15/12/2011 BBC News at Ten


15/12/2011

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Why America marks the end of nearly nine years of military operations

:00:10.:00:19.

in Iraq. The US flag is lowered at ceremony

:00:19.:00:24.

in Baghdad, all troops will have left within days.

:00:24.:00:28.

With thousands of US soldiers and many more Iraqis killed, the

:00:28.:00:34.

arguments continue about whether the war was a success or a failure.

:00:34.:00:40.

They committed serious mistakes, especially in the retreatment and

:00:40.:00:44.

in the treatment of normal Iraqi people. This is the opportunity for

:00:44.:00:48.

Iraq to forge ahead on the path to security and prosperity.

:00:48.:00:53.

We are reporting live from Baghdad and looking at what lies ahead now

:00:53.:00:59.

for Iraq. Also tonight: Guarding the Olympics with up to 13,500

:00:59.:01:04.

military troops, helicopters and Navy warships.

:01:04.:01:08.

David Norris is accused of killing Stephen Lawrence, now for the first

:01:08.:01:12.

time his mother provides him with an alibi.

:01:12.:01:18.

The village in China where the Communist Party has lost control.

:01:18.:01:22.

The villagers are calling for the overthrow of corrupt officials.

:01:22.:01:26.

They want to see safeguards for their land. They say that the way

:01:26.:01:29.

to protect themselves is by uniting and speaking out.

:01:29.:01:34.

A mixed response to Government plans to tackle England's most

:01:34.:01:39.

troubled families. Coming up in Sportsday on the BBC

:01:39.:01:43.

News Channel. All of the Europa League action incluing

:01:43.:01:49.

disappointment for Spurs. They put four past the Shack rocks,

:01:49.:01:59.
:01:59.:01:59.

but it was not enough to reach the knock-out stage.

:01:59.:02:08.

-- sham rocks. Good evening. After nearly nine years of war, the

:02:08.:02:12.

American flag has been lowered in Baghdad. Formerly marking the end

:02:12.:02:19.

of US military operations in Iraq. It was in 2003 that America

:02:19.:02:22.

launched its controversial shock and awe campaign. In the following

:02:22.:02:27.

years of conflict, 4,5,000 US soldiers were killed and countless

:02:28.:02:33.

Iraqis lost their lives. Within days all American troops will be

:02:33.:02:40.

gone, bar a few left behind to secure the rust embassy.

:02:40.:02:42.

Our World Affairs Editor John Simpson, who covered the war in

:02:42.:02:51.

Iraq, reports now from Baghdad. A quiet, downbeat ceremony, marking

:02:51.:02:57.

the end of an occupation that lasted 100 months, cost the lives

:02:57.:03:01.

of 4,500 Americans and of an unknown, but far greater number of

:03:01.:03:04.

Iraqis. This is the time for Iraq to look

:03:04.:03:09.

forward. This is an opportunity for Iraq to

:03:09.:03:15.

forge ahead. To forge ahead on the path to security and prosperity.

:03:15.:03:20.

Welcome to Sadr City, a sprawling, working-class, Shi'ite suburb of

:03:20.:03:23.

Baghdad. The occupiers are going, says the

:03:23.:03:27.

poster, thanks to our government. Yet things have changed here out of

:03:27.:03:33.

all recognition. The last time I was here in Sadr

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City was about three years ago. I had to say, I was pretty nervous.

:03:39.:03:43.

Kidnapping was rife, and there were bombs here just about every day,

:03:43.:03:50.

but now, well, you can see for yourself how relaxed everything is.

:03:50.:03:54.

But not everything is necessarily better. There are power cuts every

:03:54.:03:58.

day here and everywhere in Iraq. The Americans never managed to fix

:03:58.:04:08.

the electricity supply. In Sadr City, the US army engineers

:04:08.:04:12.

put in the first decent sewers and water supplies, but that's been

:04:12.:04:16.

forgotten. Instead, the people remember the American attacks on

:04:16.:04:20.

