According to a Monday report in the French website “Arret sur Images,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama meet in a private room after facing reporters for a G20 press conference on Thursday. While in a private discussion, microphones were left on.
The conversation is reported to begin with President Obama criticizing Sarkozy for failure to warn him that France would be voting in favor of the Palestinian membership bid in UNESCO. The United States opposed the bid.
Next, with microphones accidently left on, President Sarkozy admits he ‘can’t stand’ Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, “I cannot stand him. He is a liar.” Obama replies, “You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day!”
Journalists were refraining from releasing the content of the conversation due to rules of journalistic conduct, but after the leak from Arret su Images, several jouranlists have confirmed the conversation.
Speaking to U.S. media on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said, “Things do come out.”
The news of the open mic leak is released the same 24-hour period that media releases preview news from the IAEA of alleged advanced nuclear warhead work by Iran with the help of a former Soviet scientist. The UN’s nuclear watchdog IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) is expected to publish news that will identify a suspected site where nuclear warhead components have been tested.
The report Wednesday from the Vienna-based IAEA Director General cited “Possible Military Dimensions” including activities relevant to development of a nuclear explosive device: efforts to procure nuclear related and dual use equipment and materials by military related individuals and entities, efforts to develop undeclared pathways for the production of nuclear material, acquisition of nuclear weapons development information and documentation from a clandestine nuclear supply network, work on development of an indigenous design of a nuclear weapon including the testing of components.
The information also included details about integration of a new spherical payload into the existing payload chamber that would be mounted in the re-entry vehicle of the Shahab 3 missile. The work, known as Project 111, is alleged to have been conducted in 2002 and 2003.
The Shahab-3 has a range of 1,280 kilometres (800 mi); a MRBM variant can now reach 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi). Shabab-3 was tested from 1998 to 2003 and added to the military arsenal on July 7, 2003, with an official unveiling by Ayatollah Khamenei on July 20. The distance from Tehran, Iran to Tel Aviv, Israel is less than 1,000 miles.
About Arret su Images
Arret su Images (translated Freeze Frame) was created by Daniel Schneidermann — a French journalist, born in Paris on April 5, 1958, who focuses on the analysis of televised media. Schneidermann has written weekly columns in Le Monde and in Libération, and on a television show: “Arrêt sur images” (“Freeze-frame”), broadcast by the public TV channel France 5. The television show version of Arret su Images was terminated in 2007 by France 5. Following cancellation of the television show, the Arret Sur Images web site ws created.
See also …
http://www.arretsurimages.net