between France and Libya, it is an old story ... arms sales. In the very thorough investigation and publish it on the international arms agreements, the journalist Jean Guisnel Point devotes a chapter to this edifying tumultuous relationship. One among many others, where politics and business do not mix.
Since the first sale of 82 Mirage, signed from access to power in 1969 of Colonel Gaddafi, the episodes were numerous. The news bears traces: two Libyan Mirage F1 who have landed in Malta on February 21, their drivers refused to fire on demonstrators opposed to the regime, as survivors of a contract concluded in the 1970s.
In 2006, business picked up, after two decades of tensions, consecutive territorial dispute with Chad, then to the deadly bombings in which Libya was implicated - Berlin discotheque in 1986, Boeing Pan Am over Lockerbie in 1998, UTA DC10 Sahara in 1989. We
October 21, 2006, tells the author, and Michèle Alliot-Marie, Minister of Defence visits to Colonel Gaddafi. The Libyan head of state welcomed his guest in French asking for news of his companion, Patrick Ollier, MP, President of the friendship group France-Libya, a friend.
The Minister then, hoping to capitalize a series of discrete contacts and connections that have taken place for several years. For if the embargo on arms trade, decided in 1992 by the UN against the country, has been lifted in the autumn 2004, in the early 2000s that "lesmarchands French arms begin to head back to Tripoli, "writes Jean Guisnel. For one simple reason: "The arms deals take so long that the companies relied to start prospecting."
Since 2001, the French government has authorized the resumption of business contacts for Thales, Eurocopter and Dassault. France is not alone: In 2003, Americans with the British, began a process of normalization with the former rogue state, while making him give up its nuclear weapons. The Russians, traditional suppliers, but the Italians are also in the race.
In it, "French industry will never get as consolation prizes," says the author. Despite this, the battle is fierce, even among French companies. Evidenced by the contract to renovate the old Mirage F1.
In this unique case, the author has identified seven different intermediaries who claimed all receive commissions. They include the Franco-Lebanese Ziad Takieddine, which also appears in the sale of French submarines to Pakistan in 1994, and Roger Tamraz, a businessman in Lebanon entered the record thanks to Jacques Boyon, former Secretary of State defense from 1986 to 1988.
In 2007, just after the release of Bulgarian nurses for which President Sarkozy sent his wife Cécilia in Tripoli, Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam welcomed in Le Monde an agreement of 100 million euros the supply of missiles. Again, discussions have begun years earlier. Since then, France hoped to sell for nearly $ 2 billion of weapons to Tripoli, including Rafale. In vain. Because, explains the author, "the international competition in arms sales is defined in the U.S. and elsewhere."
WEAPONS OF MASS CORRUPTION: SECRETS AND COMBINATION OF GUN DEALERS Jean Guisnel. La Découverte, 396 p., 22 €.
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