2012 Trial Awaits the Frenchmen Involved in the Oil for Food Corruption Scandal

Ten years of searching for evidence in the oil-for-food corruption scandal involving Iraq's Saddam Hussein should bring Charles Pasqua, Total, and the oil company's CEO (Christophe de Margerie) to trial in Paris in 2012, writes Le Monde in an unsigned article. Believe it or not, of 17 Le Monde readers (many of them skeptical of their country's justice system where the élites are concerned), a couple actually praise George W Bush (or at least credit W) for his actions (without mentioning it was war) in bringing the corruption to an end.

Meanwhile, in an op-ed, Denis MacShane reminds us that the reason the Iraq War was allegedly "illegal" was due to a refusal to adopt a second resolution by… a communist Politburo (in Beijing) and a neo-authoritarian close to the Russian oligarchs (in Moscow) — and that, far earlier than the threat of a French veto.

La guerre en Irak a été illégale parce qu'un Politburo communiste en Chine et un néo-autoritaire proche des oligarques à Moscou ont refusé d'adopter une deuxième résolution de l'ONU et ce, bien avant la menace d'un veto francais.