:00:10. > :00:19.Why America marks the end of nearly nine years of military operations
:00:19. > :00:24.in Iraq. The US flag is lowered at ceremony
:00:24. > :00:28.in Baghdad, all troops will have left within days.
:00:28. > :00:34.With thousands of US soldiers and many more Iraqis killed, the
:00:34. > :00:40.arguments continue about whether the war was a success or a failure.
:00:40. > :00:44.They committed serious mistakes, especially in the retreatment and
:00:44. > :00:48.in the treatment of normal Iraqi people. This is the opportunity for
:00:48. > :00:53.Iraq to forge ahead on the path to security and prosperity.
:00:53. > :00:59.We are reporting live from Baghdad and looking at what lies ahead now
:00:59. > :01:04.for Iraq. Also tonight: Guarding the Olympics with up to 13,500
:01:04. > :01:08.military troops, helicopters and Navy warships.
:01:08. > :01:12.David Norris is accused of killing Stephen Lawrence, now for the first
:01:12. > :01:18.time his mother provides him with an alibi.
:01:18. > :01:22.The village in China where the Communist Party has lost control.
:01:22. > :01:26.The villagers are calling for the overthrow of corrupt officials.
:01:26. > :01:29.They want to see safeguards for their land. They say that the way
:01:29. > :01:34.to protect themselves is by uniting and speaking out.
:01:34. > :01:39.A mixed response to Government plans to tackle England's most
:01:39. > :01:43.troubled families. Coming up in Sportsday on the BBC
:01:43. > :01:49.News Channel. All of the Europa League action incluing
:01:49. > :01:59.disappointment for Spurs. They put four past the Shack rocks,
:01:59. > :01:59.
:01:59. > :02:08.but it was not enough to reach the knock-out stage.
:02:08. > :02:12.-- sham rocks. Good evening. After nearly nine years of war, the
:02:12. > :02:19.American flag has been lowered in Baghdad. Formerly marking the end
:02:19. > :02:22.of US military operations in Iraq. It was in 2003 that America
:02:22. > :02:27.launched its controversial shock and awe campaign. In the following
:02:28. > :02:33.years of conflict, 4,5,000 US soldiers were killed and countless
:02:33. > :02:40.Iraqis lost their lives. Within days all American troops will be
:02:40. > :02:42.gone, bar a few left behind to secure the rust embassy.
:02:42. > :02:51.Our World Affairs Editor John Simpson, who covered the war in
:02:51. > :02:57.Iraq, reports now from Baghdad. A quiet, downbeat ceremony, marking
:02:57. > :03:01.the end of an occupation that lasted 100 months, cost the lives
:03:01. > :03:04.of 4,500 Americans and of an unknown, but far greater number of
:03:04. > :03:09.Iraqis. This is the time for Iraq to look
:03:09. > :03:15.forward. This is an opportunity for Iraq to
:03:15. > :03:20.forge ahead. To forge ahead on the path to security and prosperity.
:03:20. > :03:23.Welcome to Sadr City, a sprawling, working-class, Shi'ite suburb of
:03:23. > :03:27.Baghdad. The occupiers are going, says the
:03:27. > :03:33.poster, thanks to our government. Yet things have changed here out of
:03:33. > :03:39.all recognition. The last time I was here in Sadr
:03:39. > :03:43.City was about three years ago. I had to say, I was pretty nervous.
:03:43. > :03:50.Kidnapping was rife, and there were bombs here just about every day,
:03:50. > :03:54.but now, well, you can see for yourself how relaxed everything is.
:03:54. > :03:58.But not everything is necessarily better. There are power cuts every
:03:58. > :04:08.day here and everywhere in Iraq. The Americans never managed to fix
:04:08. > :04:12.the electricity supply. In Sadr City, the US army engineers
:04:12. > :04:16.put in the first decent sewers and water supplies, but that's been
:04:16. > :04:20.forgotten. Instead, the people remember the American attacks on
:04:20. > :04:24.Sadr City, this man keeps the pictures on his mobile phone.
