CIA to Support Corsican Separatists!

Well, maybe not yet, but if the tone on today's OpinionJournal is anything to go by, that day may not be far off. How long more can the Wall Street Journal tolerate putting its name to this deranged outfit? Doubtless feeling the pressure of a weekend of Condilesque* spinning by the White House [*recommended Daily Howler word], Opinionjournal has resumed its attack on those evil French. It's a three part complaint:

The Daily Telegraph says the French intelligence service "is believed" to have refused to allow Britain's MI6 to share the [Niger] information with the U.S.:

US intelligence sources believe that the most likely source of the MI6 intelligence was the French secret service, the DGSE. Niger is a former French colony and its uranium mines are run by a French company that comes under the control of the French Atomic Energy Commission.

US sources also point out that the French government was vehemently opposed to the war with Iraq and so suggest that it would have been instinctively against the idea of passing on the intelligence.
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[then follows discussion about American protest group organising pro-French activities]
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A recurring theme in antiwar commentary is that there's nothing unpatriotic about dissenting from your government's policies. That's true enough, but siding against your country and with its adversary is another matter.

Let's just spell things out:

Note the blame attribution for the unsourced Niger intelligence to an unsourced article in the (London) Daily Telegraph. And dudes, if you think British intelligence is weak on sourcing, just try investigating the sourcing of any of their newspaper articles (a read of the Street of Shame column in any issue of Private Eye will give you the general idea). One thing we can specify about this source: the Daily Telegraph is the sister newspaper of the reactionary New York Sun, via the common participation of media conglomerate Hollinger.

Second, there's the classic spin of omission in the clause its uranium mines are run by a French company . Now do like the White House claims it didn't, and read Joseph Wilson's report:

Niger's uranium business consists of two mines...which are run by French, Spanish, Japanese, German and Nigerian interests

So why single out the French as the most likely source of intelligence on the mines?

Third, the idea that the French would have been instinctively against passing on the intelligence? Oh yeah, like that crazy Moussouai dude that they never told us about (except that they did).

And what can we say about their final sentence, except to note its Coulter-esque equation of liking France with treason. Which is why we expect to see them advocating support for the Corsican resistance fighters any day now.