‘French nationals killed in Karachi over kickback’

[Kasrkin]

PARIS: French magistrates investigating an attack in Karachi blamed on militants that killed 11 French nationals in 2002 are looking into allegations it was linked to corrupt deals, lawyers for the victims’ families said.

A coach carrying French naval engineers and technicians was bombed as it left a hotel in Karachi in May 2002. The attack killed 14 people in all.

Pakistani authorities at first blamed militants and two men were sentenced to death for taking part in the attacks, but their convictions were overturned on appeal in 2003.

French magistrates Marc Trevidic and Yves Jannier told the victims’ families they were now investigating allegations the attack was orchestrated by unnamed Pakistani officials angry with France over non-payment of bribes tied to a defence deal.

‘The investigating magistrates told us that they believed this scenario was extremely credible,’ one of the relatives’ lawyers, Olivier Morice, told reporters.

According to these allegations, some kickbacks ended up in the campaign funds of then French prime minister Edouard Balladur, a rival of Jacques Chirac in the 1995 presidential election, a judicial source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Sarkozy rejects suspicion

President Nicolas Sarkozy was Mr Balladur’s campaign manager in the ballot and was also budget minister when the lucrative sales contract for the French Agosta submarines was signed. He rejected on Friday the magistrates’ suspicions. ‘Listen, this is ridiculous,’ Mr Sarkozy told reporters at a news conference after an EU summit in Brussels.

‘This is grotesque ... We have to respect the grief of the families. Who would ever believe such a tale?’ he added.

Mr Balladur also denied any knowledge of wrongdoing. Asked about the allegation by French state television, Mr Balladur said: ‘As far as I am aware, everything was completely above board. I have nothing more to say. If anyone has any proof, let them speak up.’

Lawyer Morice said the investigating magistrates had obtained a top secret internal memo in October 2008 from the state-owned shipbuilder which contained the allegations.

The memo, copies of which were shown on French media on Friday, says French and Pakistani officials connived to take bribes as part of the sale of the submarines to Pakistan.

It says France stopped paying the bribes after the 1995 election, won by Mr Chirac, and that Pakistani officials kept asking for them for several years.

The allegation is that they eventually lost patience and organised in retaliation the attack on the bus full of French engineers, who were working on the Agosta submarine project.

Al Qaeda link?

Investigators had been looking into an Al Qaeda link to the attack. But lawyer Morice told AFP: ‘The Al Qaeda track has been totally abandoned. The motive for the attack appears linked to the non-payment of commissions.’

Magali Drouet, a daughter of one of the men killed, quoted magistrate Trevidic, as telling the families that this theory was ‘cruelly logical’.

She added that according to this scenario, the attack was carried out because the special payments were not made by France to a minister.

High-ranking politicians would likely be called in to testify, said Morice. Details of the payments emerged in 2008 as part of an investigation into French arms sales.

Police seized documents from the French firm, now known as DCNS, which discussed the companies used to pay fees in connection with arms sales.

One unsigned document spoke of Pakistan intelligence services using hardline militants. The document, which has been added to the case file, said those who employed the hardline group had financial aims.

‘It involved obtaining the payment of unpaid commissions’ linked to the sale of French submarines to Pakistan in 1994, it said.—Agencies

DAWN.COM | World | ?French nationals killed in Karachi over kickback?

This is the last thing we need right now...

 

[moha199]

Intresting information!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Sky_123]

Thank God, it was not the terrorist attack, it was murder.
There was roomers of kickback in this deal, so now is proved.

 

[Kasrkin]

No its not proved yet, and you better hope it was a terrorist attack, this is much worse...

 

[spurdozer]

Yeah It is not proved, it is still being investigated, but still what a load of tosh. Whoever came up with this story could easily become French JK Rowling or actually the French Ian Fleming------ or is he Jean Bruce----- another of his masterpieces after Bonisseur de la Bath (OSS 117).

 

[Joe Shearer]

PARIS: French magistrates investigating an attack in Karachi blamed on militants that killed 11 French nationals in 2002 are looking into allegations it was linked to corrupt deals, lawyers for the victims’ families said.