:04:24. > :04:30.These are pictures from the internet and that's American
:04:30. > :04:33.laughter. The meat market k as everywhere
:04:33. > :04:40.else here, you don't find any love for the United States. The butchers
:04:40. > :04:45.of Baghdad are happy to see the back of the Americans.
:04:45. > :04:50.Saad, the chicken seller, says that they brought poverty and killed our
:04:51. > :04:56.children. According to Jabbar, who sells cow
:04:56. > :05:00.hearts, "They destroyed our country." Tamir, the seller of
:05:00. > :05:03.sheep's heads, even thinks that things were better under Saddam
:05:03. > :05:06.Hussein, yet the United States has done a really good job of training
:05:06. > :05:10.the security forces here. That's checkpoints are everywhere. They
:05:10. > :05:16.are the front line of the continuing Civil War. There are
:05:16. > :05:25.attacks on them every day. Can the Iraqis sort out their own
:05:25. > :05:29.defence now? The answers are almost certainly yes, you can see how
:05:29. > :05:34.well-trained and confident these men are, how well-equipped as well.
:05:34. > :05:37.On the other side, the insurgents are finding it difficult nowadays
:05:37. > :05:43.to get people to volunteer to be suicide bombers.
:05:43. > :05:47.There were 79 bomb attacks last month. This one targeted the Prime
:05:47. > :05:55.Minister. Still, in 2007, there were 1,000
:05:55. > :06:01.bomb as month. The suffering does not stop, but the insurgents is
:06:01. > :06:06.visibly winding down. Fatally, the US invasion and
:06:06. > :06:09.occupation was done on the cheap. There was far too much brutality.
:06:09. > :06:13.The Iraqi government thinks that the Americans simply did not
:06:13. > :06:18.understand the country. They tried to help the Iraqis, to
:06:18. > :06:23.free them from dictatorship and build democracy, prosperity and ro
:06:23. > :06:29.gres in Iraq, but they committed very, very serious mistakes,
:06:29. > :06:36.especially in the treatment of the normal Iraqi people.
:06:36. > :06:40.For 40 years, not just the eight years of the American occupation,
:06:40. > :06:44.Iraq has known little more than dictatorship, war and isolation,
:06:44. > :06:50.now, though, people here are daring to hope that their luck may finally
:06:50. > :06:54.be changing. We can talk to John Simpson in
:06:54. > :06:59.Baghdad now. John, in your assessment, what does the future
:06:59. > :07:05.hold for Iraq now? I think that there are two really important
:07:05. > :07:09.points, Fiona. One is that Iraq it plays an important part from now on
:07:09. > :07:14.in relationships, if there is a relationship, between the United
:07:14. > :07:18.States, which it is friendly and Iran, Which? It is friendly. It
:07:19. > :07:24.makes it pivotal in this highly important region. Then you have to
:07:24. > :07:29.remember that we have not seen Iraq as a serious oil-producer for many
:07:29. > :07:33.years, but it will soon start to produce oil on the kind of
:07:33. > :07:37.extremely high level that it used to. That will nake rich and
:07:37. > :07:42.important. You know, all we have seen of the -- that will make it
:07:42. > :07:48.rich and important. You know, all we have seen of this country is
:07:48. > :07:51.that it's been dominated by unpleasant and aggressive
:07:51. > :07:56.dictatorships, that its been subjected to heavy sanctions or
:07:56. > :08:00.else that it has had a Civil War. Now there is a good chance that all
:08:00. > :08:02.of those things will be overturned soon, it will be then a very
:08:02. > :08:11.different Iraq. Thank you very much.
