A controversial French writer is putting the final touches on a book about the Persian Gulf.. with the help of Iran. Pierre Péan, that’s his name, has already written a book on Qatar which has not kept its promises and was a failure in bookstores.
Curiously, two months after the release of this disappointing book (where it was more a question of former President Nicolas Sarkozy than of Qatar!) the 76 years old author decides to attack again … in Gabon this time. Already many, many years, he had tried to destabilize the regime of late President El Hadj Omar Bongo.
Today, he takes his son Ali Bongo, a well known and respected figure in the Arab world (especially in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates), Europe and the USA (U.S. diplomacy considers Ali Bongo as one of the best international policy experts on Africa and also as a rampart against terrorism in the Black Continent).
In a book without proofs, based on rumours spread by regime opponents, “The New African Affairs” (« les Nouvelles Affaires Africaines »), writes the Jeune Afrique weekly, “Pierre Péan wrote a book too much!”
The controversy will grow because French justice has been seized by the Gabonese state. But, what throws more trouble is that a lebanese intermediary, pursued by the French justice, Ziad Takieddine had proposed an « arrangement » to prevent the book from being published against 10 million euros to be paid in Switzerland. The reputed news website Mediapart had access to the file. When reporters asked Pierre Péan about the « arrangement », he responded: “If it comes out, I shall be condemned”! Curious admission, especially as Ziad TAKKIEDINE was one of the key informants of Pierre Péan for one of his other books! (See the article by Mediapart).
Professional, diplomatic and intelligence have always been intrigued by the “investigations” of Pierre Péan.
Thus, after the attack of September 19, 1989, which destroyed the French UTA DC 10 plane, while all the evidence was pointint to Libya, Péan had released two books seeking to exonerate Gaddafi.
At the time, Péan had links to Ghaddafi’s cousin, Ahmed Khaddafeddam. The latter was then special envoy of his cousin, the head of the Libyan state. But the person who opened Libya’s doors to Péan was Roland Dumas, former French Foreign Minister and counsel for the Libyans. They had, on advice of Dumas and Kaddafeddam, invited Péan to Tripoli. Later, the Libyans had organized for him two trips to Central Africa and Niger « in to gather more information ». To carry out this mission, they had commissioned a head of Libya’s Revolutionary Committees, Ali Al-Sahli. Al-Sahli, who hab been Libya’s Chargé d’affairs in Paris for six years, then ambassador in Central Africa. Another person who was played a role in Péan’s mission was Abdullah Senussi, suspected of being involved in the logistics of the terrorist attack against UTA plane.
African sources who had met Péan provided the necessary information he needed to complete his investigations. And from there, deny all elements of Libyan involvement in the case, and certifiying that all contary evidence were assembled, according to him, entirely by the French services and by judges appointed by the French government of the time. That is why his book – much appreciated by Gaddafi in person and heavily criticized by the government in Paris was entitled “UTA Flight 772 investigation against an attack attributed to Kadhafi »- Editions stock, the collection alive”.
Corroborating Libyan sources including Colonel Mohamed Majzoub, now deceased, did not know what benefits Péan had made, if any, for writing his first book, or for the second entitled “African Operations: the attack against the UTA DC-10” – Editions Plon published in 2001.
As to the first book, Kaddafeddam Ahmed told several Arab sources that Pean had received a « proposal » of “support” for his research. Péan has always said that he refused any support.
All international investigations have since confirmed that Libya was responsible for this heinous attack.
The Gaddafi Foundation, headed by Gaddafi’s son, had even offered compensations for the victims.
By a curious turn of fate Péan now supports a new “opponent” to President Ali Bongo, Jean Ping, Gabon’s former Foreign Minister and former President of the African Union. In his latest book, Jean Ping regrets and condemns the Coalition (France, USA, England, Arab Countries) which eliminated Gaddafi!
The process has come full circle, or so it seems to journalists, diplomats and to Western and Arab Intelligence services!