A coach carrying French naval engineers and technicians was bombed as it left a hotel in Karachi in May 2002. The attack killed 14 people in all.

Pakistani authorities at first blamed militants and two men were sentenced to death for taking part in the attacks, but their convictions were overturned on appeal in 2003.

French magistrates Marc Trevidic and Yves Jannier told the victims’ families they were now investigating allegations the attack was orchestrated by unnamed Pakistani officials angry with France over non-payment of bribes tied to a defence deal.

‘The investigating magistrates told us that they believed this scenario was extremely credible,’ one of the relatives’ lawyers, Olivier Morice, told reporters.

According to these allegations, some kickbacks ended up in the campaign funds of then French prime minister Edouard Balladur, a rival of Jacques Chirac in the 1995 presidential election, a judicial source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Sarkozy rejects suspicion

President Nicolas Sarkozy was Mr Balladur’s campaign manager in the ballot and was also budget minister when the lucrative sales contract for the French Agosta submarines was signed. He rejected on Friday the magistrates’ suspicions. ‘Listen, this is ridiculous,’ Mr Sarkozy told reporters at a news conference after an EU summit in Brussels.

‘This is grotesque ... We have to respect the grief of the families. Who would ever believe such a tale?’ he added.

Mr Balladur also denied any knowledge of wrongdoing. Asked about the allegation by French state television, Mr Balladur said: ‘As far as I am aware, everything was completely above board. I have nothing more to say. If anyone has any proof, let them speak up.’

Lawyer Morice said the investigating magistrates had obtained a top secret internal memo in October 2008 from the state-owned shipbuilder which contained the allegations.

The memo, copies of which were shown on French media on Friday, says French and Pakistani officials connived to take bribes as part of the sale of the submarines to Pakistan.

It says France stopped paying the bribes after the 1995 election, won by Mr Chirac, and that Pakistani officials kept asking for them for several years.

The allegation is that they eventually lost patience and organised in retaliation the attack on the bus full of French engineers, who were working on the Agosta submarine project.

Al Qaeda link?

Investigators had been looking into an Al Qaeda link to the attack. But lawyer Morice told AFP: ‘The Al Qaeda track has been totally abandoned. The motive for the attack appears linked to the non-payment of commissions.’

Magali Drouet, a daughter of one of the men killed, quoted magistrate Trevidic, as telling the families that this theory was ‘cruelly logical’.

She added that according to this scenario, the attack was carried out because the special payments were not made by France to a minister.

High-ranking politicians would likely be called in to testify, said Morice. Details of the payments emerged in 2008 as part of an investigation into French arms sales.

Police seized documents from the French firm, now known as DCNS, which discussed the companies used to pay fees in connection with arms sales.

One unsigned document spoke of Pakistan intelligence services using hardline militants. The document, which has been added to the case file, said those who employed the hardline group had financial aims.

‘It involved obtaining the payment of unpaid commissions’ linked to the sale of French submarines to Pakistan in 1994, it said.—Agencies

DAWN.COM | World | ?French nationals killed in Karachi over kickback?

This is the last thing we need right now...

Dear Sirs,

I fail to be surprised. Some of the stories I could tell you from personal experience would curdle your blood. Every Indian officer seven down from the Raksha Mantri was tracked on a daily basis, and their whereabouts and telephone numbers at any moment were known to a closed circle. Every move of the opposing arms interests was known; I came to know of these from time to time because of the job I did.

Sarkozy was known (this was well after my time) to be completely amoral.

This story is quite credible. As the bereaved lady put it, 'cruelly logical'.

'Joe S.'

 

[Joe Shearer]

Yeah It is not proved, it is still being investigated, but still what a load of tosh. Whoever came up with this story could easily become French JK Rowling or actually the French Ian Fleming------ or is he Jean Bruce----- another of his masterpieces after Bonisseur de la Bath (OSS 117).

@Spurdozer

Dear Sir,

I repeat, solemnly: what I related was from personal observation.

'Joe S.'