Sadr City, this man keeps the pictures on his mobile phone.

:04:20.:04:24.

These are pictures from the internet and that's American

:04:24.:04:30.

laughter. The meat market k as everywhere

:04:30.:04:33.

else here, you don't find any love for the United States. The butchers

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of Baghdad are happy to see the back of the Americans.

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Saad, the chicken seller, says that they brought poverty and killed our

:04:45.:04:50.

children. According to Jabbar, who sells cow

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hearts, "They destroyed our country." Tamir, the seller of

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sheep's heads, even thinks that things were better under Saddam

:05:00.:05:03.

Hussein, yet the United States has done a really good job of training

:05:03.:05:06.

the security forces here. That's checkpoints are everywhere. They

:05:06.:05:10.

are the front line of the continuing Civil War. There are

:05:10.:05:16.

attacks on them every day. Can the Iraqis sort out their own

:05:16.:05:25.

defence now? The answers are almost certainly yes, you can see how

:05:25.:05:29.

well-trained and confident these men are, how well-equipped as well.

:05:29.:05:34.

On the other side, the insurgents are finding it difficult nowadays

:05:34.:05:37.

to get people to volunteer to be suicide bombers.

:05:37.:05:43.

There were 79 bomb attacks last month. This one targeted the Prime

:05:43.:05:47.

Minister. Still, in 2007, there were 1,000

:05:47.:05:55.

bomb as month. The suffering does not stop, but the insurgents is

:05:55.:06:01.

visibly winding down. Fatally, the US invasion and

:06:01.:06:06.

occupation was done on the cheap. There was far too much brutality.

:06:06.:06:09.

The Iraqi government thinks that the Americans simply did not

:06:09.:06:13.

understand the country. They tried to help the Iraqis, to

:06:13.:06:18.

free them from dictatorship and build democracy, prosperity and ro

:06:18.:06:23.

gres in Iraq, but they committed very, very serious mistakes,

:06:23.:06:29.

especially in the treatment of the normal Iraqi people.

:06:29.:06:36.

For 40 years, not just the eight years of the American occupation,

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Iraq has known little more than dictatorship, war and isolation,

:06:40.:06:44.

now, though, people here are daring to hope that their luck may finally

:06:44.:06:50.

be changing. We can talk to John Simpson in

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Baghdad now. John, in your assessment, what does the future

:06:54.:06:59.

hold for Iraq now? I think that there are two really important

:06:59.:07:05.

points, Fiona. One is that Iraq it plays an important part from now on

:07:05.:07:09.

in relationships, if there is a relationship, between the United

:07:09.:07:14.

States, which it is friendly and Iran, Which? It is friendly. It

:07:14.:07:18.

makes it pivotal in this highly important region. Then you have to

:07:19.:07:24.

remember that we have not seen Iraq as a serious oil-producer for many

:07:24.:07:29.

years, but it will soon start to produce oil on the kind of

:07:29.:07:33.

extremely high level that it used to. That will nake rich and

:07:33.:07:37.

important. You know, all we have seen of the -- that will make it

:07:37.:07:42.

rich and important. You know, all we have seen of this country is

:07:42.:07:48.

that it's been dominated by unpleasant and aggressive

:07:48.:07:51.

dictatorships, that its been subjected to heavy sanctions or

:07:51.:07:56.

else that it has had a Civil War. Now there is a good chance that all

:07:56.:08:00.

of those things will be overturned soon, it will be then a very

:08:00.:08:02.

different Iraq. Thank you very much.

:08:02.:08:11.

Up to 13,500 military personnel are to join the security operation for

:08:11.:08:14.

London 2012, far higher than expected. Members of the armed

:08:14.:08:18.

forces are to help to guard the Olympic venues and providing

:08:18.:08:27.

support to the police. Royal Navy ships and RAF jets will also be on

:08:27.:08:32.

standby. Its been on the radar, with the

:08:32.:08:35.

