the case to court and let it seem that his right-wing rival for the presidential election, the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, had organised this machination. He did not hide his intention to have him sent to prison. In reality, the false listings were put in circulation by members of the Franco-American Foundation, of which John Negroponte was the President and Frank Wisner Jr. the Director. What the Judges did not know and we reveal here was that the listings were made in London by a joint office of the CIA and the MI6, Hakluyt & Co, of which Frank Wisner Jr. is also Director. Villepin fights back against the accusations, but he is charged, forbidden to leave his home and, de facto, temporarily removed from political life. The way is open for on the right for Nicolas Sarkozy.

It remained necessary to neutralise opposition candidates. The membership dues to the Socialist Party have gone down to a symbolic level to attract new members. Suddenly thousands of young people applied for membership cards. Among them are at least ten thousand new members who are in reality members of the Trotskyite "Lambertist" Party (so called from the name of their founder Pierre Lambert). This small extreme left formation has a history of working for the CIA against the Stalinist communists during the Cold War (it was the equivalent of the SD/USA of Max Shatchman, which formed the neoconservatives in the USA). This was not the first time that the "Lambertists" had infiltrated the Socialist Party.

In particular they planted two famous CIA agents: Lionel Jospin (who became Prime Minister) and Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, the principal adviser to Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Primaries were organised in the Socialist Party to appoint its candidate for the presidential election. Two personalities were competing: Laurent Fabius and Ségolène Royal. Only the first represented a danger for Sarkozy. Dominique Strauss-Kahn became a candidate with the task of eliminating Fabius at the last moment. This he was able to do thanks to the votes of the infiltrated "Lambertist" militants who voted not for him but for Royal. The operation was possible because Strauss-Kahn, of Moroccan Jewish origin, had been on the US payroll for many years. The French were not aware that he lectured at Stanford, where he had been taken on by the Provost of the University, Condoleezza Rice. As soon as he took office, Nicolas Sarkozy and Condoleezza Rice thanked Strauss-Kahn by having him appointed to head the International Monetary Fund.

First days at the Élysée Palace

On the evening of the second round of the presidential election, when the opinion polls announced his probable victory, Nicolas Sarkozy made a short speech to the nation from his campaign HQ. Then, contrary to custom, he did not go to celebrate with the militants of his party, but went to Fouquet's. The famous restaurant on the Champs-Élysées, which had once been the meeting place for the "Union Corse" now belongs to the casino operator Dominique Desseigne. It was placed at the disposition of the elected President to receive his friends and principal donors to his campaign. A hundred or so guests crowded in, the richest men in France were there with the casino bosses.

Then the elected President allowed himself a few days of earned rest. Taken there in a private Falcon-900 to Malta, he rested there on the Paloma, the 65 metre yacht of his friend Vincent Bolloré, a billionaire formed at the Banque Rothschild.

Finally, Nicolas Sarkozy was invested as President of the French Republic. The first decree which he signed was not to proclaim an amnesty, but to allow casinos to be operated by his friends Desseigne et Partouche and increase the number of gambling machines.

He formed his working team and his government. With no surprise, one finds there a very worrying casino owner (Minister of Youth and Sport) and lobbyist for the casinos of his friend Desseigne (who became spokesman for the "Gaullist" Party).

Nicolas Sarkozy relied above all on four men: Claude Guéant, Secretary General of the Élysée Palace. He was the former right arm of Charles Pasqua. François Pérol, Assistant Secretary General of the Élysée. He was a managing partner of the Banque Rothschild. Jean-David Lévitte, diplomatic adviser. Son of the former Director of the Jewish Agency. French Ambassador to UNO, he was removed from his post by Chirac who considered him too close to George Bush. Alain Bauer, the man in the shadow. His name does not appear in any directory. He is in charge of the intelligence services. Grandson of the Grand Rabbi of Lyon, former Grand-Master of the Grand Orient of France (the principal Masonic obedience in France) and former number 2 of the USA National Security Agency in Europe.

Frank Wisner Jr., who had in the meantime been appointed special envoy by President Bush for the independence of Kosovo, insisted that Bernard Kouchner be appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs with a dual priority mission: The independence of Kosovo and the ending of France's Arab policy.

Kouchner, of Baltic Jewish origin, started his career by taking part in creating a humanitarian NGO. Thanks to money from the National Endowment for Democracy, he took part in operations for Zbigniew Brzezinski in Afghanistan, alongside Osama Ben Laden and the Karzaï brothers against the Soviets. He could be found in the 90s alongside Alija Izetbegoviç in Bosnia-Herzegovina. From 1999 to 2001, he was the High Representative of UNO in Kosovo.

Under the control of the younger brother of President Hamid Karzaï, Afghanistan became the largest producer in the world of opium poppies. The juice is transformed on the spot into heroin and transported by the US Air Force to Camp Bondsteed (Kosovo). There the drug is taken over by the men of Haçim Thaçi who distribute it principally in Europe and also in the United States. The profits are used to finance the illegal operations of the CIA. Karzaï and Thaçi are long-time personal friends of Bernard Kouchner, who obviously knows nothing of their criminal activities despite the international reports which have been made on the subject.

To complete his government, Nicolas Sarkozy appoints Christine Lagarde, Minister of Economy and Finance. She had made all her career in the United States where she ran the prestigious law firm of Baker & McKenzie. Within Dick Cheney's the Center for International & Strategic Studies, she co-chaired with Zbigniew Brzezinski a working group which supervised the privatisations in Poland. She had organised intense lobbying for Lockheed Martin against the French aircraft manufacturer Dassault.

A new escapade during the summer. Nicolas, Cécilia, their joint mistress and their children were offered holidays in the USA at Wolfenboro, not far from President Bush's property. The bill this time was paid by Robert F. Agostinelli, an Italo-New York merchant banker, a Zionist and a leading neo-conservative who gives his views in Commentary, the magazine of the American Jewish Committee.

The success of Nicolas spreads to his half-brother Pierre-Olivier. Under the Americanised name of "Oliver", he was appointed by Frank Carlucci (who was the number 2 of the CIA after having been recruited by Frank Wisner Sr.) Director of a new investment fund of the Carlyle Group (the joint management company of the portfolios of the Bushes and the Ben Ladens). Having become the 5th deal-maker in the world, he manages the principal assets of the sovereign funds of Kuwait and Singapore.

The popularity of the President is in free-fall in the opinion polls. One of his advisers in communication, Jacques Séguéla, planned to distract the attention of the public with new "celebrity stories". The announcement of the divorce from Cécilia was published by Libération, the newspaper of his friend Édouard de Rothschild, to cover up the demonstrators' slogans during a day of general strikes. Going further still, the communicator organised a meeting with the singer and former model, Carla Bruni. Several days later, her affair with the President became official and the media din again covered up the political criticisms. A few weeks later still and it was Nicolas' third marriage. This time the witnesses whom he chose were Mathilde Agostinelli (the wife of Robert) and Nicolas Bazire, former private secretary of Édouard Balladur who had become a managing partner at the Banque Rothschild.

When will the French open their eyes to see what they should do?

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