Correction, please!

Gaul and Wormwood

ITEM: At a Franco-African summit, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe "told French radio he 'felt at home' in Paris and praised French President Jacques Chirac for inviting him," reported the South African Press Association on February 21st. Mugabe told Radio France Internationale: "We leave with a very good impression of France." Said Mugabe of the French leader, "He put his foot down on principle."

CORRECTION: Actually, both Jacques Chirac and Robert Mugabe have stomped on principles. In this case, Mugabe gave Paris the appearance of being a power broker attempting to fix the crisis in Zimbabwe, while providing cover for Chirac by siding with the French position on Iraq.

By harassing, arresting, and torturing political opponents, holding Stalinesque show trials, and seizing almost all of the country's commercial farms, Mugabe has brought Zimbabwe down to the point where about eight million Zimbabweans face famine. Last year, the European Union imposed travel bans "against Mugabe and his coterie of thugs and thieves," reported Melbourne's Age, "in protest over election rioting and an orgy of state-sponsored terror. Chirac is shredding that principled stand' having welcomed the Zimbabwean despite those restrictions.

The despot probably did feel at home in France. When a formal request was filed for the arrest of Mugabe, under French anti-torture laws, the complainant was arrested. Meanwhile, British media took note of the dictator's wife, 40 years his junior, going on a spree of Parisian boutiques -- sporting [pounds sterling]180 sunglasses and a [pounds sterling]25,000 Rolex, while staying with the president in a [pounds sterling]10,000-a-night, 33-room suite.

Developing Alien Nation

ITEM: "Whether the United States has a problem with illegal immigration may be largely a matter of the way one defines the term," contends United Press International for February 4th. UPI continues: "'If the question of terrorism is removed from the equation, there really isn't one,' says Assistant Professor Mark Bauer of the Chicago Kent College of Law. The professor continued: 'No one knows what immigration policy should be.... One of our closest allies is Mexico.... When you're dealing with allies, you have to watch the implications of what you're doing.'"