France / Eurocopter

[407 Driver]

Published on March 7, 2003, The Washington Times
Iraq strengthens air force with French parts

A French company has been selling spare parts to Iraq for its fighter jets and military helicopters during the past several months, according to U.S. intelligence officials.The unidentified company sold the parts to a trading company in the United Arab Emirates, which then shipped the parts through a third country into Iraq by truck.The spare parts included goods for Iraq''s French-made Mirage F-1 jets and Gazelle attack helicopters.

 

[VERTICAL REF]

good old France backing the wrong side again eh.

think i''ll go down town and get me an onder of them new "freedom fries"

 

[Elvis]

So the French company sold the parts to UAE broker,how are they responsible for the end user. There are a lot of friendly countries there as well.

 

[407 Driver]

How are they responsible for the end user you ask? One way is by United Nations resolution 661.
The french government and Eurocopter released the following info....

"The export of spare parts is subject to war material export licensing procedure and is only destined for governmental customers identified beforehand and duly authorised by the French authorities."

"EUROCOPTER wishes to state that, since 1990, the company has complied strictly with the provisions of United Nations resolution 661. Since that date, no spare parts for helicopters have been delivered to Iraq."

....Ya right, but they fail to mention that those parts DID get to Iraq, in contravention of Resoloution 661, by being passed through 2 intermediates.

Slick work Chirac or should we say Chiraq?

 

[407 Driver]

Hi Mag, I wondered when I''d stir enough for you to show up
Good point, In this hot political climate, what can or can''t you believe in the press? I think the Washington Times would be very careful to print such allegations, And Yes, the USA will try anything to gain support. As Elvis stated, how far downstream is EC responsible? Then again, if they operated in a manner as their statement reads, it should never have happened.

As Downwash sometimes says...Keep Stirr''in

 

[MagSeal]

But should you believe Bush? He''s looking for anything that gives him the right to go to war, and at the same time will try and discredit anyone who gets in his way. If the French are contravening the rules, they should not have any Veto power with the latest resolution, but if it''s Bush''s attempt to gain popularity....

 

[VERTICAL REF]

407, sweet points there compadre''. really like the "chiraq" one. hehehe


just one more reason to be a "bell man" eh?

where''s good ol'' rene'' leveque when you need him? "vieve la france vieve"

 

[MagSeal]

Please everyone remember, 407 honed his skills at the helm of an A-star...now he''s refining himself.
(oh boy am I gonna be in hot water now)

 

[VERTICAL REF]

oh, maggie got you there 407

 

[407 Driver]

Yup, I''ve been had. And yes, the Astar made me what I am today (grumpy, bitter, old, fat Bast**d), no wait, that honor goes to old bald uncle B, he made me what I am today.
I must say, after flying that ugly old B model in this rockpile for 10 years+, I got good. When SLB arrived from Jap-land, it had the original skinny B tailrotor, well, we did some uncontrolled RH spinning with the pedal on the RH (or LH?) stop a lot before that nice new fat twinstar T/R finally arrived.

 

[407 Driver]

Elvis, In these forums, we don''t normally stick to topics, and NO-where does it say anything about Eurocopter Canada. The culprits in the alledged Washington Times article are the French Government and Eurocopter France.

If you have any inside info or pics of Magseal crating boxes of parts for Saddam, please forward the info. There may be a crimestoppers reward in your future.

 

[Elvis]

The topic here seems to be drifting big time , how did this topic end up in helicopoter ops in the beginging??
To 407, if You consider Eurocopter Canada to be the the bad boys in this story please explaine your theroy.

 

[Biggles]

Oh this is getting good, spring has sprung and so has our cleverness or "on the ball-ness" (not to be confused with baldness!) Very well put Mr 407/usetobe AS Driver with regards to our topic straying habits! Ah hum, gotta to bring up the visual you provided us with that self portrait verbal description of yourself, and also of our infamous Mugseal! I can just see him now, like one of Santa''s elves, busy packing the merchandise to Suds!

 

[407 Driver]

Biggs, the truth is the truth. Sometimes it just ain''t pretty.

 

[Biggles]

Dang, ain''t that the truth !