October 01, 2004
French blaming US troops again...Incroyable!
A self-appointed mediator said the release of two French journalists held in Iraq since August fell through Friday when a group of Iraqis transporting them was bombarded by U.S. forces.France's Foreign Ministry had no comment on his account of events, which could not be independently verified. The U.S. military in Baghdad said it knew nothing of such an incident.
French MP and mediator Didier Julia told journalists in Damascus Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were due to be released Friday but the route they and their Iraqi guards were to take was blocked by a deployment of U.S. soldiers.
Well, as the Americans were supposedly right there, wouldn't it have been a good idea to drop the French guys off somewhere nearby? Oh, I forget, that might interfere with the filming of the release of the hostages by Al-Whatever. If they were actually being released, that is.
Later in the ABC article, look at the scare quotes added to Julia's remarks:
"The Americans have multiplied the bombardment (of the area), placing two divisions to fire on all the 'terrorists' who passed down the road. They have set up 20 roadblocks on the route," Julia said.
Wow, do you think he wiggled his fingers in the air at the same time as he said the T-word so that the Reuter's 'journalist' would know he was using the term loosely?
P.S. French state TV is showing last night's debate right now, I think in full. Dubbed. No subtitles.
Posted by Valerie at October 1, 2004 11:47 PMWell, if the frogs blame us, then how about a little payback.
From the Washington Times this morning:
“the extrusions of that vile species (erectus porcinus) who murdered 35 of their own children yesterday in the streets of Baghdad in the name of a malignant theology of an eighth-century religion, imagine that we’re no tougher, no more resilient, no more courageous than the French, who can never even defend themselves;….”
Ah, yes, I love the Washington Times….
Also this little ditty: “John Kerry presents himself as the John Paul Jones of the Mekong”
"John Paul Jones of the Mekong" - brilliant. Simply brilliant.
I wish Buffalo still had a second newspaper. :(
Posted by: Doug at October 2, 2004 05:10 AMDoesn't it sound like the French picked the wrong friends at the wrong time in the wrong war?
I might be slow on the uptake, but the situation that french fella is describing doesn't sound like, disasterous, out of control, or on the verge of civil war. It sounds to me like our boys rule the field. It sounds to me like even a shadow needs a hall pass.
Someone send a copy of this French complaint to Senator Kerry.
Posted by: Brilliant! at October 2, 2004 06:15 AMI wish Buffalo still had a second newspaper
I read an interesting article a while back about cities that used to have two papers: mostly one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It stated that most of the afternoon papers were conservative leaning, while the morning papers were liberal leaning. Bad news was that the afternoon papers became unpopular, not because of content, but because of changing life-styles; longer comutes, women joining workforce, etc.
So, bye bye to a lot of the conservative leaning papers. I should have kept that article. Maybe I still have it in that 4 foot pile over there on the floor waiting to be filed.
What I need is a snow day!
Posted by: andy at October 2, 2004 11:42 AMThe Courrier Express folded when I was still too young to really care about newspapers, so I can't say for certain, but that might be accurate. I remember having a friend who delivered the Courrier after school, and I remember that the Buffalo News became the Buffalo Evening News some time after the demise of the Courier (suggesting it had been a morning paper previously - I really don't recall). I'm happy that the News isn't quite a NYT-lite like the WaPo, but still...
If you happen to trip over that article some time, let me know if it includes the author, date, or source. It sounds like one that would interest me. But not enough to do anything crazy like dig through that mound. ;)
Posted by: Doug at October 2, 2004 06:30 PMJust saw on TV some former head (I think) of the DST mocking Didier Julia: Yeah, right, [what blocked the release of the French hostages is] American bombings, and why not submarines while we're at it?
Apparently, the French government has sent special agents to try and get the hostages back. I read this somewhere, in Le Parisien I think. So the Government isn't too happy with Julia's initiative.
I'll try to catch late evening news to find out the name of the DST man and the exact quote. Worth remembering. And I just need to see and hear it again to know that I wasn't dreaming.
Posted by: Carine at October 2, 2004 07:05 PMOne of those little AOL polls...
According to you, the fact that the release of the French hostages failed is because of...
36% - Journalists who give media coverage to operations that should remain secret
31% - the diplomatic war between "official" networks and "private" networks
24% - the American army
9% - Financial demands from the kidnappers
Number of votes: 4,647