Olympics venues an obvious target for terrorists, securing the

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Olympics is one of the biggest priorities, but perhaps we did not

:08:39.:08:44.

expect it on this scale. Fighter aircraft on 24 standby, a warship

:08:44.:08:47.

on the Thames and now more troops than the number deployed in

:08:47.:08:52.

Afghanistan. Military hardware will be used. We

:08:52.:08:57.

are deploying helicopters, tie feen fighters, to defend London's air

:08:57.:09:04.

space. We are deploying ground-to air missile systems so the military

:09:04.:09:08.

using its full range of capibilities and equipment to keep

:09:08.:09:13.

London safe. The MoD are providing 13,500 thirt

:09:13.:09:19.

for the security. 7,500 are acting as security guards along with

:09:19.:09:24.

civilians at all venues. Another 6,000 are on standby and providing

:09:24.:09:28.

back-up support. The last time in Beijing, China's military might was

:09:28.:09:31.

paraded for all to see. Britain can't possibly match that, but the

:09:31.:09:36.

authorities are still focusing on what will be the country's largest

:09:36.:09:42.

peace-time security operation. The military weren't supposed to

:09:42.:09:45.

patrol venue checkpoints like these, they will now after the number of

:09:45.:09:50.

guards needed more than doubled. Officials admitted to MPs yesterday,

:09:50.:09:53.

that they didn't do their homework properly.

:09:53.:09:57.

This is realistic. Thats with a slightly finger in the air, we

:09:57.:10:03.

think it is 10,000, that will cost us �282 million.

:10:03.:10:09.

London's 2012 is to rely heavily on military personnel to safeguard the

:10:09.:10:14.

main venues after they got their original estimates wrong. That is

:10:14.:10:19.

had a significant impact on the Olympics budget, with only eight

:10:19.:10:25.

months to go, it is clear that nearly all of the �9 million will

:10:25.:10:30.

be spent. One Olympics ticket holder said that peace of mind was

:10:30.:10:33.

paramount. I think when I first heard it takes

:10:33.:10:37.

you back, but the reality is that it is a potential target. Anything

:10:37.:10:41.

that helps with the security is good. It is reassuring.

:10:41.:10:47.

The Olympics are supposed to be a peaceful celebration of sporting

:10:47.:10:49.

achievement, the trick for organisers is to deliver that

:10:50.:10:55.

whilst ensuring that London does not feel under siege.

:10:55.:10:58.

On the last dau of evidence at the Lawrence Lawrence Lauren murder

:10:58.:11:02.

trial, the mother of one of the accused has for the first time in

:11:02.:11:06.

18 years provided her son with an alibi. Norris nrs' mother said that

:11:06.:11:11.

her son was at home the night that Stephen Lawrence was murdered.

:11:11.:11:15.

David Norris said he could not remember where he was that night,

:11:15.:11:21.

but insisted he was innocent. We have this report.

:11:21.:11:25.

David Norris is now 35 years old. Today he entered the witness box to

:11:25.:11:31.

be questioned about a murder that happened when he was just 16.

:11:31.:11:35.

Mr Norris was asked repeatedly by the prosecuting barrister where was

:11:35.:11:39.

he on the night that Stephen Lawrence was killed in the London

:11:39.:11:44.

suburb of Eltham. Each time he said he could not remember, but was sure

:11:44.:11:52.

he was not in Eltham. He was asked again by the

:11:52.:11:54.

prosecution barrister, Mark Ellison QC where he was at the time of the

:11:54.:12:03.

murder. He said: Clothing fibres found on this

:12:03.:12:07.

sweatshirt, seized from David Norris' house allegedly link him to

:12:07.:12:10.

the scene of the crime, but Clifford Norris testified that the

:12:11.:12:15.

top had been his 18 years ago. Possibly these stain anys as well

:12:15.:12:22.

on which a hair matching Stephen's DNA was found. Then David Norris's,

:12:22.:12:26.

mother, Theresa Norris took the stand. She insisted he had been at

:12:26.:12:32.

home that night. Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting said, "You have made

:12:32.:12:39.

that up." She said." I have made nothing up." But he went on, "There

:12:39.:12:44.

is not a breath uttered that you had an alibi for him." She

:12:44.:12:48.

maintained he had been at home that night.

