Some notes...

It used to be that I dismissed all conspiracy theories as intellectual laziness, but time has taught me to be a little less dismissive. An Israeli newspaper has reported that the French President, Jacques Chirac, encouraged Israel to topple the Syrian regime instead of attacking Lebanon in July of 2006 (read article in Arabic here). This gives us all pause for thought; contemporary wisdom says that Chirac is a "friend" to the Arabs, and he did indeed do the unthinkable by giving Arafat a state funeral; he also seems to find it convenient his De Gaullist roots when trying to find sweet deals for French companies in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Yet this is all preceded by a less than rosy relationship with Syria, one of Frances former mandates. One of the earliest communiques of the Syrian Ba'ath Party (the ruling party now) stated: "Syria should aim to have friendly relations with all countries except Britain, France and Turkey". Back to the future?

I would love to know what you readers can find on this... esp those of you who are French nationals (hint, hint) or even EU Nationals (ehmmm...). It's also time you responded to comments on your comments.