The Gaddafi circus leaves Paris in a mess

Nicolas Sarkozy is counting down the hours until his unwelcome guest, Muammar Gaddafi, finally pulls out of Paris. For the French president and many Parisians, the five-day official visit by the Libyan leader has seemed endless.

My post on Gaddafi's arrival on Monday drew some interest, so here's an update, drafted for tomorrow's paper. The Colonel has spent the week playing to his fans like an old rock idol, revelling in provocation, insulting his hosts, snarling up traffic and indulging his whims. The last of these was pheasant shooting on the presidential estate at Rambouillet and then a tour of Versailles. "His excellency is a great admirer of King Louis XIV", said an aide. The Supreme Guide of the Revolution, who was initially invited for two days, first asked to go fox-hunting at Fontainebleau, but he was dissuaded.

Gaddafi has also shown off his expertise in recent French history, lecturing his hosts for abusing the human rights of north African immigrants. He put himself in the skin of the kids in the rioting banlieue and said: "They brought us here like cattle to do hard and dirty work, and then they throw us to live on the outskirts of towns, and when we claim our rights, the police beat us." He was talking there to an audience of admirers -- mainly African -- at the headquarters of Unesco. Unlike France, Libya has an impeccable rights record, he added.

The Colonel has been holding court in the Bedouin tent next to the Elysée Palace that was erected at his request in the garden of the Marigny guest mansion. Embarrassed French officials banned photographs, so Gaddafi invited in Paris Match to do a glossy spread on him in prayer and relaxing there. Le Monde's television critic, my old friend Dominique Dhombres, came up with a wonderful comparison. The Libyan leader has been behaving just like Abdullah, the insufferable little boy who taunts Captain Haddock in the Tintin tales, said Dhombres.

Gaddafi has become a familiar figure cruising about town in a white stretch limousine and a 20-car motorcade. On Thursday, traffic was halted as he went shopping, with his posse of formidable female guards in battle dress. Unshaven and in a scruffy anorak and sweatshirt, he then dropped into the Louvre to admire the Venus de Milo while tourists were herded out in a rush (top picture).

On Wednesday police chased pedestrians and vehicles off every bridge on the Seine while His Excellency took an unscheduled promenade on a river boat. A furious Mayor Bertrand Delanoe blamed the Interior Ministry for the unprecedented security measures.

Gaddafi has also been preaching the rights of women. He wants to ease "the tragic conditions of the European woman, who is forced sometimes into a job that she does not want," he told a hall full of fans on the Champs Elysées. "I want to save the struggling European woman." At another session, at the Ritz hotel, he told the audience that "the (Christian) cross that you wear has no sense, just like your prayers have no sense." 

Gaddafi's Christmas shopping has earned France several billion euros (pounds) of orders for military and nuclear gear, but Mr Sarkozy is clearly regretting the invitation that he extended to the Libyan leader last July.   "Gaddafi is making fools of us," France Soir screamed on its front page.  Le Parisien said: "The Libyan leader's stay has become a nightmare for Nicolas Sarkozy."

As the Elysée Palace has squirmed, the opposition has been rubbing in the embarrassment that Gaddafi has been joyously inflicting on his first trip to Paris since 1973.  About 100 Socialist MPs boycotted his visit to Parliament. Ségolène Royal, who lost the presidential election to Sarkozy, said that the "President has fallen into the trap of a reigning dictator who has no scruples." Pierre Moscovici, a former Socialist Europe Minister, said that Sarkozy had blundered by offering Paris for Gaddafi's first official jaunt in a western nation since he renounced his wicked ways in 2003. "Sometimes you have to sup with the devil, but you use a long spoon and don't serve him the soup," he said.

Manuel Valls, a senior Socialist who wants the party leadership, said: "France has been humiliated. When the President of the republic is called a liar by Colonel Gaddari, then you are dealing with an affront, a humiliation."

Gaddafi insisted on French television that "My close friend Sarkozy" was not telling the truth when he said that he had brought up Libya's record on human rights during their sessions or dinner at the Elysée.

 
On Thursday, Sarkozy ordered his staff to control the damage and dashed off to Portugal to sign the EU treaty while his guest was shopping in the rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré. Before leaving, he persuaded Gaddafi to make a public statement condemning bomb attacks that killed dozens in Algiers on Wednesday. The Libyan leader complied, saying that no Muslim could have caused the explosions. This week he has also said that Libya had never committed terrorism and also that terrorism is justified when used by the weak.