:08:11. > :08:14.Up to 13,500 military personnel are to join the security operation for
:08:14. > :08:18.London 2012, far higher than expected. Members of the armed
:08:18. > :08:27.forces are to help to guard the Olympic venues and providing
:08:27. > :08:32.support to the police. Royal Navy ships and RAF jets will also be on
:08:32. > :08:35.standby. Its been on the radar, with the
:08:35. > :08:39.Olympics venues an obvious target for terrorists, securing the
:08:39. > :08:44.Olympics is one of the biggest priorities, but perhaps we did not
:08:44. > :08:47.expect it on this scale. Fighter aircraft on 24 standby, a warship
:08:47. > :08:52.on the Thames and now more troops than the number deployed in
:08:52. > :08:57.Afghanistan. Military hardware will be used. We
:08:57. > :09:04.are deploying helicopters, tie feen fighters, to defend London's air
:09:04. > :09:08.space. We are deploying ground-to air missile systems so the military
:09:08. > :09:13.using its full range of capibilities and equipment to keep
:09:13. > :09:19.London safe. The MoD are providing 13,500 thirt
:09:19. > :09:24.for the security. 7,500 are acting as security guards along with
:09:24. > :09:28.civilians at all venues. Another 6,000 are on standby and providing
:09:28. > :09:31.back-up support. The last time in Beijing, China's military might was
:09:31. > :09:36.paraded for all to see. Britain can't possibly match that, but the
:09:36. > :09:42.authorities are still focusing on what will be the country's largest
:09:42. > :09:45.peace-time security operation. The military weren't supposed to
:09:45. > :09:50.patrol venue checkpoints like these, they will now after the number of
:09:50. > :09:53.guards needed more than doubled. Officials admitted to MPs yesterday,
:09:53. > :09:57.that they didn't do their homework properly.
:09:57. > :10:03.This is realistic. Thats with a slightly finger in the air, we
:10:03. > :10:09.think it is 10,000, that will cost us �282 million.
:10:09. > :10:14.London's 2012 is to rely heavily on military personnel to safeguard the
:10:14. > :10:19.main venues after they got their original estimates wrong. That is
:10:19. > :10:25.had a significant impact on the Olympics budget, with only eight
:10:25. > :10:30.months to go, it is clear that nearly all of the �9 million will
:10:30. > :10:33.be spent. One Olympics ticket holder said that peace of mind was
:10:33. > :10:37.paramount. I think when I first heard it takes
:10:37. > :10:41.you back, but the reality is that it is a potential target. Anything
:10:41. > :10:47.that helps with the security is good. It is reassuring.
:10:47. > :10:49.The Olympics are supposed to be a peaceful celebration of sporting
:10:50. > :10:55.achievement, the trick for organisers is to deliver that
:10:55. > :10:58.whilst ensuring that London does not feel under siege.
:10:58. > :11:02.On the last dau of evidence at the Lawrence Lawrence Lauren murder
:11:02. > :11:06.trial, the mother of one of the accused has for the first time in
:11:06. > :11:11.18 years provided her son with an alibi. Norris nrs' mother said that
:11:11. > :11:15.her son was at home the night that Stephen Lawrence was murdered.
:11:15. > :11:21.David Norris said he could not remember where he was that night,
:11:21. > :11:25.but insisted he was innocent. We have this report.
:11:25. > :11:31.David Norris is now 35 years old. Today he entered the witness box to
:11:31. > :11:35.be questioned about a murder that happened when he was just 16.
