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By ELIZABETH BRYANT in Paris and CELESTE KATZ in New York
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Vive la France?

Not as far as New York is concerned, mon ami.


As tensions build between the U.S. and France over Iraq, many New Yorkers are acting out their irritation with the French with fighting words - and their wallets.


"I had a call two days ago saying my country was 'unspeakable and disgusting,'" said one worker at the French Consulate. "It's hard not to take it personally."


The consulate has gotten "many E-mails and calls from Americans supporting our position," said spokesman R?gis Blain. But he acknowledged there have been many more Bronx cheers for France's refusal to back a U.S.-led war. "Most of the criticism focused on the fact that the U.S. helped save France in World War II and now we are 'ungrateful,'" he said.


Au contraire, said noted French strategic analyst Francois Heisbourg. He said the French remember D-Day well, but they also remember President Bush (news - web sites)'s "axis of evil" speech.


"They see Bush on TV at Crawford [Tex.], in a Marlboro-man-type setting, trying to explain why North Korea (news - web sites) is so incredibly different from Iraq," Heisbourg said. "That simply went over very, very badly here."


So far, the French press has mostly taken the high road in the war of words. The France-Soir newspaper merely called "humorless" the anti-French vitriol in the British and American press, including the often-repeated barb dubbing the French "cheese-eating surrender monkeys."


Still, France-Soir suggested it might be worth sealing the Channel Tunnel.


After hearing and reading countless anti-French cracks in recent days, Paris newspaper vendor Richard Halden has had enough. "It's infantile," he sniffed. "It's astonishing the U.S. press seems 100% behind Bush."


In Washington, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens) told a House hearing this week that France's reluctance to back the U.S. course on Iraq was stunning. "Most of us believe that they'd all be speaking German today if it were not for U.S. military intervention" he said.


Customers at American stores selling French exports expressed similar sentiments, rejecting all things Gallic.


"If it's made in France, I don't want it," said Marty Laufer, a manager at Garnet Wine and Liquors on Lexington Ave. on the upper East Side.


Former Mayor Ed Koch said New Yorkers should not only pass on a fine Bordeaux - but on France itself. "Americans are now standing up and giving the French the Bronx cheer," Koch said. "I encourage everybody in America: Do not go to France. These people were Nazi [collaborators] in large part. We saved them - and they turned on us." Originally published on February 14, 2003

Please do check out this link, lol....

http://www.fuckfrance.com/

Long distance- The next best thing to being there.

Edited by - m21 Sniper on Feb 17 2003 04:34 AM

Snipe loved the link did you see this article.

French Secret Service Almost Got Bin Laden in 1985
By i_break_4_camels Comments: 17, member since Thu Feb 13, 2003
On Sun Feb 16, 2003 01:22 PM
1985 French Secret Service sinking of the Greenpeace vessel "Rainbow Warrior" was actually a brave and clever attempt to assassinate Osama Bin Laden


The French Secret Service has launched an official investigation into the unauthorised disclosure of one of France’s most closely guarded secrets: the 1985 attack and sinking of the Greenpeace vessel “Rainbow Warrior” in New Zealand’s Auckland Harbour by French Secret Service agents was really an attempt to assassinate Osama Bin Laden, notorious leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization.

“We missed Bin Laden by just a few hours”, stated Bernard Tricot, who in 1985 headed the official French government inquiry into the incident. Interviewed in connection with this story, Tricot further stated: “long before other Western countries had even heard of Al Qaida, we clever French had uncovered its evil intentions and identified its key leaders. More importantly, our clever French Secret Service had also discovered a shocking fact – the Greenpeace organization was, and still is to this very day, nothing more than an Al Qaida front organization; nothing more than a ruse to raise funds for Al Qaida”, stated Tricot.

Sources inside the French intelligence community have revealed other heretofore-undisclosed details of this shocking story. Early in 1985 the French Secret Services, using very clever means, discovered that Bin Laden would be travelling to New Zealand under a Swedish passport identifying him as one “Ollie Holfenfauser” in order to head a meeting of key Al Qaida leaders.

Retired French Admiral Pierre Lacoste, head of the French Intelligence and Covert Operations Bureau at the time of the sinking stated: “we found ourselves in a position very much like that which the Americans are in right now with Saddam: we knew Bin Laden was the root of much evil, but to reveal our clear and convincing evidence would risk the lives of our brave undercover agents in the Al Qaida terror organization. So we decided to act in a fashion that would be in the best interests of the entire world - as France always does; after all, whatever is good for France is good for the world – and assassinate Bin Laden while he was on the “Rainbow Warrior”. We knew if we were caught in the act the world would readily accept our cover story that our actions were merely another cowardly French action – the sinking of a peaceful ship whose (own cover story) mission in South Pacific waters was to protest French nuclear testing. But we took this risk for the good of the world, meaning France, as I have previously explained to you.”

Other western governments had mixed reactions to this news. The Government of New Zealand was said to have stated that it would “objectively review any evidence put forward by the French”. A spokesperson for the American State Department stated: “yeah, right. We believe THAT b.s.”, but refused to explain further what she meant by that statement. The German government was said to have stated its intention “to take a position opposite that of the United States, whatever that position might be”. Canada apparently said: “who cares what the Frogs did 18 years ago; we want the U.S. to stop putting duties on our lumber exports, eh?” Attempts to interview Greenpeace officials were unsuccessfully. Their offices were found to be deserted, leaving behind evidence of a hasty departure. But a slogan painted on a wall – “Allah is Great but Not Bush Is” – gave some credence to the French claim that Greenpeace is merely an Al Qaida front organization.

By way of apology and in order to avoid any Al Qaida reprisals for this French action, French troops were ordered to report immediately to the nearest mosque and stack arms in from of it. Some French troops were reported to have resisted the order on moral grounds and sought exile within the sovereign state of Euro Disney. Disney officials in Burbank, California stated emphatically that exile would be granted to all three of the French troops.

Film at 11:00.