In another attempt to retrieve the situation, Sarkozy summoned to the palace families of victims of a French airliner that was destroyed in flight over Niger in 1989, killing all 170 on board.  Like the Lockerbie disaster, the bomb attack was blamed on Tripoli and Libya has paid compensation. The relatives said that Sarkozy told them that the gesture was to show that he had not forgotten the past. Some some said they were appalled that the president had offered such hospitality to the man responsible. Another of Libya's victims, Dr Ashraf Alhajouj, a Palestinian imprisoned for eight years along with with Bulgarian nurses, opened legal proceedings in Paris against Mr Gaddafi, accusing him of torture.

Colonel Gaddafi's invitation was part of the reward from Mr Sarkozy for the release of the medical workers last July.  The President did not realise what he was letting himself in for, said François Bayrou, the centrist who ran for the presidency last spring. "Gaddafi is very cunning and he understood all the advantage that he could draw from this visit that was offered to him on a plate."

The unwanted guest turns up in Madrid tomorrow -- unless, as a radio comedian joked yesterday, Sarkozy has sold him the Château de Versailles.

[Below: Gaddafi's limo at the Elysée]    

Comments

[Caroline]

Sarkozy's delusions of omnipotence led him to think he could handle this cunning charlatan. Wrong.

[fleurdumal]

Sarkozy has really landed himself in ridicule with this affair. Khadafi has made a total fool of him, as le Monde says today. It's all very well to say that the Socialists are full of humbug because Mitterrand sucked up to dictators, but he would never have let himself be used like this. I heard some politician say that Sarko is le dindon in Khadafi's farce. That about sums it up.

[azloon]

Charles, i can't tell you how happy i am that you have chronicled the fiasco i predicted here on this blog weeks ago when i first read elsewhere of his intended encampment in paris. i can't wait to read your full story.

it was FAR worse than even i imagined.

i asked you to get photos and apparently, you attempted to do so, though it seems you and everyone else were rebuffed.

i doubt that we'll see many comments from the many here who praised the invitation in the name of real politik, although i would be particularly happy to hear from Valentin (would anyone doubt he'll have lots to say?), among many, many others who thought this was, at least, an ok idea.

this was such an obvious fiasco-in-the-making, with no apparent public outcry in advance, that i am left to wonder if france may have some kind of death wish they are unable to recognize in themselves.

if we don't have dozens of french bloggers posting on this item, i will know for sure what i have suspected for as long as i have been posting here -- that france really doesn't want to look at itself very carefully.

oh well .....quel est nouveau?

[azloon]

p.s.

when i joked that MK would be having a champagne reception for the young banlieue rioters, i could never have imagined how close to fact this wild figment of my imagination would be.

it didn't surprise me at all however that he would ambush NS on his own turf, especially on sensitive subjects such as arab/muslim life in france.

if i sound like i am gloating, that's because i am.

[Dominique]

I'll back Sarko for once.

Caroline, Fleurdumal

"Sarkozy's delusions of omnipotence led him to think he could handle this cunning charlatan"

What do you call "handel" exactly? When you invite some head of state, you don't really "handel" it. Weather Kaddafi or Buch or Merkel. So, how come do people believe Sarko was to "handel" Kaddafi. The guy is unmanageable. There is nothing to handel.

Kaddafi made a fool of himself all by himself. He was the ridiculous one. What exactly was ridiculous about Sarko? please explain?

Bayrou and others are wrong. Sarko did very well know what he was doing when he invited Kaddafi : the realease of the nurses versus 5 days of stupid media circus criticizing him instead of Kaddafi!! Sarko just doesn't care, and is probably right.

People still do not realize that he doesn't give a darn shxxxt about what others say. Medias still believe they are important eventhough noone really care about them.

[Dominique]

Azloon, so funny...

"if we don't have dozens of french bloggers posting on this item, i will know for sure [...]that france really doesn't want to look at itself very carefully"

One day, France is "too selfcentered", one day France is "not selfcentered enough".