:11:35. > :11:39.Mr Norris was asked repeatedly by the prosecuting barrister where was
:11:39. > :11:44.he on the night that Stephen Lawrence was killed in the London
:11:44. > :11:52.suburb of Eltham. Each time he said he could not remember, but was sure
:11:52. > :11:54.he was not in Eltham. He was asked again by the
:11:54. > :12:03.prosecution barrister, Mark Ellison QC where he was at the time of the
:12:03. > :12:07.murder. He said: Clothing fibres found on this
:12:07. > :12:10.sweatshirt, seized from David Norris' house allegedly link him to
:12:11. > :12:15.the scene of the crime, but Clifford Norris testified that the
:12:15. > :12:22.top had been his 18 years ago. Possibly these stain anys as well
:12:22. > :12:26.on which a hair matching Stephen's DNA was found. Then David Norris's,
:12:26. > :12:32.mother, Theresa Norris took the stand. She insisted he had been at
:12:32. > :12:39.home that night. Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting said, "You have made
:12:39. > :12:44.that up." She said." I have made nothing up." But he went on, "There
:12:44. > :12:48.is not a breath uttered that you had an alibi for him." She
:12:48. > :12:52.maintained he had been at home that night.
:12:52. > :12:57.David Norris said he is was a visitor to Bournbrook Road where
:12:57. > :13:02.Neil and Jamie Acourt lived close to the murder scene, but he lived
:13:02. > :13:07.seven miles away and his mother did not allow him out late. The
:13:07. > :13:12.following year he was seen in a police video, discussing how he
:13:12. > :13:15.wanted to attack and maim black people. He told the jury, I
:13:15. > :13:20.apologise you had to listen to that I would not dream of doing it. I
:13:20. > :13:24.had been accused of a terrible murder. I was angry, especially
:13:24. > :13:29.with the Police Force it was all part of growing. He later said he
:13:29. > :13:33.was not suggesting for a moment he was an angel, that he was not, but
:13:33. > :13:36.it did not make him capable of murder.
:13:36. > :13:40.Today's witnesses mark the end of the evidence in the Stephen
:13:40. > :13:49.Lawrence trial. The case is to be summarised for
:13:49. > :13:52.the jury before they consider their The Communist Party in China has
:13:52. > :13:56.lost control of a village in the south of the country. It has become
:13:56. > :14:00.an open revolt. Officials fled the village on Monday and thousands of
:14:00. > :14:07.people have flocked armed police from moving in. Martin Patience
:14:07. > :14:13.sent this report from Wukan village in Guangdong.
:14:13. > :14:18.This is what a rebellion looks like in China. These villagers are
:14:18. > :14:26.locked in a bitter land dispute with the authorities. But instead
:14:26. > :14:31.of being silenced, they have chosen to stand and fight. Party officials
:14:31. > :14:39.have fled and the authorities have lost control of the village. But in
:14:39. > :14:44.China, such open defiance can be deadly. This video shows a brutal
:14:44. > :14:48.police crackdown in the village last week. There are thousands of
:14:48. > :14:56.incidence of social unrest in China every month, often when local
:14:56. > :15:02.officials confiscate the land to sell it to developers. But these
:15:02. > :15:07.disputes erode support for the Communist Party. One villager was
:15:07. > :15:11.negotiating with the a authorities to end the dispute. But he died in
:15:11. > :15:18.police custody earlier this month - - this week. His family are
:15:18. > :15:23.preparing to bury him tomorrow. But his daughter, Xue Jianwan, is
:15:23. > :15:29.struggling to cope. She says the authorities have yet to hand over
:15:29. > :15:33.the body. TRANSLATION: I know my father's
:15:33. > :15:37.body is not likely to return. His wish was to get the land back and
:15:37. > :15:44.punish corrupt officials, so we will put aside our emotions to
:15:44. > :15:47.achieve this. He sacrificed himself, and we will, too. In a country
:15:47. > :15:52.where dissent is rarely tolerated, people here believe there is safety
:15:52. > :15:57.in numbers. Villagers are calling for the overthrow of corrupt
:15:57. > :16:00.officials. They also want safeguards for their land. They
:16:01. > :16:07.insist the only way to protect themselves is by uniting and
:16:07. > :16:13.speaking out. But at night, many fear reprisals.
:16:13. > :16:18.Five men have already been snatched, most likely by undercover police.
:16:18. > :16:22.We joined locals as they went out on patrol.
