CHIRAC IRAQ FILIP FAILS

A report from DEBKA indicates the French were likely caught with their knickers down in Iraq last Thursday night while the French-looking Kerry was consulting his cheat sheets. It seems Chirac was up to a bit of skullduggery to embarrass the Americans and the Iraqi Provisional Government by negotiating directly with the Baathist terrorists for the release of two French journalists being held as hostages in Fallujah.

The outcome was that a hefty ransom was paid to the terrorist to release the hostages and transport them along the ancient Turkomen smuggling routes to Syria. Bad luck for them when their convoy was mistaken for smugglers and bombed by US aircraft, resulting in the untimely demise of six terrorist and the hostages disappearing into the Iraqi desert. Ahhh, that damned Pimpernel! He's here, he's there, he's everywhere!