:12:48.:12:52.

David Norris said he is was a visitor to Bournbrook Road where

:12:52.:12:57.

Neil and Jamie Acourt lived close to the murder scene, but he lived

:12:57.:13:02.

seven miles away and his mother did not allow him out late. The

:13:02.:13:07.

following year he was seen in a police video, discussing how he

:13:07.:13:12.

wanted to attack and maim black people. He told the jury, I

:13:12.:13:15.

apologise you had to listen to that I would not dream of doing it. I

:13:15.:13:20.

had been accused of a terrible murder. I was angry, especially

:13:20.:13:24.

with the Police Force it was all part of growing. He later said he

:13:24.:13:29.

was not suggesting for a moment he was an angel, that he was not, but

:13:29.:13:33.

it did not make him capable of murder.

:13:33.:13:36.

Today's witnesses mark the end of the evidence in the Stephen

:13:36.:13:40.

Lawrence trial. The case is to be summarised for

:13:40.:13:49.

the jury before they consider their The Communist Party in China has

:13:49.:13:52.

lost control of a village in the south of the country. It has become

:13:52.:13:56.

an open revolt. Officials fled the village on Monday and thousands of

:13:56.:14:00.

people have flocked armed police from moving in. Martin Patience

:14:00.:14:07.

sent this report from Wukan village in Guangdong.

:14:07.:14:13.

This is what a rebellion looks like in China. These villagers are

:14:13.:14:18.

locked in a bitter land dispute with the authorities. But instead

:14:18.:14:26.

of being silenced, they have chosen to stand and fight. Party officials

:14:26.:14:31.

have fled and the authorities have lost control of the village. But in

:14:31.:14:39.

China, such open defiance can be deadly. This video shows a brutal

:14:39.:14:44.

police crackdown in the village last week. There are thousands of

:14:44.:14:48.

incidence of social unrest in China every month, often when local

:14:48.:14:56.

officials confiscate the land to sell it to developers. But these

:14:56.:15:02.

disputes erode support for the Communist Party. One villager was

:15:02.:15:07.

negotiating with the a authorities to end the dispute. But he died in

:15:07.:15:11.

police custody earlier this month - - this week. His family are

:15:11.:15:18.

preparing to bury him tomorrow. But his daughter, Xue Jianwan, is

:15:18.:15:23.

struggling to cope. She says the authorities have yet to hand over

:15:23.:15:29.

the body. TRANSLATION: I know my father's

:15:29.:15:33.

body is not likely to return. His wish was to get the land back and

:15:33.:15:37.

punish corrupt officials, so we will put aside our emotions to

:15:37.:15:44.

achieve this. He sacrificed himself, and we will, too. In a country

:15:44.:15:47.

where dissent is rarely tolerated, people here believe there is safety

:15:47.:15:52.

in numbers. Villagers are calling for the overthrow of corrupt

:15:52.:15:57.

officials. They also want safeguards for their land. They

:15:57.:16:00.

insist the only way to protect themselves is by uniting and

:16:01.:16:07.

speaking out. But at night, many fear reprisals.

:16:07.:16:13.

Five men have already been snatched, most likely by undercover police.

:16:13.:16:18.

We joined locals as they went out on patrol.