:16:22. > :16:26.TRANSLATION: We volunteer day and night to prevent people being taken
:16:27. > :16:32.away. When we see police, we sound the alarm and alert everyone. We
:16:32. > :16:41.fight them off as a group and protect our land. People here are
:16:41. > :16:46.on guard. They know a fresh crackdown could come at any time.
:16:46. > :16:55.Coming up: She was jailed for being raped. Now
:16:55. > :16:58.this Afghan woman is under pressure to marry her attacker.
:16:58. > :17:03.David Cameron has announced plans for a network of troubleshooters to
:17:03. > :17:08.tackle England's most troubled families. It is likely to cost
:17:08. > :17:10.nearly �450 million over four years. With local government expected to
:17:10. > :17:17.provide much of the funding, some critics have questioned whether
:17:17. > :17:21.councils will be able to afford it. Chris Buckler reports from Wigan.
:17:21. > :17:26.The troubles of individual families can cause problems for whole
:17:26. > :17:28.communities. From a simple lack of respect to criminal behaviour, the
:17:28. > :17:36.Government thinks that residents should not suffer because of their
:17:36. > :17:40.neighbours. We have had 12 months of hell with them. Doing what?
:17:40. > :17:45.Everything. Drugs. We had to go to court to get them evicted. Do you
:17:45. > :17:51.think they will listen? No. They will do their own thing because
:17:51. > :17:54.they always have, haven't they? Government says there are 120,000
:17:54. > :17:59.troubled families in England and the problems they cause are costing
:17:59. > :18:03.the taxpayer billions. There is no simple recipe to solve these issues,
:18:03. > :18:08.but today David Cameron pledged �450 million for intervention
:18:08. > :18:14.schemes like this one right across England. But only if councils pay,
:18:14. > :18:19.too. And that is at a time of cuts. We will fund 40% of the cost if
:18:19. > :18:24.they matched the other 60%. Crucially, the payment depends on
:18:24. > :18:28.results. Have they stopped, and I mean completely, anti-social
:18:28. > :18:33.behaviour? What David Cameron is proposing today is not completely
:18:33. > :18:37.new. When he was Prime Minister and Tony Blair pushed the idea for
:18:37. > :18:40.family intervention projects as part of attempts to deal with anti-
:18:40. > :18:46.social behaviour. There are existing intervention schemes
:18:46. > :18:52.operating in each part of the UK, including here in Wigan. Between
:18:52. > :18:55.them, David and and have 10 children. All but two were placed
:18:55. > :19:04.with adoptive or foster parents, and they accept that their money
:19:04. > :19:08.troubles started at home. I would stay in bed. She would be looking
:19:08. > :19:12.after the kids and I would stay in bed. Workless Nissan mental health
:19:12. > :19:15.issues were just two of their problems but the charity Action for
:19:15. > :19:20.Children has been helping them keep the remaining family together.
:19:20. > :19:24.there was nothing like this, I would definitely have lost the kids.
:19:24. > :19:27.The money promised to help more families has been diverted from
:19:27. > :19:31.existing Government budgets, but the real worry for charities is
:19:32. > :19:36.whether that councils can afford to take advantage of the funding.
:19:36. > :19:39.has to be matched by over �600 million worth of local government
:19:39. > :19:43.money, and I do not see any evidence that local government has
:19:43. > :19:46.prioritised this money. What is more, councils know that in order
:19:46. > :19:50.to get any cash they will have to prove that the troubleshooters have
:19:50. > :19:53.made a difference to the troubled families.
