Tuesday, October 05, 2004

You can't trust anyone nowadays

So turns out the US has been bugging the French president's phone lines according to a new book out. If you read a little further down the article apparently this situation has led to the breakdown of the relationship between the US and France. Not because the French are unhappy about having their basic human rights interrupted* but because the Americans didn't like what they heard: a US official apparently said "The relationship between your president and ours is irreparable on the personal level. You have to understand that President Bush knows exactly what President Chirac thinks of him". So we are to presume that Chirac, in private, takes a similar view of Mr Bush as do, erm, most French people. A president with views in line with the majority of the population? Surely not! Whatever next... democracy?

*I'm not exaggerating: Universal Declaration of Human Rights "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. " (Article 12).

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