France Back In The NATO Fold

[Magda Hassan]

In case you missed it.

For more back ground information there is this post here:
http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/....php?t=100
Command accord presages French return to Nato

By Ben Hall in Paris and James Blitz in London
Published: February 5 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 5 2009 02:00

France has paved the way for its full reintegration in Nato's military command by securing the backing of the US administration for French officers to take two senior command positions in the alliance.
Forty-three years after General Charles de Gaulle pulled his country out of Nato's military command in a bold assertion of diplomatic and military autonomy, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, appears to have sealed his country's return to the heart of the alliance, ending a symbol of its foreign policy exceptionalism.
According to diplomats in Paris and Brussels, final decisions on the commands to be accorded to France have not yet been taken. "France has still to formally announce whether and when it will rejoin Nato's military structure," said a diplomat.
However, officials confirmed that James Jones, US national security adviser, has agreed in principle that French officers could take over Allied Command Transformation, a unit overseeing Nato doctrine based in -Norfolk, Virginia; and the alliance's command post in Lisbon, the headquarters of the Rapid Reaction Force.
The US and some of its Nato allies are now waiting to see what announcements Mr Sarkozy makes about France's plans at the Munich security conference this weekend.
According to one western diplomat, the issue of French reintegration into Nato will be among the issues to be discussed in Munich. "Sarkozy will have to say something and clarify what's happening. If France is to rejoin Nato fully this spring, he needs to set the stage for the formal announcement at Nato's 60th anniversary summit."
If the two commands in Virginia and Lisbon are -confirmed, they will fall short of the strategically important Nato southern command demanded by then president Jacques Chirac in his abortive attempt to reintegrate France fully into the alliance's command structure in the mid-1990s.
The deal may make it harder for Mr Sarkozy, the most pro-American French president in a generation, to fend off domestic criticism that he has failed to secure concessions from Washington on bolstering Europe's role in the alliance.
France started its return to the command structure several years ago and now has hundreds of officers working in Nato headquarters. But Mr Sarkozy was determined to complete the reintegration, arguing it had become an outdated symbol of French exceptionalism and source of distrust across the Atlantic.
He set two conditions for France's return - further progress in European -security and defence policy and a bigger role for Europe inside the alliance itself - but left the details vague enough for the criteria to be easy to fill.
Paris argues that big strides were made in European Union defence under France's EU presidency in the second half of 2008. -However, they fell short of Paris's long-standing objective of an autonomous operational military headquarters for the EU based in Brussels.

[David Guyatt]

Thanks Magda, I for one did miss this.

[Magda Hassan]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/0...e-NATO.php

Associated Press
March 5, 2009

French gov't to face no-confidence vote over NATO

PARIS - France's conservative government will face a no-confidence vote in parliament later this month over contested plans to return France to NATO's military command, the prime minister said Thursday.

In a letter to leaders of the leftist opposition in both houses of parliament, Francois Fillon offered to submit his government to a confidence motion after a legislative debate over France's relations with NATO on March 17.

President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to return France to NATO's military command, a decision-making body within the U.S.-dominated alliance that then-President Charles de Gaulle quit in 1966.

Many leftist lawmakers and some in Sarkozy's conservative ruling party oppose the idea, saying it could threaten France's diplomatic and military independence.

The party, the UMP, has a substantial majority in both houses of parliament.

Fillon argued in his letter that the move would boost France's and Europe's global influence, and said it is part "of a global policy aimed at reinforcing our security."

"Our full participation in the military structure of NATO is not an end unto itself, but a means among others to make our nation's interests and goals prevail on the international stage," he wrote.

Sarkozy says the end of the Cold War and threats such as terrorism and piracy have revived the need for international security cooperation. He wants to bring France back into the full NATO fold sometime before France and Germany host a 60th anniversary summit for the alliance in April.

[David Guyatt]

You have to tip your hat to De Gaulle for having the balls to give the finger to America in the first place. I don't see that it has harmed them financially. Maybe the rest of us should follow the example now that France are stepping back into the fold?

