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French President Sarkozy's Trial Paints Him as Pro Iraq Invasion/US Puppet »

  • Nicolas Sarkozy says Dominique de Villepin was involved in a smear campaign known as the Clearstream affair designed to keep Sarkozy from winning France’s top job in 2007 elections.
  • It’s a faceoff between a French president who calls himself America’s friend, and an ex-prime minister who helped rally world opinion against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
  • Sarkozy is a plaintiff in the case, but he won’t be anywhere near the court because his presidential position means he doesn’t have to testify. Former Prime Minister Villepin will be on the defendants’ bench along with four others, accused of perpetuating bogus claims that Sarkozy hid bribe money in a Luxembourg bank.
  • The unusual, complicated saga dates back to 2004, when both men - the kinetic, dark-haired Sarkozy and the suave, silver-haired Villepin, both conservatives, both government ministers - were considered leading hopefuls to succeed then-President Jacques Chirac.
  • It began with a mysterious list claiming to show clients with secret accounts with Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream, including Sarkozy and other leading French political and business figures. The accounts were purportedly created to hold bribes from a 1991 sale of warships to Taiwan, among other shady income.
  • Villepin became aware of the list and asked an intelligence adviser for the Defense Ministry, Gen. Philippe Rondot, to investigate it. Rondot determined it was a hoax - but the list was already making the rounds among government and judicial officials.
(Would one man, already deep in a governmental post - no doubt with political opinions bordering on pro-war - be the right one to authorize the document as a forgery? Wouldn’t he do all he can so that the pro-war president could win a race ?)

Posted 2 years ago from bookmarklet
Tagged: cover up, war, terrorism, .