Whining French Claim Pentagon Smear Plot

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/57703.htm WHINING FRENCH CLAIM PENTAGON SMEAR PLOT

By NILES LATHEM
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May 16, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Relations between the U.S. and France took a further turn for the worse yesterday when French diplomats accused the Pentagon of conducting a smear campaign - and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the United States would scale back its military relationship with its longtime NATO ally.
As the fallout over France's opposition to the war of Iraq deepened, France's ambassador to Washington, Jean-David Levitte, wrote an extraordinary letter to the White House and Congress. He blasted what he called inaccurate news reports revealing backstage French help to Iraq during the war and said it was part of an "organized campaign of disinformation" to embarrass his government.

Levitte specifically mentioned media reports that French diplomats gave fleeing Iraqi regime leaders passports in Syria and had sold spare parts to Saddam just weeks before the war.

He blamed hardline Pentagon hawks for leaking the information and claimed it is false.



Rumsfeld yesterday denied that there was any campaign out of his office to discredit the French.

But the tough-talking Pentagon boss told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that the United States would scale back military-to-military "events" such as joint exercises and ports of call by naval ships with France in favor of countries like Britain and Spain who joined the U.S. coalition that brought down Saddam