With Azloon, every day is a new day! For your information (maybe you don't live in France), medias, TVs, radios, papers are full with critics of Sarko regarding this visit.

and you know what? who cares? the deal was set up with Lybia stopping nuclear research (2003), paying huge amont of money for the familie for the UTA DC10 bombing (typical anglosaxon habit i hate) and freeing the nurses! Kaddafi made his part, Sarko made his : 5 days in Disneyland. Pretty cheap indeed. Good deal!

[Valentin]

That's quite a nice post, in which Charles quotes, one by one, Nicolas Canteloup, the Monde's television critic, Bertrand Delanoe, Ségolène Royal, Pierre Moscovici, Manuel Valls, and François Bayrou: people known for their objective take on political issues, who would praise the president on some occasions as well as criticize him on others.

Why does this remind me of one other post implying, without saying it openly, that French justice jumps to please King Sarko without even being suggested to.
Glory to the British press. (comme disait Brassens où sont les neiges d'antan...)

[azloon]

Dominique --

so let ghaddafi do anything he wants? sell drugs? urinate in public? shoot skeet in the tuileries?

my god man, you've got a laissez-faire attitude towards these matters. maybe that's why the expression is french. :)

[Valentin]

lol Azloon, there you go, your wish is granted, Santa came earlier this year! :)
Of course I have stuff to say, you wouldn't expect me to leave the turf to your own smallcap logorrhée now would you!

On the topic I'll only say Gaddafi is known to be unpredictable, you can't cut his mike or restrain his movements. One could just hope he won't do anything too embarrassing.
I can only imagine the reception Tony Blair enjoyed when he went to Tripoli to pay a friendly visit to the Murderous Colonel. I'm also curious to see how the same MC will enjoy his trip to Spain - whose PM, a Socialist, found nothing better to do than have the Chief Humiliator serve him a portion too.
I'd particularly like to hear lefties on that one.

[Donald]

"What do you call "handel" exactly? When you invite some head of state, you don't really "handel" it. Weather Kaddafi or Buch or Merkel. So, how come do people believe Sarko was to "handel" Kaddafi."
(Dominique).

You "handle" a guest who is coming into your house by having a reasonable expectation that they will observe certain conventions and not spit all over your rugs. If the guest does not observe these conventions you don't invite them to your house in the first place. And if they grossly misbehave, you escort them out. That is how you "handle, exactly" someone like Gaddafi if you have some self respect. [Your example of Bush and Merkel is not applicable since, to my knowledge, they do observe minimum conventions of politeness. But, if they didn't they should be escorted out as well.] De Gaulle in July 1967, after his famous "Vive le Québec libre" speech in Montreal understood not to proceed to Ottawa (the capital of Canada) the next day as planned and instead left the country - never to return. That is how de Gaulle was "handled". That is what a self-respecting country does. I hope this answers your question.

[The 3rd Column]

Good riddance.

Was surprised that he was invited for 5 days -- way too long. 3 days max would have been ok!

But Pres Sarkozy was right to extend France's hand of "reconciliation" even to one who is as despicable as Gadaffi; snubbing him would be pushing him into the fold of OBL; one Dubya Bush is enough, world can't afford too many warmongers.

Those who don't understand this sort of "interantional politicking" need to have their heads examined.

[Andy]

I think that there are both positives and negatives to be taken from this "state" visit:
The minuses:
- Gadaffi has behaved and spoken like someone who is not worthy of being treated like a head of state. Sarko has been made to look like someone whose personal guest has caused embarrassment to his country. So take a slap on the wrist.
- Sarko has been seen, but (so far) not proved, to pay a very public and humiliating price for his successful freeing of the Bulgarian nurses.
The pluses:
- If you accept that Gadaffi's renouncement of biological and nuclear arms was a positive move then I would suggest that a positive step deserves, needs, a positive response in order to encourage further moves in the same direction. So well done Sarko.
- If you recognise that France is not the first country (viz GB + USA) to have done 'business' since that renouncement with the Guide then it would be naive for France, in a dog eat dog buiness world, not to have done likewise. So well done Sarko.
- If you choose to live in a world that is not totally black or white / right or wrong, then you could salute the President's position of hosting a visit from a head of state, according him (I suspect grudgingly) the necessary trappings yet allowing a Minister (very junior) of expressing widely held criticisms of that person. So well done Sarko to, apart from anything else, demonstrate what freedom of speach, even within a government, can be.

