French news - Clearstream
News roundup
There have been two or three major stories in France this week ; 'l'affaire Clearstream', immigration and 20 years after Chernobyl.
All of the major newspapers lead-in this morning with the Clearstream story; Le_Figaro, Le_monde, and the Nouvel_obs, are all speculating that De Villpin may well be on his way out.
It's a huge story in its own right, but given the state of Chirac's government in general and the problems for two or three of his people in particular, the thing could be explosive.
Hold on tight for a long résumé, you just couldn't make all of this up, even if you tried to :
L'affaire Clearstream dates back to 2001 - A financial trading company working on behalf of shareholders - the biggest banks on the planet - is suspected of using back chanels and secret accounts to organise a huge, international money laundering scheme.
A disgruntled ex-banker, Ernst Backes, sacked in 1983, had been keeping secret files on his employers actions and went to Denis Robert, a journalist, with the story.
The men publish a book "Revelation$" which set the ball rolling; 8000 accounts (57 french ones) are discovered in the vaults of the Luxemburg bank which then has to defend itself against accusations of money laundering.
In May 2001, the justice department decides to open an inquiry into the affair.
In 2003 a series of lists naming names starts to surface.
General Philippe Rondot, working at cabinet level for the ministry of defense, becomes aware of french nationals on the lists and affirms to investigators that Jean-Louis Gergorin - Vice president of E.A.D.S and close to De Villepin - gave him the lists so as to alert him of possible shady dealings inside the defense industry. Gergorin, denies this even now.
In parallel to this, at the start of summer 2001, a judge - Renaud Van Ruymbeke - had been asked to investigate the sale of six frigates to Taiwan by Thomson CSF.
He recieves a two page anonymous letter evoking the existance of a mafia like group, implicating french industrials and russian oligarques.
The people implicated: ex- PDG of Thomson; Alain Gomez and one of his ancient employees; Pierre Martinez. The deputy V.P of airbus; Philippe Delmas.
The charges are all dropped and the investigation is stopped when it becomes obvious that there is no truth in the allegations. Strangely enough all of this started at a time when Delmas was pushing for one of his people - Noël Forgeard - to become the head of E.A.D.S.
Suspicion surfaced around the entourage of his rival for the fight to reach the top of the heap; Philippe Camus, and especially, Jean-Louis Gergorin.
In June 2004 two more letters were delivered to judge Van Ruymbeke. One of the letters contained a C.D rom containing a list of names holding accounts at Clearstream; Dominique Strauss-Kahn (finance minister until 2002), Jean-Pierre Chevènement (minister of the interior until 2002), Alain Madelin as well as many senior managers and board directors at E.A.D.S.
Nicolas Sarkozy was also mentioned.
The judge orders a new investigation - only for it to end abruptly when the fabrication becomes evident.
In june 2005, Sarkozy is back in the Chirac cabinet.
One evening he calls Pierre Bousquet de Florian, boss of the DST (the french secret service) to his office. The minister asks him : " Have you brought the file you have on me ?", as De Florian hands him some papers, Sarkozy tells him "Come back when you have managed to get everything together".
In March 2006, Sarkozy goes to the civil courts demanding reparations for slander and defamation.
In the spring, warrants are issued and seizeures are made in the offices and homes of Gergorin and Noël Forgeard - now the new deputy vice-president of E.A.D.S.
The offices and home of Rondot are also visited, as is the head office of the DGSE (the French MI6). The ex head of the DST, Alain Juillet, also recieves a visit from the police.
On the March the 28th, Rondot was interviewed for 14 hours, his deposition, which runs to twenty pages has created the crisis situation we now have today : The master spy has directly implicated Dominique De Villepin and Jacques Chirac who told him to investigate Sarkozy.
From the very start of the investigation by Robert, the whole 'hidden transactions' story was part of a huge disinformation programme aimed at destabilising Sarkozy.
De Villepin is now fighting for his political life.
On friday, an official statement said Villepin would not stand in the way of any inquiry and was willing to be seen by the judge if need be.
From the Elysée; Chirac's office issued a statement friday saying that the president categorically denies having demanded the least investigation targeting any politician whose name may have been cited (by the press).
As for Sarkozy, he is now the referee in all of this.
In an interview thursday night, on french television, he said that the most important in all of this is that no-body can now believe that he has private accounts held in foreign banks abroad.
As he said recently: "The road to the presidential elections is a long adventure ... if i win, i will have deserved it" ___________________________________
Immigration law
It's interesting to note that whilst all eyes have been turned to the Ü.S this week and the debate about immigration over there (the walling off of Mexico, the national anthem en espagnol, the demos planned for monday), we have the same thing here, right now, in France (although without the demand to translate the french national anthem into english).
