JEANE DUANE JORDAN KIRKPATRICK
November 19, 1926 – December 7, 2006
Requiescat In Pace
From an interview in Frontpage Magazine, March 2005, on the occasion of John Bolton's nomination as UN Ambassador.
Jeane Kirkpatrick was Leavey Professor of Political Science at Georgetown University, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and former United States Ambassador to the UN. More on Dr. Kirkpatrick here.
PFFT (What is this?): You knew that 5 | Rayonnement français 0
"Tight relationship" - until Saddam broke off diplomatic relations with France after Irak actually aggressed a sovereign nation. And let's remember the US media's hysterical accusations about "French-made WMD's" likely to be found in Saddam's arsenal. Since the story didn't stick too well, no time was wasted pointing at mutual past relationships.
Off the subject, aren't you curious about what was Talabani doing in Paris two months ago for an entire week, and what was his private meeting with TOTAL about?
Ah, M. Zmx is too subtle for us. What could an integrated oil company with historical and commercial interests in Arabia be up to talking with the president of an oil-rich Arab state?
Our guess -- and this is only a guess -- is that Total was seeking at a good price what Mr. Talabani sought to offer and Mr. Talabani was seeking the best price over what Total sought to pay. It is called doing business. Repairing tight relationships, restoring ruptured econonmic interests. That sort of thing.
As for M. Zmx's initial spew, as usual it is all pique and no polemic. Does he not know how to construct a propositional argument?
Dr. Kirkpatrick is not commenting on M. Zmx's unspecified and ephemeral headlines, but the historical record as it has come to be revealed.
We do not recall the French being defensive about holding the lucrative inside track in Iraq while Saddam was in power. Why is France -- here in the person of M. Zmx -- so tetchy about this open secret now?
[Long pause for reflection.]
Oh, of course! Because it lets the air out of the French pneumatic halo.
DGB
We know. The same Volker report that failed to identifiy US companies under some obscure "privacy" law. Again, the US just can't do no wrong nor that past associations with Saddam and other clowns ever bothered them (France being just as guilty) as long as it served its interests ("doing business" as you say).
M. Zmx,
Double negatives! More of your nuance! Well, you claim more for America than we ever have.
Had you followed the links provided in our response you would see the historical record we refer to are Frenchmen identified by police investigators of the BRDE (la brigade de répression de la délinquance économique). Two former officials from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Bernard Mérimée and Serge Boidevaix, have been placed under formal criminal investigation by Investigating magistrate Philippe Courroye. They are not without French companionship.
The Volker [sic, Volcker] report you complain about was a UN investigation. The UN operates outside the compass of American law. It was the Duelfer report, which cited France for violations, that had American corporations struck from the released official report. However, complete versions were circlated to several Congressional committees, where the names were duly leaked to all.
One name that comes up in almost every report and investigation is Charles Pasqua, the French senator for Hauts-de-Seine (Ile-de-France), who sits fat and happy in France where he enjoys the immunity protections of his office. M. Pasqua, though immune, has been indicted (mis en examen). He routinely protests his innocence.
So your insinuation that everybody's guilty is a blow-off. We don't speak to the guilt or innocence of all, just those to whom the preponderance of evidence points.
Hint: Many of them live somewhere that ends with an "E" and begins with "F-R-A-N-C".
Now go take a guess.
DGB
She was a great person. Her speech about "San Francisco Democrats" is a classic.
