French Charge Disinformation Conspiracy

In a letter to U.S. administration officials, French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte complained that “some members of the American media have issued false accusations against France,” citing specifically stories about the sale of weapons by France to Iraq and French officials providing passports to wanted Iraqis.

The administration was quick to react with White House spokesman Sean McCormack denying any “organized effort” to plant information against France.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, “Certainly, there’s no such campaign out of this building. I can’t speak for the rest of government, but I have heard of nothing like that.”

Meanwhile, as to the apparent air show slight, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Daniel D. Hetlage cited that “international circumstances and department resources” were behind the limited participation. According to Hetlage, no more than 150 people would be in the U.S. contingent at the show -- and no one the rank of above colonel.

Meanwhile, none of these stout denials have

“We have begun to enumerate the false accusations that have appeared in the American press and have profoundly shocked the French people,” Marie Masdupuy, a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman announced in Paris.

“We felt the need to make an effort of explanation to our American friends, and we will also do this with our British friends,” Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin added in remarks aired on French television. “We can’t accept that such criticism against France (further) develops…”

France will “take an inventory of this untruthful information and provide all the elements which clearly show that all of this is based on nothing,” de Villepin said, noting that the reputed disinformation “often” was based on “internal sources” in the Bush administration.

Despite this latest skirmish in the Franco-American public relations war, at least one observer sees the potential for eventual conciliation.

A senior U.S. State Department official said the two countries should start resolving differences soon.

Richard N. Haass, the U.S. State Department’s director of policy planning, says upcoming debates on postwar Iraq at the U.N. and scheduled summits of leading industrial nations would perhaps provide the forums for the two countries to kiss and make up. Haass admitted, however, it won’t be easy and would “require more than kindness.”