[Jan Klimkowski]

You have to tip your hat to De Gaulle for having the balls to give the finger to America in the first place. I don't see that it has harmed them financially. Maybe the rest of us should follow the example now that France are stepping back into the fold?

Assassination attempts against De Gaulle were partly blamed on the OAS (the Organisation de l'armée secrète or Organisation armée secrète).

They figure in spookily interesting Freddie Forsyth's Day of the Jackal.

Officially, the OAS were a very far right French nationalist group formed during the horrifically brutal colonial wars in Algeria.

However, there are persistent rumours that the OAS was part of the CIA/Nazi/Gehlen stay-behind Operation Gladio, which would throw an entirely different light on OAS assassination attempts on De Gaulle for refusing to allow France to be part of NATO.

Wiki contains some intriguing snippets on Gladio in France:

France

In 1947, Interior Minister Edouard Depreux revealed the existence of a secret stay-behind army in France codenamed "Plan Bleu". The next year, the "Western Union Clandestine Committee" (WUCC) was created to coordinate secret unorthodox warfare. In 1949, the WUCC was integrated into NATO, whose headquarters were established in France, under the name "Clandestine Planning Committee" (CPC). In 1958, NATO founded the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) to coordinate secret warfare.

The network was supported with elements from SCEDE, and had military support from the 11th Choc regiment. The former director of DGSE, admiral Pierre Lacoste, alleged in a 1992 interview with The Nation, that certain elements from the network were involved with terrorist activities against de Gaulle and his Algerian policy. A section of the 11th Choc regiment split over the 1962 Evian peace accords, and became part of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), but it is unclear if this also involved members of the French stay-behind network.[43][44]

La Rose des Vents and Arc-en-ciel ("Rainbow") network were part of Gladio. François de Grossouvre was Gladio's leader for the region around Lyon in France until his alleged suicide on April 7 1994. Grossouvre would have asked Constantin Melnik, leader of the French secret services during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), to return to activity. He was living in comfortable exile in the US, where he maintained links with the Rand Corporation. Constantin Melnik is alleged to have been involved in the creation in 1952 of the Ordre Souverain du Temple Solaire, an ancestor of the Order of the Solar Temple, created by former A.M.O.R.C. members, in which the SDECE (French former military intelligence agency) was interested.[45]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

[Jan Klimkowski]

More tracks in the bloody snow leading precisely where?.....

The OAS attempted several times to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle. The most prominent attempt was a 1962 ambush at Petit-Clamart, a Paris suburb, planned by a military engineer who was not an OAS member, Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry. Bastien-Thiry was executed in March 1963 after de Gaulle refused to grant him amnesty. A fictionalized version of this attack was recreated in the 1971 book by Frederick Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal, and the in the 1973 film of the same name.

The OAS featured prominently in the novel The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, and its film adaptation. The story deals primarily with a fictional assassination plot against De Gaulle, where the organization hires a contract killer (the Jackal) to kill De Gaulle. Bastien-Thiry and the Petit-Clamart plot figure prominently in the early sections of the story.

The OAS is referenced in the Oliver Stone film JFK, as suspected conspirator Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones) is reputed to have business connections with them. The Petit-Clamart plot is also mentioned several times in the film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisatio...cr%C3%A8te

[Paul Rigby]

Assassination attempts against De Gaulle were partly blamed on the OAS (the Organisation de l'armée secrète or Organisation armée secrète).

They figure in spookily interesting Freddie Forsyth's Day of the Jackal.

Officially, the OAS were a very far right French nationalist group formed during the horrifically brutal colonial wars in Algeria.

However, there are persistent rumours that the OAS was part of the CIA/Nazi/Gehlen stay-behind Operation Gladio, which would throw an entirely different light on OAS assassination attempts on De Gaulle for refusing to allow France to be part of NATO.

