I guess that's why you needed the distraction:
"French trial a conspiracy, Noriega says" by Associated Press | June 30, 2010
PARIS — Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega boasted yesterday of his onetime international stature and decried the United States as the mastermind of a “conspiracy’’ that has kept him jailed for two decades.
Speaking in a booming voice and gesticulating animatedly, the 76-year-old delivered an hour-long monologue that started with his rise from a “modest family’’ to the summits of power in 1983 and lingered on the details of his long, friendly relationship with the US government, including the CIA. He also gave his take on why the relationship soured....
Noriega was deposed after a 1989 US invasion and went on to spend two decades behind bars in Florida for drug trafficking. In April, he was extradited to France to face charges that he laundered profits from cocaine trafficking through French banks.
Those charges were nothing more than “an imaginary financial setup,’’ said Noriega....
That's one way they get you, yeah.
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"At trial, Noriega claims Panama drug money a US-run ‘imaginary banking scheme’
Panama's ex-dictator Manuel Noriega on Tuesday dismissed charges of laundering drug money as an "imaginary banking scheme" concocted by the United States as he took the stand in a French court. The 76-year-old general denied taking payments from Colombian drug lords in the 1980s and told a Paris courtroom that cash deposits transferred to French banks came from his legitimate businesses and the CIA. His lawyers argue that the charges against Noriega, who was extradited to France two months ago, hinge on dodgy testimony from ex-drug traffickers who were paid and given protection by US authorities."
Like he said, a SET UP!
PARIS — Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega should be jailed for 10 years for laundering millions of dollars in drug money through the French banks, a French prosecutor said yesterday, as defense lawyers dismissed the accusations as a political plot.
In the closing arguments of the three-day trial, prosecutor Michel Maes insisted money passing through the general’s French accounts during the late 1980s was kickbacks from the powerful Medellin cocaine cartel....
Yves Leberquier, one of Noriega’s lawyers, branded the proceedings a political case and not a judicial one, and asked the judges to consider the political context that pitted Noriega against the United States ahead of the 1989 US invasion of his country.
Leberquier questioned the impartiality of Noriega’s drug trafficking trial in the United States and said the French proceedings were “the continuation of this grand masquerade.’’
Why stop now?
The longer the lie goes the more it must be supported -- or kept concealed, as in this case.
Leberquier called the prosecutor’s request for Noriega to be sentenced to 10 years “a life sentence, in reality.’’ The 76-year-old former general’s age and feeble health mean he would certainly die behind bars if convicted, Leberquier said.
That was the WHOLE POINT, right? So he could NEVER TALK AGAIN!
In testimony Tuesday, Noriega insisted he was the victim of a US-orchestrated conspiracy. In a monologue lasting more than an hour, Noriega explained his long and friendly dealings with the United States, including the CIA, and blamed his legal woes on his falling-out with the Americans.
It must be true if the CIA media is knocking him for it.
Noriega had been considered a valued CIA asset for years before he joined forces with drug traffickers and was implicated in the death of a political opponent.
No, it was because HE REFUSED to let Panama be used as a BASE for a NICARAGUAN INVASION!
The GOVERNMENT KNEW ALL ABOUT the DRUG-RUNNING because he was ON the CIA PAYROLL!!!
The French trial proceedings wrapped up yesterday. A verdict in the case is expected in several weeks or months.
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Do the LIES NEVER END?
"French court gives Noriega 7-year sentence" by Associated Press | July 8, 2010
PARIS — A court convicted aging former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega yesterday of laundering drug money in France and ordered him to spend seven years behind bars, a decision that left friends and foes worried he might die in a prison far from home.
Why would foes care? WTF, MSM?
The sentence in France, where Noriega was extradited 10 weeks ago, came on top of his two decades spent in a US prison. The court said there was enough evidence to establish that millions of euros that flowed through Noriega’s French bank accounts in the late 1980s were kickbacks from drug traffickers.
For Noriega, who gives his age as 76 and is in poor health, the future is cloudy. Despite the seven-year sentence, he is likely to be eligible for parole within a year.
He's done his time!
However, Panama is seeking his extradition on much more serious crimes, including the murder of political opponents.
Then WHY DIDN'T the U.S. SEND HIM THERE?
Oh, right, he was WORKING FOR US at the TIME!
An extradition would require approval from a host of French judges and top officials, as well as from the United States, and a decision could take time. Noriega’s lawyers say he will not fight an extradition.
I'm sure you would want to return home, too, readers.
Also see: Saying No to Noriega
Looking Under the French Veils
Noriega is the News
The French Pentagon
AmeriKan MSM Protests French Strikes
Now on to other things while we are visiting.
Would you like a BG souvenir, readers? :
"French police crack mini-Eiffel Tower ring" by Associated Press | July 2, 2010
PARIS — French police detained 39 people in breaking up a Chinese-run ring of illegal immigrants from Senegal....
Several vendors were arrested at or near the tower itself in the raids this week, while their Chinese employers were detained in offices used for storing the merchandise, the spokeswoman said.
Thousands of Chinese-made miniature Eiffel Towers were seized in the raids.
The crackdown, however, apparently has not dissuaded such merchants from turning up.
More than 30 sellers, most of African origin, could still be found yesterday roaming the Trocadero plaza with their plastic towers and other merchandise two days after the raid.
“That didn’t solve a thing; they just keep coming back,’’ said a salesman who runs an authorized souvenir shop.
The salesman lamented that the black market causes considerable losses to taxpaying businesses like his, who are unable to match their prices....
I didn't realize you French were such racists.
You say that here in AmeriKa about illegals and the MSM is all over you!
"2 big-spending French officials resign" by Associated Press | July 5, 2010
PARIS — Two French junior government ministers resigned yesterday after scandals involving spending state money on a private jet and thousands of euros’ worth of cigars — all while France is struggling to bring down its deficit....
The spending scandals came as France is seeking to cut its enormous deficit and debt, and French workers are still feeling the pinch of the economic crisis.
And you are getting a big new war building, too, as the country sells off its taxpayer assets to pay banks!!!
Last month, after a string of top officials came under fire for profligacy, President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered his ministers to ax “unjustified or excessive expenses’’ and set an example for the public.
Alain Joyandet, secretary of state for cooperation, had rented a private jet in March to go to an international conference for aid to Haiti that cost $146,200. He later told reporters the expense was “exceptional’’ but necessary because of his tight agenda. He insisted he was one of the government’s least costly ministers....
When are you going to take his head over there?
Christian Blanc was the secretary of state in charge of Sarkozy’s “Grand Paris’’ project, a $26 billion scheme designed to respond to the global economic crisis and boost greater Paris as a 21st-century business powerhouse. Blanc was criticized after his office charged thousands of dollars worth of cigars to his ministry’s budget.
He might as well have BLOWN the SMOKE right in YOUR FACE!
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I hear that sucking sound getting closer to Nico:
"Sarkozy denies heiress funded his campaign" by Associated Press | July 8, 2010
PARIS — French prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into allegations that the country’s richest woman secretly funded President Nicolas Sarkozy’s election campaign, a judicial official said yesterday....
Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon strained to keep their government and conservative party from unraveling amid a mushrooming scandal surrounding 87-year-old L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt’s fortune.
The scandal, including suggestions of large-scale tax evasion, first ensnared his labor minister and is now inching closer to the president....
Just like what WATERGATE did to NIXON!
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