[Daniel Strohl]

Dominique,

I agree with you. However, it will be interesting to see what happens in Spain, the next stop of Kaddafi with his smala.

[Maggie G]

Azloon,

I suppose I am one of the people you are wanting to hear from about the Ghaddafi fiasco.

It seems to me the thing that riles you up the most is that they let him pitch his tent in the Elysée garden. But if that was his most "unreasonable" demand, you have to admit, it's not so bad.

If he can get as much prestige and self - satisfaction from swaggering around Paris and making the French look silly, as he used to get from blowing up airplanes -- well then hey! let's not complain!

[Jorg Andersen]

OK, appearances may not matter much, but they still do in diplomacy/foreign relations. Gaddafi has deliberately made Sarko look like an idiot. He is not a wild man of the desert, but a clever operator and serious survivor. Sarko looks like a little schoolboy with his nonsense about the need to "accompany" the colonel on the path to democracy. What democracy? This guy is still justifying terrorism as he cruises about Paris laughing at Sarko.

[Valentin]

"Gaddafi has deliberately made Sarko look like an idiot."

Where exactly ? The bit about western states' human rights record merely repeated socialist sloganeering, and it targeted all western states.
The bit on "we never discussed Lybia's human rights record" was afterwards explained: he took his sermon without engaging in dialogue. Rama Yade's reaction was probably made on purpose, and Sarko made his point too by receiving Lybian terrorists' victim families.

"This guy is still justifying terrorism as he cruises about Paris "

Oh? Precisely when? I must have missed that part - I only heard him strongly condemn the latest bombings in Algeria.

[Dominique]

Azloon,

"so let ghaddafi do anything he wants? sell drugs? urinate in public? shoot skeet in the tuileries?"

euuuuhh...? he did that?

what paper are you reading? what news are you listening to? i'd be interested to know, maybe i'd start to understand why we disagree on everything..

3rd Column,

"Was surprised that he was invited for 5 days -- way too long. 3 days max would have been ok!"

The state visit was 3 days. The 2 remaining days were "private visit".

Donald,

I agree with you about DeGaulle who misbehaved in Quebec. But Kaddafy never said something like "vive la corse libre!". Regarding the "politness", please be aware that Kaddafi's visit was much much less annoying for parisians than any US president visit where the entire city has to stop when he goes from the elysée to the airport. Neither did we make as much as for the chineese president Tao when he came to Paris : the Eiffel tower was red for a week for the chineese president! the entire city was also dressed in "chineese" . So, Kaddafi was quite discrete indeed, only the medias didn't stop to talk about him much more than if any other head of state, democratic or not were in Paris.

Those who criticize do accept the principle of the visit, but criticize the guest. Well, we knew who the guy was from the beginning. On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre (one can not have both the butter and the money for buying the butter!)

[Donald]

"But Kaddafy never said something like "vive la corse libre!"."
(Dominique). But he did say, in effect, that the people in the banlieues have a right to riot.
[CB: He put himself in the skin of the kids in the rioting banlieue and said: "They brought us here like cattle to do hard and dirty work, and then they throw us to live on the outskirts of towns, and when we claim our rights, the police beat us."] He deliberately interfered in the most confrontational way with the current internal affairs of France (just like De Gaulle did with the current internal affairs of Canada.)
Also, as regards other countries doing business with Libya, there is a very big difference between having relations with him and rolling out the red carpet as France has done so that he can stroll around Paris and insult France in some way on a daily basis.