:19:53. > :19:57.More tensions have emerged tonight between Britain and France, with
:19:57. > :20:02.the head of the French central bank suggesting the UK should have its
:20:02. > :20:07.Triple A credit rating downgraded, rather than France. Christian Noyer
:20:07. > :20:10.said the UK's economy was in worse shape. Let's cross to Paris and
:20:10. > :20:15.Christian Fraser. What more can you tell us? You might say that the
:20:15. > :20:19.French are not playing by the Queensberry rules. First we had
:20:19. > :20:21.these comments from Christian Noyer, and now the same comments from the
:20:21. > :20:25.Prime Minister, who is touring Brazil at the moment, again
:20:25. > :20:29.pointing to the fundamentals of the British economy and saying, yes,
:20:29. > :20:34.they have a bigger deficit than us, similar levels of debt, higher
:20:34. > :20:37.inflation and lower growth, all of which is, of course, true. But it
:20:37. > :20:40.is France in the eurozone and they face the pressures that come with
:20:40. > :20:45.membership, and it is France that are the weakest of the triple-A
:20:45. > :20:48.rated economies in the eurozone. In the past few days Mr Sarkozy has
:20:48. > :20:51.been downplaying the risk of a downgrade, but perhaps these
:20:51. > :20:55.comments give away perhaps that they have more concerns them they
:20:55. > :21:00.are letting on. Certainly the markets are reflecting those
:21:00. > :21:02.concerns. It increases speculation that the downgrade is imminent.
:21:02. > :21:05.There appears to be some development on whether Britain
:21:05. > :21:12.might after all have some involvement in these talks on a new
:21:12. > :21:17.EU treaty. I understand that Herman van Rompuy, the European Council
:21:17. > :21:20.president, has invited all 27 EU members to a summit in January, the
:21:20. > :21:23.beginning of February, and I have just had a statement from Downing
:21:24. > :21:27.Street saying that they will participate in technical
:21:27. > :21:31.discussions to take forward the work on the new fiscal agreement.
:21:31. > :21:35.What is not clear is how much involvement they will have, whether
:21:35. > :21:40.they will be there in observer status, as suggested by some in
:21:40. > :21:43.Brussels, or whether they will have active negotiations. But it looks a
:21:43. > :21:47.little bit like an olive branch. Perhaps this splendid isolation of
:21:47. > :21:54.Britain that we have been talking about is not as rigid as we might
:21:54. > :21:58.first have thought. She was a young woman raped by a
:21:58. > :22:02.relative and then, under Afghan law, jailed for so-called forced
:22:02. > :22:06.adultery. Known only as Gulnaz, she then gave birth to a daughter
:22:06. > :22:11.behind bars. The case provoked an international outcry and after two
:22:11. > :22:16.years in prison she has been freed by presidential pardon. But now she
:22:16. > :22:21.is under pressure to marry her rapist. She has been speaking in
:22:21. > :22:26.Kabul to our correspondent Caroline Wyatt.
:22:27. > :22:31.Are facing an uncertain future, Gulnaz's baby daughter, Moska, was
:22:31. > :22:35.conceived when her mother was raped. It is her first taste of freedom
:22:35. > :22:39.after her daughter was born in a women's prison while she was
:22:39. > :22:43.serving a 12 year sentence for the crime of being raped. Until this
:22:43. > :22:47.week, mother and baby were here in prison, where many of the women are
:22:47. > :22:53.serving sentences for what the justice system in Afghanistan terms
:22:53. > :22:56.moral crimes, such as adultery, orange Gulnaz's case, adultery by
:22:56. > :23:02.force. The case attracted international attention which put
:23:02. > :23:05.pressure on the Afghan President to pardon her.
:23:05. > :23:10.TRANSLATION: I do not want anything to do with the government again,
:23:10. > :23:14.because they put innocent people in jail. What kind of Afghanistan is
:23:14. > :23:18.this? What kind of government is this? My attacker committed a crime
:23:18. > :23:27.and they arrested me. The first court gave me two years in prison
:23:27. > :23:30.but on appeal the second court gave me 12 years.
