ARROGANT UNILATERALISM:
The French government secretly supplied fleeing Iraqi officials with passports in Syria that allowed them to escape to Europe, The Washington Times has learned. . . .
The passports are regarded as documents of the European Union, because of France’s membership in the union, and have helped the Iraqis avoid capture, said officials familiar with intelligence reports.
The French support, which was revealed through sensitive intelligence-gathering means, angered Pentagon, State Department and intelligence officials in Washington because it undermined the search for senior aides to Saddam, who fled Iraq in large numbers after the fall of Baghdad on April 9.
“It made it very difficult to track these people,” one official said. A second Bush administration official said, “It’s like Raoul Wallenberg in reverse,” a reference to the Swedish diplomat who supplied travel documents to help Jews escape Nazi Germany in World War II. “Now you have the French helping the bad guys escape from us.”
“Like Raoul Wallenberg in reverse.” If that’s not a good summation of French foreign policy in the 21st century, then I don’t know what is.
There’s also this story, less serious but still symptomatic:
The European Commission accused the French yesterday of a “lamentable” record in enforcing European Union law and pledged tough action to bring member states to book.
Despite being zealous advocates of closer European integration, the French are facing 220 open cases involving systematic violations of EU laws and are guilty of the most flagrant foot-dragging of any EU state when implanting new rules.
The long list of violations include a refusal to obey the law on biotech patents, for maintaining an illegal ban on food additives, and using obstructionist measures to prevent lawyers from other EU countries working in France. . . .
In many instances, the commission has already won the case in the European Court but has to launch a second set of proceedings under the EU’s tortuous system before fines can be imposed.
Typical.