“APPEAL THREATENS TO REVEAL SCALE OF FRENCH CORRUPTION:

Defendants in a corruption appeal trial that began yesterday are threatening to blow the whistle on the alleged shady dealings of successive French governments in selling arms and negotiating oil rights in Asia and Africa.

The most complex and the most colourful corruption saga in recent French history resumed yesterday with the start of an appeal by the former foreign minister Roland Dumas, 80, against a conviction and six months’ jail sentence for influence peddling.

Four other defendants in the case of the alleged pillaging of the Elf-Aquitaine oil company in the 1980s and early 1990s – including Christine Deviers-Joncour, 55, the former mistress of M. Dumas and self-styled “Whore of the Republic” – are also appealing against the convictions and jail sentences handed down 18 months ago.

Given the obstreperous behavior of the French lately, I think that U.S. intelligence agencies should start leaking information on this stuff to the press.

UPDATE: A reader writes: “This explains the French behavior – Saddam is threatening to reveal his payments to Chirac if he supports the war…”