Starting from next tuesday, the interior minister ... wotissname ? ... oh yeah Sarkozee ... is looking to find a way of reforming immigration law in France.
At present, you can only live and work in France if you have a Carte de Séjour which lasts for about ten years - for people from the yurpeeen community there is no difficulty in obtaining one.
However if you you come from a country outside of the Shengen Agreement then you will recieve a renewable card that last for about three months, i think.
Specifically, if you come from the ancient colonies looking for work because there aren't many opportunities to be had in Burkina Faso, Algiers or Fez, then you might, at the end of your year here, find yourself a) in pokey as an illegal immigrant, b) put onto a plane and sent back home or c) fined plus options a+b.
So, Sarko has decided to ammend the law saying that if you come from outside of the Shengen Zone, and to be able to obtain a card for ten years you must first get a 1 year visa (non renewable), take what amounts to a pledge of alleigience and promise to abide by the laws of the land (i'm summarising heavily).
People coming over on a student visa must have a written agreement from their school/college/university back home saying that their project is valid (so you gotta be a bit rich then ...).
The simplification of the obtention of a carte de séjour for professions with difficulties in recruting (... heuum .. road sweeping, building ... macdonalds ...).
All very well and good, we might say.
But think of it this way; if someone comes here because they can't find work elsewhere, the chances are that, just as in the Ü.S, they are going to be lumbered with poorly paid, menial, insecure Mac-jobs - they may well be changing jobs with the seasons, they will surely be at the mercy of unscrupulous employers and without any recours.
Unless they come from a country with favoured nation status, that is.
Traditionally, someone who has settled in France (ie; has founded a familly) or has been living in France without a card for more than ten years and can prove it, has the right to an automatic card - this new law erases that possibility and so we go back to the multiple choice questions earlier.
It's this last element which has provoked outrage and the demonstrations planned for Mayday on monday.
As for 'debate' ... there won't be one - the law has been written and the assembly will vote it in as it is.
___________________________________
Chernobyl
Twenty years on, there is still a huge debate here as to how much was covered up by the Mitterrand government when the Chernobyl reactor blew up.
At that time, the weather office told the population that because of an anticyclone, France had been miraculousy saved from the toxic cloud.
As a precaution hovever, people living in the south east or near the border with Italy, shouldn't consume vegetables from back gardens and livestock should be bought indoors.
So it is with shock and awe (to coin a phrase) that we learned this week that the level of toxicity was under-evalued by 1000.
In 1986 on the 7th and 16th of May the SCPRI (the french nuclear watchdog) published a series of maps indicating the levels of radioactive deposits in french soil.The levels went from 25bq/m2 in Britanny to 500bq/m2 in the east of France; very modest levels indeed.
In 2005 the sucessor to the SCPRI, the new, all varnished spick and span version the IRSN has reconstituted new maps: the deposits of cesium 137 go over and above 20 000 Bq/m2 in certain zones with hot spots of 40,000 Bq/m2 !
How can we explain a differnce of a thousand fold ?
According to the CRIIRAD (an independant laboratory) it's a question of either incompetance or a wilfull coverup.
Since 2001, CRIIRAD and the AFMT (the french assosiation for patients with thyroid illnesses) have been in the courts making a charge 'against X for insufficient protection of the poulation against radioactive discharge issued by the Chernobyl accident'
For the spokesperson at the CRIIRAD, there is no doubt that the second hypothsis is correct - she plans to show that the authorities minimised the fallout and didn't take the sanitary mesures necessary, as was the case in bordering countries.
In december 2005, the judge in charge of the case recieved a raport affirming that the radioactive measures taken by the then gouvernment were hidden and that the SCPRI hid and incorrectly restituted the data in it's possession at the time.
Since 1986, many maps and measures have been combines to try to give an accurate record as possible.
When combined together the levels of contamination are much much more higher than admitted.
More recently, on March 27th the scientifique council validated the figures suggested by the CRIIRAD.
The soil samples didn't indicate the doses of radiation recieved by the population - in a rare case in Corsica, a child was found to have a dose of 15-30 MsV.
The 'safe' dose pour the public is considered to be at 1MsV per year.
The sanitary institute estimates from 7 to 55 additional cases of thyroid cancer directly likned to Chernobyl for a population of 2.3 million children over the period 1991 - 2005.
However, for 900 cases of spontaneous cancer (not linked to Chenobyl) the margin of error is at +/- 60 cases.
In Corsica, where the highest level of cesium 137 was recorded, people are hoping to escape the trauma an epidemic in future generations.
The Corsican assembly voted unanimously this week to carry out an 'epidemeologic investigation ... and on the radioactive fallout in Corsica due to the Chernobyl catastrophe'
An investigation is already underway in thirteen villages which were the most highly exposed.