To change the subject slightly. Almost every European journalist and commentator refers to the fact that Gadaffi gave up his nuclear WMD program in 2003. But, I have never seen any of them comment on why he did this. Was it magic? Did he have a spiritual conversion (St. Paul on the road to Damascus)? For the first time he admitted that he had a nuclear weapons program, gave up this material to the U.S. and allowed international inspectors into the country shortly after the U.S. invaded Iraq. The main components of these WMD now reside in the U.S. Does anyone seriously think that this is just luck that Gadaffi picked a time after the U.S. invasion of Iraq when he could have given them up years before? Does anyone seriouly think the bombing of Libya by American planes in the 1980s had nothing to do with Gadaffi stopping from blowing up nightclubs etc. on the European continent? Why are the European journalists and commentators so reticent on why Gadaffi gave up his WMD to America? Answer: Bias against America and especially Bush, regardless of the historical facts. But they like the fact that someone as crazy as Gadaffi, with all his oil money, and so close to European shores, is not pursuing WMD(for the time being). They just can't bring themselves to give some credit to America and Bush which shows their exreme prejudice (regardless of how one feels about the Iraq war in other respects). Sarko thinks it's a great idea to undo all this American work with the stroke of a pen and give Gadaffi a nuclear reactor, with the possibility of making at least a dirty bomb. It should be clear after this week in Paris that Gadaffi is an unrepetant mass murderer. Does selling him a nuclear power plant, which produces fissionable material, sound like a good idea?

The Europeans paint Americans as naive in world politics. How naive to think Gadaffi has changed his colors and can be trusted with a nuclear reactor!

[joelle]

Is "brother" Lagardère going to get his wrist slapped again and have to fire yet another editor of Paris-Match for lèse-majesté?

[Dominique]

Donald,

" But he did say, in effect, that the people in the banlieues have a right to riot."

This is being very much discussed also in France. So, no scandal about this. He sounds like a leftist on that one. And we do have leftists within France already...

"He deliberately interfered in the most confrontational way with the current internal affairs of France (just like De Gaulle did with the current internal affairs of Canada.)"

One difference though : no one cares about what he says and he has no impact. So, interference is nul (unlike the weight of DeGaule words about Quebec)

For the rest, i let you go on with your own views about the "mean antiamerican europeans".Up to you.

Kaddafi can tell what he wants, i'll never feel insulted or ridiculed because i know the man and i know my country. Ridicule will always be on his side.

[christopher muir]

There's presently a twenty minute streaming interview on the France 24 web site with the good colonel. Immobile, rather flat in delivery, he refers to the French president as "mon ami Sarkozy" and delivers a homily about the functioning of democracies. One thing is for certain, that stretch limo will nose its way through many more European cities in years to come. He says, demonstrating a capacity for modesty, that he's welcome everywhere.

[Valentin]

The man has been out of circuit for more than 2 decades. He must learn his manners all over again :)

Civil nuclear reactors cannot function without highly specialized assistance. AREVA will be able to shut it down at any time. Let alone that expert inspectors are all over the place - THANKS TO the US ! :)

But we have to be clear on this: do we mean that no one else but the West has a right to nuclear energy? Because treaties say "all nations have a right to civil use, but not to military use". We should say "all nations except those that ever did wrong". Or better yet, why embarrass ourselves with such treaties, just drop all this nonsense altogether - would better fit US "diplomacy" anyway, and they'll be able to sell the nukes to their own exclusive clients.

[Pierre B]

I doubt that Sarkozy regrets the freeing of the 7 nurses.

[azloon]

Donald's posts pretty much 'nails' the majority non-french take on l'affaire ghaddafi, i.e. where is the diplomatic guidance/control for a foreign head of state, especially a 'loose canon' like the psycho colonel?

Dominique/Valentin, as proxies for all french everywhere, pretty much sum up the france's blase, 'no big deal" attitude towards the whole thing. sort of a big, symbolic gallic shrug towards chaos.

i think the only behavior that would get most french riled up would be if ghaddafi had make a speech denouncing the universal right to riot. now that really would 'strike a nerve.'

this would explain Dominique's remarks that the dearanged murderer's call to riot by french youth of arab origin has "no impact" and that "no one cares."

Maggie, i see you once again slipping into moral relativism. really, is letting the Guide (like calling GWB the Intellect) run roughshod over paris the only way we can extract civil behavior out of him? i don't think so. bombing his compound in the wake of lockerbie (and the prospect of future bombings), and offering financial/military aid to help him ward off al-quida's threat to his power, are sufficient, imo.

france didn''t need to humiliate itself, and sarko doesn't need to please everyone, all the time. i hope he grows out of this annoying habit.

but enough about ghaddafi. isn't it time to riot about something?

p.s. the psycho colonel's name is spelled FIVE different ways in this blog string. no wonder we are looking for nicknames so we don't have to hazard a guess about an actual and accurate spelling (CB, do your editors know the proper or commonly accepted spelling or can you get away with just about anything?)

in the absence of consensus, how about Go Daffy?