 

[Kasrkin]

Well let’s hope you're wrong Joe, becase this is the last thing Pakistan needs right now. Foreign military contractors murdered by a suicide bombing organized by the Pakistani establishment. There is more to it than meets the eye, I for one don’t think that something as trivial as kickbacks (relatively speaking) would merit arranging a suicide bombing, which in itself would be a quite pointless and ridiculously dangerous course of action. The French, finding out that the Pakistanis did this, would’ve been more likely to scrap the deal than pay up any promised 'extras'.

 

[Patriot]

Besides the suicide bombing is usually done by Talibans.They also tried to bomb Pakistan Weapons Factory at Wah Cantt so i think this is false.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Well let’s hope you're wrong Joe, becase this is the last thing Pakistan needs right now. Foreign military contractors murdered by a suicide bombing organized by the Pakistani establishment. There is more to it than meets the eye, I for one don’t think that something as trivial as kickbacks (relatively speaking) would merit arranging a suicide bombing, which in itself would be a quite pointless and ridiculously dangerous course of action. The French, finding out that the Pakistanis did this, would’ve been more likely to scrap the deal than pay up any promised 'extras'.

@Kasrkin

Dear Sir,

I claim no knowledge of the circumstances in Pakistan, and have no idea whether things happened the way it is feared. It is just that the ramifications of defence goods and arms sales are far deeper than you might imagine. Whether the situation provoked such extreme measures is quite another thing. Be sure that money changes hands, be sure that the establishment is mapped down to a very junior level, and that the highest levels of the government and industrial circles interested in transactions on the vendor side are involved.

What actually happened in this particular case is totally beyond my competence to judge or to assess.

Between the brutal methods used by the vendors to prevail over competitors and the bloodshed that took place, there is a wide gulf, and an enormous amount of proof is needed to establish any links. But the logic cannot be denied out of hand.

I hope I have clarified the position.

'Joe S.'

 

[metalfalcon]

Well i am really sorry for the loss of French innocent people who fell Victim to Greed of Politicians and Corrupt Military Officers of Both countries.

I hope this is not true but unfortunately i think this report is correct.

 

[pak-marine]

what took french magistrates appx 6 years .... wht were they holding the story for al this time, if they were killed for kick backs then frenchies are involved here !

 

[Kasrkin]

Well, you should trust the Times of India to give a utterly retarded spin on things.

"Hmmmmmm.........damn sounds like a fiction novel..."

But you did bother posting it, so you must think there is something to it.

 

[linkinpark]

Political scandal brews over 11 Frenchmen killed in Pakistan


Not only is it a scandal here in France, but it may well turn into an international affair.

The Karachi bombing victims were all engineers employed by the DCN, the French company which holds a quasi-monopoly on the construction of French warships and submarines. The attack also killed three Pakistanis and injured many others.

They were in Pakistan to work on three Agosta 90 B submarines which were sold to the Pakistan military in a deal signed in 1994. Payment was to be spread over ten years and, as is usual in business deals involving military hardware, commission was promised to the middlemen involved. These middlemen included Pakistani and Saudi Arabian nationals. Saudi Arabia has traditionally been a source of cash funding for Pakistan, and its role in the deal was that it paid up front for the submarines.

The attack shocked the French, who immediately sent investigators to Karachi. They almost instantly claimed that Al Qaida, which was very active at that time, was behind the bombing. The affair slowly drifted out of public view in the months that followed.

It has resurfaced with a bang with revelations that the attack was indeed carried out by Islamic militants, but with the help of the Pakistani military and secret services.

The claims have been made by family members of those killed, lawyers representing them, and even judges, in the context of the official enquiry into the bombing, which is still ongoing.

At the time the deal was signed, French politicians, notably Edouard Balladur and Jacques Chirac, were trying to outdo each other in their search for campaign funds for the upcoming Presidential elections in 1995. Balladur was the French Prime Minister at that time, and as such he was an essential player in any international arms deal.

Balladur's Budget Minister at the time was current French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy supported Balladur's candidature for the Presidency, a gesture for which Chirac would never forgive him.

The deal represented a lot of money and a source of campaign funding too.

Balladur was beaten in the election however and Chirac became President. Soon afterward, he ordered the cancellation of the progressive commission payments being made to senior Pakistani military personnel and others.