There have been two or three major stories in France this week ; 'l'affaire Clearstream', immigration and 20 years after Chernobyl.
All of the major newspapers lead-in this morning with the Clearstream story; Le_Figaro, Le_monde, and the Nouvel_obs, are all speculating that De Villpin may well be on his way out.
It's a huge story in its own right, but given the state of Chirac's government in general and the problems for two or three of his people in particular, the thing could be explosive.
Hold on tight for a long résumé, you just couldn't make all of this up, even if you tried to :
L'affaire Clearstream dates back to 2001 - A financial trading company working on behalf of shareholders - the biggest banks on the planet - is suspected of using back chanels and secret accounts to organise a huge, international money laundering scheme.
A disgruntled ex-banker, Ernst Backes, sacked in 1983, had been keeping secret files on his employers actions and went to Denis Robert, a journalist, with the story.
The men publish a book "Revelation$" which set the ball rolling; 8000 accounts (57 french ones) are discovered in the vaults of the Luxemburg bank which then has to defend itself against accusations of money laundering.
In May 2001, the justice department decides to open an inquiry into the affair.
In 2003 a series of lists naming names starts to surface.
General Philippe Rondot, working at cabinet level for the ministry of defense, becomes aware of french nationals on the lists and affirms to investigators that Jean-Louis Gergorin - Vice president of E.A.D.S and close to De Villepin - gave him the lists so as to alert him of possible shady dealings inside the defense industry. Gergorin, denies this even now.
In parallel to this, at the start of summer 2001, a judge - Renaud Van Ruymbeke - had been asked to investigate the sale of six frigates to Taiwan by Thomson CSF.
He recieves a two page anonymous letter evoking the existance of a mafia like group, implicating french industrials and russian oligarques.
The people implicated: ex- PDG of Thomson; Alain Gomez and one of his ancient employees; Pierre Martinez. The deputy V.P of airbus; Philippe Delmas.
The charges are all dropped and the investigation is stopped when it becomes obvious that there is no truth in the allegations. Strangely enough all of this started at a time when Delmas was pushing for one of his people - Noël Forgeard - to become the head of E.A.D.S.
Suspicion surfaced around the entourage of his rival for the fight to reach the top of the heap; Philippe Camus, and especially, Jean-Louis Gergorin.
In June 2004 two more letters were delivered to judge Van Ruymbeke. One of the letters contained a C.D rom containing a list of names holding accounts at Clearstream; Dominique Strauss-Kahn (finance minister until 2002), Jean-Pierre Chevènement (minister of the interior until 2002), Alain Madelin as well as many senior managers and board directors at E.A.D.S.
Nicolas Sarkozy was also mentioned.
The judge orders a new investigation - only for it to end abruptly when the fabrication becomes evident.
In june 2005, Sarkozy is back in the Chirac cabinet.
One evening he calls Pierre Bousquet de Florian, boss of the DST (the french secret service) to his office. The minister asks him : " Have you brought the file you have on me ?", as De Florian hands him some papers, Sarkozy tells him "Come back when you have managed to get everything together".
In March 2006, Sarkozy goes to the civil courts demanding reparations for slander and defamation.
In the spring, warrants are issued and seizeures are made in the offices and homes of Gergorin and Noël Forgeard - now the new deputy vice-president of E.A.D.S.
The offices and home of Rondot are also visited, as is the head office of the DGSE (the French MI6). The ex head of the DST, Alain Juillet, also recieves a visit from the police.
On the March the 28th, Rondot was interviewed for 14 hours, his deposition, which runs to twenty pages has created the crisis situation we now have today : The master spy has directly implicated Dominique De Villepin and Jacques Chirac who told him to investigate Sarkozy.
From the very start of the investigation by Robert, the whole 'hidden transactions' story was part of a huge disinformation programme aimed at destabilising Sarkozy.
De Villepin is now fighting for his political life.
On friday, an official statement said Villepin would not stand in the way of any inquiry and was willing to be seen by the judge if need be.
From the Elysée; Chirac's office issued a statement friday saying that the president categorically denies having demanded the least investigation targeting any politician whose name may have been cited (by the press).
As for Sarkozy, he is now the referee in all of this.
In an interview thursday night, on french television, he said that the most important in all of this is that no-body can now believe that he has private accounts held in foreign banks abroad.
As he said recently: "The road to the presidential elections is a long adventure ... if i win, i will have deserved it" ___________________________________
Immigration law
It's interesting to note that whilst all eyes have been turned to the Ü.S this week and the debate about immigration over there (the walling off of Mexico, the national anthem en espagnol, the demos planned for monday), we have the same thing here, right now, in France (although without the demand to translate the french national anthem into english).