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TRANSLATION: We volunteer day and night to prevent people being taken

:16:22.:16:26.

away. When we see police, we sound the alarm and alert everyone. We

:16:27.:16:32.

fight them off as a group and protect our land. People here are

:16:32.:16:41.

on guard. They know a fresh crackdown could come at any time.

:16:41.:16:46.

Coming up: She was jailed for being raped. Now

:16:46.:16:55.

this Afghan woman is under pressure to marry her attacker.

:16:55.:16:58.

David Cameron has announced plans for a network of troubleshooters to

:16:58.:17:03.

tackle England's most troubled families. It is likely to cost

:17:03.:17:08.

nearly �450 million over four years. With local government expected to

:17:08.:17:10.

provide much of the funding, some critics have questioned whether

:17:10.:17:17.

councils will be able to afford it. Chris Buckler reports from Wigan.

:17:17.:17:21.

The troubles of individual families can cause problems for whole

:17:21.:17:26.

communities. From a simple lack of respect to criminal behaviour, the

:17:26.:17:28.

Government thinks that residents should not suffer because of their

:17:28.:17:36.

neighbours. We have had 12 months of hell with them. Doing what?

:17:36.:17:40.

Everything. Drugs. We had to go to court to get them evicted. Do you

:17:40.:17:45.

think they will listen? No. They will do their own thing because

:17:45.:17:51.

they always have, haven't they? Government says there are 120,000

:17:51.:17:54.

troubled families in England and the problems they cause are costing

:17:54.:17:59.

the taxpayer billions. There is no simple recipe to solve these issues,

:17:59.:18:03.

but today David Cameron pledged �450 million for intervention

:18:03.:18:08.

schemes like this one right across England. But only if councils pay,

:18:08.:18:14.

too. And that is at a time of cuts. We will fund 40% of the cost if

:18:14.:18:19.

they matched the other 60%. Crucially, the payment depends on

:18:19.:18:24.

results. Have they stopped, and I mean completely, anti-social

:18:24.:18:28.

behaviour? What David Cameron is proposing today is not completely

:18:28.:18:33.

new. When he was Prime Minister and Tony Blair pushed the idea for

:18:33.:18:37.

family intervention projects as part of attempts to deal with anti-

:18:37.:18:40.

social behaviour. There are existing intervention schemes

:18:40.:18:46.

operating in each part of the UK, including here in Wigan. Between

:18:46.:18:52.

them, David and and have 10 children. All but two were placed

:18:52.:18:55.

with adoptive or foster parents, and they accept that their money

:18:55.:19:04.

troubles started at home. I would stay in bed. She would be looking

:19:04.:19:08.

after the kids and I would stay in bed. Workless Nissan mental health

:19:08.:19:12.

issues were just two of their problems but the charity Action for

:19:12.:19:15.

Children has been helping them keep the remaining family together.

:19:15.:19:20.

there was nothing like this, I would definitely have lost the kids.

:19:20.:19:24.

The money promised to help more families has been diverted from

:19:24.:19:27.

existing Government budgets, but the real worry for charities is

:19:27.:19:31.

whether that councils can afford to take advantage of the funding.

:19:32.:19:36.

has to be matched by over �600 million worth of local government

:19:36.:19:39.

money, and I do not see any evidence that local government has

:19:39.:19:43.

prioritised this money. What is more, councils know that in order

:19:43.:19:46.

to get any cash they will have to prove that the troubleshooters have

:19:46.:19:50.

made a difference to the troubled families.

:19:50.:19:53.

More tensions have emerged tonight between Britain and France, with

:19:53.:19:57.

the head of the French central bank suggesting the UK should have its

:19:57.:20:02.

Triple A credit rating downgraded, rather than France. Christian Noyer

:20:02.:20:07.

said the UK's economy was in worse shape. Let's cross to Paris and

:20:07.:20:10.

Christian Fraser. What more can you tell us? You might say that the

:20:10.:20:15.

French are not playing by the Queensberry rules. First we had

:20:15.:20:19.

these comments from Christian Noyer, and now the same comments from the

:20:19.:20:21.