Wiki contains some intriguing snippets on Gladio in France...

http://dlib.nyu.edu/eadapp/transform?sou...chives.xsl

New York University Archives: Guide to the Papers of Nicholas Wahl, 1944-1995

"De Gaulle Significance in French Political Tradition - CIA Seminar, Oct 1960: De Gaulle (1)Aron (2)NW; Pol. Change in France; Keys to de Gaulle - Erikson, Columbia '60 etc"

René Etiemble, Parlez-vous franglais? (1973 ed.), 37; the first edition was 1964.

Noting, for example, how the United Fruit company got the Pentagon's help to unseat Latin American rulers who interfered in its business, Etiemble wrote that one could understand "Washington's hate against the only European statesman who, since the 'Liberation,' dares resist the pretensions of the dollar. Since the OAS has not been able to get rid of him, and since they have not been able to buy him, American finance is out to get his hide" (234).

From our own correspondent (Washington, May 2), "U.S. Support For French Generals' Revolt/Mr.Allen Dulles' Denial," The Times, 3 May 1961, p.10:

“Mr. Allen Dulles, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, today appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations sub-committee for Latin America to explain the part his agency played in the Cuban fiasco. He appeared at a time when persistent reports from France that the CIA supported the revolt of the generals in Algeria continue to embarrass the Administration.

The reports, which appear to have been originated in the Soviet press, have been repeated and enlarged by French newspapers, and the White House thought it necessary to make discrete inquiries. The anti-communist fervour of the CIA agents is legendary, and it is a comment on the ways of this city that the Administration was obviously not at all certain whether some secret crusader had decided it was necessary to depose General de Gaulle in order to make North Africa safe for freedom and the capitalist system.

Inquiries among staffs

The State Department made inquiries among the staffs of its embassy and agencies in France and North Africa without uncovering a plot, but it is well known that CIA men rarely bother to inform the ambassador of their activities. The inquiry was extended to the CIA, and Mr. Dulles yesterday issued a solemn denial. ‘Any reports or allegations that the CIA may or any of its personnel had anything to do with the generals’ revolt were completely untrue,’ Mr. Dulles said.

But, alas, according to the New York Times, French opinion, both official and public, appears to believe that Mr. Dulles is only dutifully playing his part in an elaborate plot. Irritation in the Administration is reported because French officials are believed to be fanning suspicion instead of denying the reports.

Presumably the reports are untrue, but the fact of the matter is that no reporter can categorically state that they are. Cuba, Guatemala, and a number of other CIA episodes remind him that nothing can be certain in the jungle of suspicion created by the agency. The dilemma should caution the Administration, busy with its plan for unconventional and subversive war.

Cuba Fiasco

The search for a culprit for the Cuba fiasco continues both in and out of Congress. Apart from the hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations sub-committee for Latin America, as usual those involved have counter-attacked with discreet but newspaper reports. President Kennedy’s efforts to maintain the unity of his Administration by assuming full responsibility have to that extent failed; the victim of Cuba might well be the bright promise of this Administration.

The Pentagon counter-attacked in the Baltimore Sun today when an unnamed military gentleman claimed that Cuba was military business. The trouble, as he saw it, was that the dominant influence upon Washington thinking, and quite probably American thinking for several years, had been that of intellectuals basically opposed in principle and practice to the concept of military force.

There is no end in sight to this kind if thing, but Mr. Walter Lippmann devoted his column today to a proposal that does not appear to have occurred to many of those involved. Mr. Lippmann proposed that after a disaster of this kind the mistake can be purged and confidence restored only by resignation.

Confidence shaken

Unlike the British system, Mr. Lippman continued, the chief executive does not and cannot resign, but if there is to be accountability the President must hold responsible those whose constitutional or statutory duty it is to advise him. It is a painful business but the confidence of the American people and their friends throughout the world is at stake.

If Mr. Lippmann’s advice has not been taken the upper layer of the Administration has been given a discreet shake, and men such as Mr. Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General and the President’s brother, Mr. Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State, and Mr. Ted Sorensen, the President’s chief assistant, are among those who appear to have come out on top. Mr. Allen Dulles, Mr. Richard Bissell, Jnr., his deputy, General Lymnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and some of President Kennedy’s advisers from Harvard have been, it would appear, submerged.

