Re : Was ITER linked to the Iraq debt by France?

Update March 31, 2006

The person who disclosed this information could be closed
to or could be Mr. Michael Green, according to our
deep-throat source in Japan. Michael Green is senior
adviser and Japan Chair at CSIS, as well as an associate
professor of international relations at Georgetown
University. He served as special assistant to the
president for national security affairs and senior
director for Asian affairs at the National Security
Council (NSC) from January 2004 to December 2005. He
joined the NSC in April 2001 as director of Asian affairs
with responsibility for Japan, Korea, and Australia/New
Zealand. From 1997 to 2000, he was senior fellow for
Asian security at the Council on Foreign Relations, where
he directed the Independent Task Force on Korea and study
groups on Japan and security policy in Asia. He served
as senior adviser to the Office of Asia Pacific Affairs
at the Department of Defense in 1997 and as consultant to
the same office until 2000.

JjL

Update :

French authorities answered our question :

"This allegation is pure US propaganda conveyed by
Japanese US intelligence (or low level bureaucratic
small pies).

Paris never mentioned such a deal. "No need for it..."

JjL


Nov 23, 2004 Was ITER linked to the Iraq debt by France?

Manipulation or not? Was ITER linked by Paris to the
Iraq debt in a bargain proposed to Washington earlier
this year?

Here is what we were told by an official in Tokyo:

Paris is said to have proposed a deal to the US Bush
administration early this year to win Iter in France in
exchange of a major cancellation of the Iraqi debt that
was talked these last days at the Club de Paris.

Here is what I received last week from one source
(source linked to security and anti proliferation)
quoting a US official.

Quotes:

"The original american source of this information about
ITER and Iraqi debt reduction is a senior official of
the NSC of the Bush administration who has been involved
in this issue.

I am terribly sorry but I cannot give you the name. I
heard about this story first in late March 2004, and
then, in late August 2004.

From what I heard from this official, the French
government made a proposal to the Bush administration
(sometime earlier this year, I think) that the French
government would help Iraq debt reduction if the US
supported the position of France, instead of Japan, to
locate the experiment facility in France.

As you may recall, the US government was desperate, from
last year end through the former part of this year to
get other countries' support for Iraq debt reduction,
while France government was very much eager to push ITER
location in France."

End of quotes.

Later on, a Japanese official I asked his reaction
commented: "I have no information neither confirming it
or denying it. As far as I know, Japan's stance on ITER
has not changed."