Prime Minister, who is touring Brazil at the moment, again

:20:21.:20:25.

pointing to the fundamentals of the British economy and saying, yes,

:20:25.:20:29.

they have a bigger deficit than us, similar levels of debt, higher

:20:29.:20:34.

inflation and lower growth, all of which is, of course, true. But it

:20:34.:20:37.

is France in the eurozone and they face the pressures that come with

:20:37.:20:40.

membership, and it is France that are the weakest of the triple-A

:20:40.:20:45.

rated economies in the eurozone. In the past few days Mr Sarkozy has

:20:45.:20:48.

been downplaying the risk of a downgrade, but perhaps these

:20:48.:20:51.

comments give away perhaps that they have more concerns them they

:20:51.:20:55.

are letting on. Certainly the markets are reflecting those

:20:55.:21:00.

concerns. It increases speculation that the downgrade is imminent.

:21:00.:21:02.

There appears to be some development on whether Britain

:21:02.:21:05.

might after all have some involvement in these talks on a new

:21:05.:21:12.

EU treaty. I understand that Herman van Rompuy, the European Council

:21:12.:21:17.

president, has invited all 27 EU members to a summit in January, the

:21:17.:21:20.

beginning of February, and I have just had a statement from Downing

:21:20.:21:23.

Street saying that they will participate in technical

:21:24.:21:27.

discussions to take forward the work on the new fiscal agreement.

:21:27.:21:31.

What is not clear is how much involvement they will have, whether

:21:31.:21:35.

they will be there in observer status, as suggested by some in

:21:35.:21:40.

Brussels, or whether they will have active negotiations. But it looks a

:21:40.:21:43.

little bit like an olive branch. Perhaps this splendid isolation of

:21:43.:21:47.

Britain that we have been talking about is not as rigid as we might

:21:47.:21:54.

first have thought. She was a young woman raped by a

:21:54.:21:58.

relative and then, under Afghan law, jailed for so-called forced

:21:58.:22:02.

adultery. Known only as Gulnaz, she then gave birth to a daughter

:22:02.:22:06.

behind bars. The case provoked an international outcry and after two

:22:06.:22:11.

years in prison she has been freed by presidential pardon. But now she

:22:11.:22:16.

is under pressure to marry her rapist. She has been speaking in

:22:16.:22:21.

Kabul to our correspondent Caroline Wyatt.

:22:21.:22:26.

Are facing an uncertain future, Gulnaz's baby daughter, Moska, was

:22:27.:22:31.

conceived when her mother was raped. It is her first taste of freedom

:22:31.:22:35.

after her daughter was born in a women's prison while she was

:22:35.:22:39.

serving a 12 year sentence for the crime of being raped. Until this

:22:39.:22:43.

week, mother and baby were here in prison, where many of the women are

:22:43.:22:47.

serving sentences for what the justice system in Afghanistan terms

:22:47.:22:53.

moral crimes, such as adultery, orange Gulnaz's case, adultery by

:22:53.:22:56.

force. The case attracted international attention which put

:22:56.:23:02.

pressure on the Afghan President to pardon her.

:23:02.:23:05.

TRANSLATION: I do not want anything to do with the government again,

:23:05.:23:10.

because they put innocent people in jail. What kind of Afghanistan is

:23:10.:23:14.

this? What kind of government is this? My attacker committed a crime

:23:14.:23:18.

and they arrested me. The first court gave me two years in prison

:23:18.:23:27.

but on appeal the second court gave me 12 years.

:23:27.:23:30.