[Valentin]

Arab names are spelled phonetically, just like Chinese ones, that's why. Terrorists even used that by obtaining several different passports, because there's no unified translation system.

Moral relativism, is to say there's no real difference between right or wrong, because it would depend on how you look at it.
Or for instance, when leftie moralists say criminals are ultimately not to blame because it's the society who brought them there.

There's no moral relativism in accepting the visit of someone who's officially "clean" and a friend of the United States, and who's been visited by such monumental figure as Tony Blair (incidentally another great friend of the US).
There's no relativising of what he did in the past, but accepting that someone actually CAN change.
We're listening to our Christian side - besides showing consistency between our words and our actions :)

[Lily]

1) This is Sarko’s – i.e. THE season’s gift to the media!

2) If the ‘Gaddafi circus’ had anything disastrous, was it mainly perceived as such by the outsider? - Dominique’s French view on this sounds quite plausible, although that whole scenario would be unthinkable in, say, - Germany.

3) While we’re all busy observing and commenting on this picturesque visit, which was part of the deal – “nurses against state visit against extensive shopping” - super-pragmatic Sarko looks very much in a win-win situation to me – despite any momentary decrease in image polls.

Concerning the business deal, I stumbled over the fact that the Elysée Palace withheld the guest list for the ‘with Dati-without Kouchner/Yade’ state dinner. We know the names of Gaddafi, Sarko and his ministers who were present. Why would the names of prominent industrialists be of such sensitive nature to keep them secret on the occasion of a state dinner?

I watched a clip on Rue 89 where Sarko stated that he saw Libya as the place where African immigrants first set foot when getting to Europe. He said (paraphrasing) that one should not look at immigration beginning in South Italy but that it took place in Libya where immigrants first set foot before getting to Italy.

Looking at it from that angle, Sarko might not mind Gaddafi’s human rights record or his manners too much – if Gaddafi could eventually not only do big business and help fight terrorism but also help keep potential African immigrants away from Europe. -

[Maggie G]

I heard a discussion about Khaddafi on the radio the other day. They said he is very intelligent and very cultivated (that's what they said!). And his dream is to be the leader of all Africa. I don't know if they meant the actual leader of the Organisation of African States, or just the "queen of people's hearts", much as Mandela is today, perhaps.

The example they gave of his intelligence is that he understood immediately (after 9/11, or maybe after the Americans bombed Libya -- they didn't specify) that he would have to give up his weapons of mass destruction and his terrorist activities. This is contrast to Saddam and Amindinejad (sp) who, whether they had weapons or not, continued to pretend that they did, and continued with their usual rhetoric.

What Khaddafi wants is prestige. It seems to me that before, he thought he could get it by terrorist activities, but now he is trying cooperation with the west. I'm not sure, Azloon, if it's because you don't trust him, and think he is still really a terrorist, or if it's because you can't forgive him for his acts of the past, that you think it is so terrible the way he acted in Paris.

But it seems to me (and I'll admit once again that I am naive) is that all the stuff he did in Paris was just playing to the audience back home in the muslim and African countries -- trying to impress them by making fools of the west. What harm is there in it, if he can win prestige in such a harmless way? When he preached about the human rights of European women -- well, I just find it really amusing. He was just trying to show what it's like, having outside "do-gooders" giving lessons to the third world.

It's nothing compared to what de Gaulle did in Canada. But I don't have time to say any more just now; our chorus is singing at a Christmas concert in a couple of hours and I have to get going.

[azloon]

Vee --

as you may have noticed (my most recent post), i am finally coming to understand, though not not entirely appreciate, french thinking about incidents such as the "go daffy" visit (at least, the thinking of some here, since i noticed from the timesonline full story that many french posters were in the 'humiliation' camp, not the 'why me worry' camp). in any event, i will accept your interpretation of events and their significance. as Lily says, such a reaction would be unheard of in most of the rest of western europe or the u.s.(once again, france stands alone in it's defense of 1789 principles, or anarchy, whichever term you choose)

you didn't answer the question about the spelling of "go daffy." (are you familiar with walt disney's daffy duck?) rather you gave a short dissertation on the variations of arabic spelling. there must be an official western spelling accepted by journalist so as not to cause endless confusion by readers.

my point about relativism is really about just how far western europe must go to accomodate a murderous, rogue dictator in return for significant business rewards. i just don't think france had to go as far as it did. i think we'll see that other european nations will not be as accomodating.

btw, does france forgive murderers, release them from prison, if they say they'll never do it again? i do know france is a 'safe haven' for american murderers, who face no risk of extraditon to the u.s. for their crimes. your welcoming spirit apparently knows no bounds.

cheers

[Dominique]

For immigrants, Lybia is to Europe what Calais/Sangatte is to the UK.