Starting from next tuesday, the interior minister ... wotissname ? ... oh yeah Sarkozee ... is looking to find a way of reforming immigration law in France.
At present, you can only live and work in France if you have a Carte de Séjour which lasts for about ten years - for people from the yurpeeen community there is no difficulty in obtaining one.
However if you you come from a country outside of the Shengen Agreement then you will recieve a renewable card that last for about three months, i think.
Specifically, if you come from the ancient colonies looking for work because there aren't many opportunities to be had in Burkina Faso, Algiers or Fez, then you might, at the end of your year here, find yourself a) in pokey as an illegal immigrant, b) put onto a plane and sent back home or c) fined plus options a+b.
So, Sarko has decided to ammend the law saying that if you come from outside of the Shengen Zone, and to be able to obtain a card for ten years you must first get a 1 year visa (non renewable), take what amounts to a pledge of alleigience and promise to abide by the laws of the land (i'm summarising heavily).
People coming over on a student visa must have a written agreement from their school/college/university back home saying that their project is valid (so you gotta be a bit rich then ...).
The simplification of the obtention of a carte de séjour for professions with difficulties in recruting (... heuum .. road sweeping, building ... macdonalds ...).
All very well and good, we might say.
But think of it this way; if someone comes here because they can't find work elsewhere, the chances are that, just as in the Ü.S, they are going to be lumbered with poorly paid, menial, insecure Mac-jobs - they may well be changing jobs with the seasons, they will surely be at the mercy of unscrupulous employers and without any recours.
Unless they come from a country with favoured nation status, that is.
Traditionally, someone who has settled in France (ie; has founded a familly) or has been living in France without a card for more than ten years and can prove it, has the right to an automatic card - this new law erases that possibility and so we go back to the multiple choice questions earlier.
It's this last element which has provoked outrage and the demonstrations planned for Mayday on monday.
As for 'debate' ... there won't be one - the law has been written and the assembly will vote it in as it is.
___________________________________
Chernobyl
Twenty years on, there is still a huge debate here as to how much was covered up by the Mitterrand government when the Chernobyl reactor blew up.
At that time, the weather office told the population that because of an anticyclone, France had been miraculousy saved from the toxic cloud.
As a precaution hovever, people living in the south east or near the border with Italy, shouldn't consume vegetables from back gardens and livestock should be bought indoors.
So it is with shock and awe (to coin a phrase) that we learned this week that the level of toxicity was under-evalued by 1000.
In 1986 on the 7th and 16th of May the SCPRI (the french nuclear watchdog) published a series of maps indicating the levels of radioactive deposits in french soil.The levels went from 25bq/m2 in Britanny to 500bq/m2 in the east of France; very modest levels indeed.
In 2005 the sucessor to the SCPRI, the new, all varnished spick and span version the IRSN has reconstituted new maps: the deposits of cesium 137 go over and above 20 000 Bq/m2 in certain zones with hot spots of 40,000 Bq/m2 !
How can we explain a differnce of a thousand fold ?
According to the CRIIRAD (an independant laboratory) it's a question of either incompetance or a wilfull coverup.
Since 2001, CRIIRAD and the AFMT (the french assosiation for patients with thyroid illnesses) have been in the courts making a charge 'against X for insufficient protection of the poulation against radioactive discharge issued by the Chernobyl accident'
For the spokesperson at the CRIIRAD, there is no doubt that the second hypothsis is correct - she plans to show that the authorities minimised the fallout and didn't take the sanitary mesures necessary, as was the case in bordering countries.
In december 2005, the judge in charge of the case recieved a raport affirming that the radioactive measures taken by the then gouvernment were hidden and that the SCPRI hid and incorrectly restituted the data in it's possession at the time.
Since 1986, many maps and measures have been combines to try to give an accurate record as possible.
When combined together the levels of contamination are much much more higher than admitted.
More recently, on March 27th the scientifique council validated the figures suggested by the CRIIRAD.
The soil samples didn't indicate the doses of radiation recieved by the population - in a rare case in Corsica, a child was found to have a dose of 15-30 MsV.
The 'safe' dose pour the public is considered to be at 1MsV per year.
The sanitary institute estimates from 7 to 55 additional cases of thyroid cancer directly likned to Chernobyl for a population of 2.3 million children over the period 1991 - 2005.
However, for 900 cases of spontaneous cancer (not linked to Chenobyl) the margin of error is at +/- 60 cases.
In Corsica, where the highest level of cesium 137 was recorded, people are hoping to escape the trauma an epidemic in future generations.
The Corsican assembly voted unanimously this week to carry out an 'epidemeologic investigation ... and on the radioactive fallout in Corsica due to the Chernobyl catastrophe'
An investigation is already underway in thirteen villages which were the most highly exposed.
posted by Damiel | 1:25 PM
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