:23:30. > :23:34.A decade since the Taliban were toppled from power, women's
:23:34. > :23:38.position in Afghanistan remains precarious. Human rights groups say
:23:38. > :23:42.hundreds of women in Afghan jails are the victims of rape or domestic
:23:42. > :23:47.violence. The -- the lawyer working for Gulnaz says her case is far
:23:47. > :23:50.from unique. Women are here unfortunately are treated as
:23:50. > :23:57.second-class citizens. They are quite often mistreated, quite often
:23:57. > :24:03.not only just mistreated in community but within the justice
:24:03. > :24:06.system. Gulnaz's case is a good illustration of that. Despite the
:24:06. > :24:11.presidential pardon, there is still a question over what happens next
:24:11. > :24:17.for Gulnaz. The relative who raped her is still imprisoned but she is
:24:17. > :24:21.willing to marry him if it preserves her family's honour.
:24:21. > :24:25.TRANSLATION: I will marry him if his family find a wife for my
:24:25. > :24:30.brother and pay a dowry for me. There is no other way. If our
:24:30. > :24:34.families cannot agree with each other they will become enemies.
:24:34. > :24:37.Gulnaz says the prosecutor told her if she went home her brothers would
:24:37. > :24:41.kill her because of the shame she has brought on them. She insists
:24:41. > :24:46.they are good men who would not hurt her, but whether her family
:24:46. > :24:53.will take Gulnaz and Moska back is not yet clear. For now, they have
:24:53. > :24:57.few other options. Hears the first French President to
:24:57. > :25:00.be convicted as a criminal since the Second World War. -- he is.
:25:00. > :25:05.Jacques Chirac has been found guilty of creating fake jobs for
:25:05. > :25:09.cronies and embezzling funds. It is a humiliating blow for a man who
:25:09. > :25:14.was a giant on the French political stage in a career that spanned four
:25:14. > :25:19.decades. Allan Little reports. He has been at the heart of things
:25:20. > :25:24.for as long as France can remember. He is the great, familiar, ever-
:25:24. > :25:30.present survivor. He entered politics under his hero, General de
:25:30. > :25:35.Gaulle, but at 41 he was already Prime Minister. Under a president
:25:35. > :25:39.he did not much admire. Chirac sold a nuclear reactor to young Iraqi
:25:39. > :25:44.leader called Saddam Hussein. Later, Israeli warplanes destroyed the
:25:44. > :25:47.nuclear plant. As mayor of Paris using, we now know, public funds,
:25:47. > :25:53.he built a powerful electoral machine that would win him the
:25:53. > :25:57.highest office in France on his third attempt in 1995. As mayor of
:25:57. > :26:03.Paris using, we now know, public funds, he built a powerful
:26:03. > :26:06.electoral machine that would win him in 1995 the presidency. The man
:26:06. > :26:10.they called the bulldozer had bulldozed his way into the Elysee
:26:10. > :26:13.Palace. As President, his government's promised radical
:26:13. > :26:21.reform but they always backed away in the face of public protest.
:26:21. > :26:26.France began to seem impossible to reform. In 2002, he was re-elected
:26:26. > :26:31.by a landslide but only because his second round opponent was the far
:26:31. > :26:36.right leader. The French Left voted for Jacques Chirac. Tony Blair
:26:36. > :26:41.tried to persuade him to back a UN resolution authorising war against
:26:42. > :26:46.Iraq. He declared he would veto that resolution no matter what.
:26:46. > :26:53.TRANSLATION: Iraq does not represent today in a prison threat
:26:53. > :26:57.which justifies an immediate war. The Americans were furious but in
:26:57. > :27:03.his heart, Chirac believed in France as a vital counterbalance to
:27:03. > :27:07.American power. The Jacques Chirac charmed his way to the top of
:27:07. > :27:12.French politics. His love of life was evident. Even his critics liked
:27:12. > :27:17.him. They could not help themselves. Jacques Chirac was the man that the
:27:17. > :27:21.French used to love to hate, the French left. He was also an
:27:21. > :27:25.endearing figure. Everybody loved him. Everybody who approached him
:27:25. > :27:29.loved him because he was genuine. The charge of corruption has