Not much human rights in Calais's country side where the police catches immigrants in order to release them 1 hour later in some other place within France.

Who's fault? the source or the target?

[dot king]

Erm - on the spelling of "Go Daffy", of course there can't really be an altogether accurate spelling because it's phonetically transferred from Arabic which is alphabetically different and doesn't have exact alternatives. When I posted way back, I took my spelling from Charles' article, but it seems to me that the "correct" spelling is Khaddafi at least in that the Kh more accurately approaches the Arabic sound. There isn't much use of the letter K in French so a G tends to be used to make that sound. In the word "seconde" for example, the c is pronounced g, and the k sound is more often written que. The French tend to pronounce "Schumacher" as "Schumarrer" - I think it's just a question of the soft guttural and whether it's naturally present in the language and therefore easy to say.

All of this is insignificant of course in the face of MK's visit and its political significance, not to mention his taking-over of Paris at the drop of a hat for the "private" part of his holiday. I'm surprised to see that more of the resident Parisian "bobos" on the blog aren't complaining about bridges needing to be cleared of traffic and pedestrians, the public held back from the Venus de Milo and etc etc, they usually complain like mad when someone gets in their way. BTW "Le Grand Journal" showed that MK counted 39 vehicles in his cortège whenever he ventured forth. No vélibe for him :) Did anyone ask him what he was thinking of doing to save the Planet?

[Valentin]

I too heard him called intelligent, dreaming to lead the United States of Africa, thirsty for prestige. Also with a great fascination for France. Arab leaders luuuv to speak for the "masses", for the "third world" against arrogant West - this is normal rhetoric in the muslim world.

I would guess the French in the "humiliation" camp are mainly lefties. Az, you're much more reasonable with W than they would ever be with Sarkozy, so I'm not very worried.

No idea who your Disney duck was or did, joke's lost on me.

"does france forgive murderers, release them from prison, if they say they'll never do it again"

Azloon, it is the US who FORGAVE Gaddafi first, released him from isolation, welcomed him back. Tony Blair payed this murderous dictator his most stateful respects.

"just how far western europe must go to accomodate a murderous, rogue dictator"

He repented, Rob, that's why. You must have an attention problem, this is the fourth or fifth time I repeat it for you. I'm nice, so here it goes again:
We never accommodate rogue dictators. But we encourage those who say they're sorry, do what is asked in reparation, give up bad habits, give up nuclear stuff, actively help against Al-Qaida.
I doubt he's called a rogue in Washington btw.
Expect to see him plant his tent in front of the White House any time now! :))

[John Gregory Flinn]

I suspect that discussion on human rights with Sarko was of the same order as that time Nixon went to the far east, and thought they all agreed with him (because they 'nodded' and said 'yes' at suitable intervals).
Or MAGGIE G's curtain call!

Gaddafi speaks very softly, perhaps 'mumbles' better describes it. I could only ever decipher a couple of words -'Yalla' and 'La', and perhaps the translations were prepared beforehand! But I'm not an Arabist so... who knows?

"Unshaven and in a scruffy anorak and sweatshirt"... he doesnt look like the sort of person one would like to meet in prison!

[Jiny]

Just one good look at the way the Birtish politicians have been treating the country for the past decade tells me that some people should clean their own mess first before criticising others. Laisser-faire clearly isn't just the way to do things in France if anything else.

[QCD]

Valentin, Robert Furlong:

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

Cheers.
Pierre

Today's motto:
I won't argue with homicidal maniacs but I will name them.

[millier marc]

. I'm french , I'm not a intellectuel man. But I was so shock about this KHADAFI visit in my country.SARKO must b completly crazy to accept it!!!!!!!!
of course its difficult to know why!!!!!! bulgarian nurses???