France defense group denies selling...

[Guest bengalrick]

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[i]Monday, September 26, 2005 · Last updated 6:22 a.m. PT

[b]Thales denies selling arms to Saddam[/b]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PARIS -- [b]French defense-electronics group Thales SA on Monday denied allegations from a fired company executive that it paid out millions of dollars in bribes and sold chemical weapons to the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.[/b]

"The Thales Group formally denies accusations of corruption in France and internationally, lodged against it by a former manager at THEC," the company said in a statement.

[b]Michel Josserand, former chief executive of Thales Engineering and Consulting, or THEC, said in an interview with newspaper Le Monde that that the paying of bribes by Thales was widespread - in violation of French law and international conventions.[/b]

"I estimate that Thales must pay out between 1 percent and 2 percent of its global revenue in illegal commissions," he said. Thales posted revenue of 10.3 billion euros ($12.5 billion) for 2004.

He also said Thales had "sidestepped the (U.N.) Oil for Food Program and delivered chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein's government."

[b]Josserand has told police investigating Thales that the company took part in the construction of an Iraqi chemical-weapons plant disguised as a factory that made baby's milk powder, Le Monde reported.[/b]

Thales spokesman Christophe Robin said the company denied "categorically and totally" the allegations concerning Iraq.

"We never broke the embargo," Robin said in a telephone interview. "Thales does not produce chemical weapons. Thales completely denies these unfounded and dishonest allegations."

Paris prosecutors are investigating allegations of corruption at Thales after irregularities surfaced in the company's bid to build a light railway in the southern French city of Nice.

Josserand, whose THEC division won the contract, was fired by Thales and placed under formal investigation in May after the group filed a criminal complaint against its former employee.

"The group would like to point out that these allegations have been made by a former manager of this subsidiary, who was dismissed by the group for irregularities committed as part of a contract for the Nice tramway," the Thales statement said. "Furthermore, the group itself lodged a complaint regarding corruption during this project."

In his interview, however, Josserand described himself as a scapegoat now living in fear of his life.

He said he had informed police about bribes paid out for contracts in Greece, Argentina, Asia and elsewhere in France - often via several foreign intermediaries such as construction companies.

"Having said that, Thales was only following the practices of the major U.S. companies," he said.

Thales had little choice but to pay bribes if it did not want to be excluded from markets, he also said.

"In Russia, in a development aid deal, we were threatened with a significant increase in sales tax," he said. "In Cameroon, for a transport contract, we had a tax investigation because we didn't pay enough."[/i]


why would saddam and iraq need chemical weapons?? i can't put my finger on that concept.....

it does clearly say this was [i]in violation of French law and international conventions[/i], which suggests that the french gov't wasn't directly involved... of course this is only an allegation, but i wanted to throw this out there, b/c it does make sense... there is lots of evidence that france (among others) was in bed w/ saddam and faced a shitty deal if saddam was removed...

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote]why would saddam and iraq need chemical weapons??[/quote]

[i][b]Probably to Gas the Kurds again like he did in 1988 at Halabja when he was our Allie and friend [/b][/i]