A decade since the Taliban were toppled from power, women's

:23:30.:23:34.

position in Afghanistan remains precarious. Human rights groups say

:23:34.:23:38.

hundreds of women in Afghan jails are the victims of rape or domestic

:23:38.:23:42.

violence. The -- the lawyer working for Gulnaz says her case is far

:23:42.:23:47.

from unique. Women are here unfortunately are treated as

:23:47.:23:50.

second-class citizens. They are quite often mistreated, quite often

:23:50.:23:57.

not only just mistreated in community but within the justice

:23:57.:24:03.

system. Gulnaz's case is a good illustration of that. Despite the

:24:03.:24:06.

presidential pardon, there is still a question over what happens next

:24:06.:24:11.

for Gulnaz. The relative who raped her is still imprisoned but she is

:24:11.:24:17.

willing to marry him if it preserves her family's honour.

:24:17.:24:21.

TRANSLATION: I will marry him if his family find a wife for my

:24:21.:24:25.

brother and pay a dowry for me. There is no other way. If our

:24:25.:24:30.

families cannot agree with each other they will become enemies.

:24:30.:24:34.

Gulnaz says the prosecutor told her if she went home her brothers would

:24:34.:24:37.

kill her because of the shame she has brought on them. She insists

:24:37.:24:41.

they are good men who would not hurt her, but whether her family

:24:41.:24:46.

will take Gulnaz and Moska back is not yet clear. For now, they have

:24:46.:24:53.

few other options. Hears the first French President to

:24:53.:24:57.

be convicted as a criminal since the Second World War. -- he is.

:24:57.:25:00.

Jacques Chirac has been found guilty of creating fake jobs for

:25:00.:25:05.

cronies and embezzling funds. It is a humiliating blow for a man who

:25:05.:25:09.

was a giant on the French political stage in a career that spanned four

:25:09.:25:14.

decades. Allan Little reports. He has been at the heart of things

:25:14.:25:19.

for as long as France can remember. He is the great, familiar, ever-

:25:20.:25:24.

present survivor. He entered politics under his hero, General de

:25:24.:25:30.

Gaulle, but at 41 he was already Prime Minister. Under a president

:25:30.:25:35.

he did not much admire. Chirac sold a nuclear reactor to young Iraqi

:25:35.:25:39.

leader called Saddam Hussein. Later, Israeli warplanes destroyed the

:25:39.:25:44.

nuclear plant. As mayor of Paris using, we now know, public funds,

:25:44.:25:47.

he built a powerful electoral machine that would win him the

:25:47.:25:53.

highest office in France on his third attempt in 1995. As mayor of

:25:53.:25:57.

Paris using, we now know, public funds, he built a powerful

:25:57.:26:03.

electoral machine that would win him in 1995 the presidency. The man

:26:03.:26:06.

they called the bulldozer had bulldozed his way into the Elysee

:26:06.:26:10.

Palace. As President, his government's promised radical

:26:10.:26:13.

reform but they always backed away in the face of public protest.

:26:13.:26:21.

France began to seem impossible to reform. In 2002, he was re-elected

:26:21.:26:26.

by a landslide but only because his second round opponent was the far

:26:26.:26:31.

right leader. The French Left voted for Jacques Chirac. Tony Blair

:26:31.:26:36.

tried to persuade him to back a UN resolution authorising war against

:26:36.:26:41.

Iraq. He declared he would veto that resolution no matter what.

:26:42.:26:46.

TRANSLATION: Iraq does not represent today in a prison threat

:26:46.:26:53.

which justifies an immediate war. The Americans were furious but in

:26:53.:26:57.

his heart, Chirac believed in France as a vital counterbalance to

:26:57.:27:03.

American power. The Jacques Chirac charmed his way to the top of

:27:03.:27:07.

French politics. His love of life was evident. Even his critics liked

:27:07.:27:12.

him. They could not help themselves. Jacques Chirac was the man that the

:27:12.:27:17.

French used to love to hate, the French left. He was also an

:27:17.:27:21.

endearing figure. Everybody loved him. Everybody who approached him

:27:21.:27:25.

loved him because he was genuine. The charge of corruption has

:27:25.:27:29.

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