More on the evil French:

France's intelligence services attempted to build closer links to Saddam's secret service during the build-up to war last year, documents from the bombed Iraqi intelligence HQ in Baghdad obtained by The Telegraph reveal.

Aw, drattit. I'm misquoting the Telegraph again. This time, their reporter, who is shuffling through papers looted from the Iraqi intelligence HQ, has stumbled on papers implicating Germany, not France. Sorry about the typo.

This may resonate a bit with those of us who remember that Germany was the early leader in resistance to the war push -- the current Chancellor, Schröder, ran on an explicitly anti-war platform, and France actually joined German opposition.

But in the sphere of European diplomacy, and commentary thereabouts, none of that is expected to deter Dubya or his acolytes from their laserlike focus on the eeeeeevil French.

Update: Just heard on the BBC that the German official named in the documents is denying everything and threatening a libel suit.