It's not really easy to excerpt, but this should get you started:
Posted by Ithildin at November 7, 2005 9:37 AM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE
....Think like a counterintelligence analyst for once. It's an old-fashioned sting operation. You're Jacques Chirac, okay? You want to embarrass the Americans and protect your buddy Saddam Hussein, right? The Americans are running around trying to find evidence of a covert Iraqi nuclear program. So, first you feed them some crappy information along those lines, hoping that they'll buy it, and then you arrange — through Rocco in Italy — to have these documents surface. The documents "confirm" the disinformation and of course also what the Americans want to believe anyway. The Americans launch their accusations, then it turns out that the documents are forgeries, and bad forgeries at that, and so the Americans look like idiots and the causus belli disappears. In one move, you've helped your friend Saddam and hurt the Americans. Terrific. Chapeau, and all that.
Just call it THE FRENCH DEFFECTION
Posted by: BIRDZILLA at November 10, 2005 7:06 AM
Denethor with a palantir to burn.
Posted by: Sharon Ferguson at November 7, 2005 2:08 PM