Smear campaign against France?

Several times on this blog I have corrected (or have attempted to correct) faulty impressions that circulate in the media about what the French government and the French people stand for. My theme have been that France and the US are really not that different: critiques of French policy apply equally to the US. My only deviation from this message has been to point out that France has been acting more in the spirit of the diplomacy that has emerged since the end of the Second World War than has the US in recent years.

The French ministry of foreign affairs has charged that there is a smear campaign underfoot in the US media to discredit the French government. I don't have the competency to judge whether this is true, or that the specific press stories to which they are objecting are completely inaccurate. However, I would point out the following:

A Washington Times story reporting U.S. intelligence sources had received information suggesting French officials in Syria were helping members of the Iraqi leadership escape the U.S. military by issuing French passports to them.

"The passport story had them really hot," said a senior U.S. official. "They delivered passionate, heated and repeated denials that any such thing was occurring."

The official said there was no evidence of the French issuing such passports, and noted the White House never said there was any such evidence.
--CNN

The administration is admitting that false stories are circulating about French involvement in Iraq. I don't know if the French foreign ministry is also claiming that the oil corruption charge is true, or if the White House is saying that the charges about such corruption are unfounded. However, when I first learned of French investments in Iraqi oil before this year, I thought that there would be some corruption involved--it's just how oil works.

A Sad Note

June Carter Cash died. She wrote the beautiful song "Ring of Fire."