The Free Republic BBS is reporting this:
"Ollie North on Foxnews just said the rumor going around in the Middle East is that French diplomats and inteligence agents are assisting in the destruction of [I assume] Iraqi documents showing French complicity in helping Iraq further its WMD programs."
Normally I'd blow this off, as Ollie is held in low regard by most American military professionals. However, it is so juicy a rumor that I'd really like it to be true *AND* it parallel's something my friend Tom Holsinger published over on strategypage.com:
Buying Iraq - A possibly surreal invasion by Tom Holsinger September 30, 2002"... The surrealism would be complete if bidding wars erupt over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) between terrorists, newsmen and various intelligence organizations before American troops arrive. Some countries' spooks, including ours, will be busy eliminating embarrassing evidence (and inconvenient witnesses) of their governments' support of Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein and/or how they provided him with some of the WMD everyone is looking for."
Stranger things have happened in this war so far. Unfortunately for me, Tom has predicted a number of those strange things in advance and he is getting really smug about it. Oh well, he deserves a good brag for this one even if it isn't true.
This wouldn't surprise me in the least. After all the speculation in the press related to French complicity with Saddam it would be the smart thing for them to do. However, with war imminent, can they find every last scrap of evidence? Chirac better hope so.
The French surely want to do this, but does Saddam want to let them? He's going down. He doesn't strike me as the kind of man who gives a damn about saving his friends to prevent them from going down with him.
He murders those who fail him, right? Haven't the French failed him grandly? More likely he'd WANT us to find evidence against them.