A little while ago, Steven Den Beste caused quite a stir by asking "Suppose There Was Treachery?" when seeking explanations for the behaviour of the French and Germans with respect to Iraq. Chris Muir of Day by Day wondered the same thing in his cartoon strip.
The preponderance of German corporations listed in Hans Blix reports were suggestive. So is this story in the Telegraph (Hat Tip: M. Simon), which notes that:
"Germany's intelligence services attempted to build closer links to Saddam's secret service during the build-up to war last year, documents from the bombed Iraqi intelligece HQ in Baghdad obtained by The Telegraph reveal."The records also note that:
"In return, the Iraqis offered to give lucrative contracts to German companies if the Berlin government helped prevent an American invasion of the country...."As Den Beste notes in his analysis of the Telegraph's scoop, it's not solid proof. That said, it will be very interesting to see what else comes out of the Iraqi bureaucracy's files. Meanwhile, the German government - who coincidentally vowed they would oppose any invasion if even sanctioned by the U.N. - has a lot of explaining to do.
Joe,
I don't think there will be much explaining, at least in public, by the Germans, French, Russians, or anyone else. The money was just too large, the opportunity, too irristable, the post-modernist values prevent "Old Europe" from asking any embarrisng questions. Shhh, if no one says anything, the tree didn't fall.
I'd not get too excited about this right now. The data is too sparse. While it is no more proven than "treachery," what if this meeting was an attempt by German intelligence to start to infiltrate Iraqi intelligence to get more data. All such contacts have to have a first meeting.
Remember also, that apparently the U.S. and Britan managed to contact a number of upper level Iraqi commanders and get them to at least sit out the war. Some of those intitial contacts are probably in beaucratic files somewhere in Iraq -- the first contact has to be done in a way that doesn't immediately compromise either player.
I'm NOT saying that the Germans are innocent, but I do believe that we need a lot more information than this first memo to come to any solid conclusions.
While I agree that more proof is needed, there is another dimension which interests me.
A certain component of the anti-war types believe with no evidence whatsoever, as an article of faith, that big corporations promote wars. But only American corporations.
Somehow, with the occasional exception of the Brits, no other country's big corporations interfere with the peace and wonderfulness of the world.
If we apply the standard of proof necessary to satisfy these folks as to US corporations' complicity in everything from WW I to Gulf II to the German situation, the Krauts would be irrefutably guilty. See, in this case, there is actually some evidence. A big change.