“The Al Qaida track has been totally abandoned. The mobile for the attack now appears to be linked to the stopping of commission payments. This is turning into a state affair” said Olivier Morice, lawyer for seven of the bereaved families, after a recent meeting with anti-terrorist judges Marc Trévidic and Yves Jannier.
“The commission payments (to Pakistan) were stopped when Jaques Chirac became President in 1995 in order that retro-commissions (..destined for the financing of Balladur’s campaign..) were not paid” he continued.

One of the anti-terrorist judges “said that this scenario had a cruel logic to it” said Magali Drouet, the daughter of one of the victims.

In this scenario, the attack was carried out in reprisals for the non-payment of commission. The current Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, was the Investment Minister at the time in his wife Benazir Bhutto’s government. Zardari has been accused of corruption and money laundering many times.

Drouet went on to say that “this is a state-level affair which implicates France, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, a source of funding for Pakistan.”

This new track was uncovered last year by police but has only just been revealed. The police, acting under orders from judges, were investigating affairs of corruption and arms deals. They found documents on the premises of the DCN (now called DCNS) which revealed the names of companies who transited arms sales commissions.

One of the documents mentions the “instrumentalisation” of Islamic militants by Pakistani Secret Service and Army personnel. It says that “the Karachi attack was carried out thanks to connivance from within the Army and from elements of support for Islamic guerrillas” within the Pakistani Secret Services. It goes on to mention that the bombing was carried out “for financial reasons....designed to obtain the payment of unpaid commission.”

In another strange development, investigators are also looking into the judicial aspects of the bombing enquiry carried out at the time by French police in Pakistan. The judicial enquiry was suddenly halted in 2003.

Initially included in the evidence was a collection of photographs taken by Randall Bennett, the head of the American diplomatic security service in Pakistan at that time. Bennett also ran the investigation into the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist later executed by Al Qaida.

The photographs in question were those that Bennett took at the scene of the bombing. They were later destroyed under a French court order.

 

[linkinpark]

French probe alleged Pakistani role in bombing

Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:19am EDT

By Thierry Leveque

PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) - French magistrates investigating an attack in Pakistan blamed on Islamist militants that killed 11 French nationals in 2002 are looking into allegations it was linked to corrupt deals, lawyers for the victims' families said.

A coach carrying French naval engineers and technicians was bombed as it left a hotel in Karachi in May 2002. The attack killed 14 people in total.

Pakistani authorities at first blamed Islamist militants and two men were sentenced to death for taking part in the attacks, but their convictions were overturned on appeal in 2003.

French investigating magistrates Marc Trevidic and Yves Jannier informed the families of the victims on Thursday that they no longer believed the scenario of an Islamist attack was credible, lawyers for the families told reporters.

The lawyers said Trevidic and Jannier had told them they were looking into allegations that the attack was a retaliation against France from unnamed Pakistani officials over bribes linked to a defence contract that were promised but never paid.

"The investigating magistrates told us that they believed this scenario was extremely credible," lawyer Olivier Morice told reporters.

The French government declined to comment. Trevidic and Jannier cannot speak publicly about their investigation because the rules of their position forbid it.

The investigating magistrates obtained a top secret internal memo in October 2008 from a state-owned military shipbuilder which contains the allegations, Morice said.

The memo, copies of which were shown on French media on Friday, says French and Pakistani officials connived to take bribes as part of the sale of French Agosta submarines to Pakistan in the mid-1990s.

According to the memo, some of the kickbacks that were paid to French officials ended up in the electoral campaign funds of then Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, a rival of Jacques Chirac ahead of the 1995 presidential election, a judicial source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Asked about the allegation by French state television, Balladur said: "As far as I am aware, everything was completely above board. I have nothing more to say. If anyone has any proof, let them speak up."

The secret memo says France stopped paying the bribes after the 1995 election, won by Chirac, and that Pakistani officials kept asking for them for several years.

The allegation is that they eventually lost patience and organised in retaliation the attack on the bus full of French engineers, who were working on the Agosta submarine project. (Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Philippa Fletcher)