From our own correspondent (Washington, 11 May), "Britain To Be Asked To Join In Anti-Guerrilla Measures," The Times, 12 May 1961, p.16:

"Mr. Walter Lippmann disclosed in his column today that CIA agents have been interfering in the internal affairs of France.

Mr. Lippmann says the reason why the French Government has not really exculpated the CIA of encouraging the Algerian rebel generals is that it was already so angry with the agency for meddling in French internal politics. The French grievance, justified or not, has to do with recent legislation for the French nuclear weapons, and the alleged effort of the CIA to interfere with that legislation.

Earlier in this correspondence it was presumed that reports of CIA support for the generals revolt were untrue, but it was added that no reporter here could categorically state that they were. Mr. Lippmann's report diminishes the presumption of non-interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign and allied country. Certainly France is not the only member of NATO in which the CIA has busied itself. In west Germany, for instance, there was widespread dismay some years ago when a neo-Nazi group was discovered secretly drilling with a variety of weapons. There was fear of a Nazi revival and of the ability of the Federal Government to protect its infant democratic institutions. The fear proved groundless; investigation showed that the young thugs were the proteges of the CIA."

[Jan Klimkowski]

Paul - thank you.

[David Guyatt]

You have to tip your hat to De Gaulle for having the balls to give the finger to America in the first place. I don't see that it has harmed them financially. Maybe the rest of us should follow the example now that France are stepping back into the fold?

Assassination attempts against De Gaulle were partly blamed on the OAS (the Organisation de l'armée secrète or Organisation armée secrète).

They figure in spookily interesting Freddie Forsyth's Day of the Jackal.

Officially, the OAS were a very far right French nationalist group formed during the horrifically brutal colonial wars in Algeria.

However, there are persistent rumours that the OAS was part of the CIA/Nazi/Gehlen stay-behind Operation Gladio, which would throw an entirely different light on OAS assassination attempts on De Gaulle for refusing to allow France to be part of NATO.

Wiki contains some intriguing snippets on Gladio in France:

France

In 1947, Interior Minister Edouard Depreux revealed the existence of a secret stay-behind army in France codenamed "Plan Bleu". The next year, the "Western Union Clandestine Committee" (WUCC) was created to coordinate secret unorthodox warfare. In 1949, the WUCC was integrated into NATO, whose headquarters were established in France, under the name "Clandestine Planning Committee" (CPC). In 1958, NATO founded the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) to coordinate secret warfare.

The network was supported with elements from SCEDE, and had military support from the 11th Choc regiment. The former director of DGSE, admiral Pierre Lacoste, alleged in a 1992 interview with The Nation, that certain elements from the network were involved with terrorist activities against de Gaulle and his Algerian policy. A section of the 11th Choc regiment split over the 1962 Evian peace accords, and became part of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), but it is unclear if this also involved members of the French stay-behind network.[43][44]

La Rose des Vents and Arc-en-ciel ("Rainbow") network were part of Gladio. François de Grossouvre was Gladio's leader for the region around Lyon in France until his alleged suicide on April 7 1994. Grossouvre would have asked Constantin Melnik, leader of the French secret services during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), to return to activity. He was living in comfortable exile in the US, where he maintained links with the Rand Corporation. Constantin Melnik is alleged to have been involved in the creation in 1952 of the Ordre Souverain du Temple Solaire, an ancestor of the Order of the Solar Temple, created by former A.M.O.R.C. members, in which the SDECE (French former military intelligence agency) was interested.[45]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

It is also highly interesting, I think, that the European headquaters of the Gladio stay-behind network is said to have been located at Annemasse on the French side of the Swiss border. Annemasse is also said to have been the 1956 headquaters of the Priory of Sion. if one follows the PoS story I can assure you that it will soon become connected to the Order of the Solar Temple, AMORC, Martinist Lodges, Synarchy and all the rest of the right-wing politico-occult orders.