Last week I posted the full-text of the latest press release from the pranksters who had the world (if but for a moment) believing that France intended to repay the billions of dollars they extorted from Haiti in the 19th century, where C.R.I.M.E. stated that an alleged official from the French foreign ministry, believed to be one Olivier Poudade, placed a threatening phone call to the hoaxsters spokesperson, 'Laurence Fabre.'
Save for our colleagues over at Pacific Free Press, the allegations have been all but ignored by the English-speaking Western media. A member of the French media, however, questioned the foreign ministry about the allegations this week. My google-translation of the original exchange has the questioner stating Poudade "reportedly threatened those responsible for the false report, including the spokesman CRIME Laurence Fabre, having to personally pay for dissemination thereof and risking arrest. [Have] there been such calls? Have they been punished? What is your comment?"
The response from the Ministry:
"I am not aware of any official intervention of one of our colleagues from the authors of this hoax. To hide nothing from you, fake websites fake Twitter messages, plagiarism in hoaxes, I do not know where is the reality in this case. I work to check the foundations. In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European studies all the devices and legal remedies available to it in response to the misuse and fraud of its image and identity theft have been implemented by the agency claiming the operation this website."
If this website offers any indication of how seriously France is taking the matter, according to google-analytics, they've been the single most frequent visitor to the WOD in the last week:
The Paris-based website Rue89 has been tracking the issue, reporting that Poudade has not responded to their e-mail queries, pointing out that the ministry has neither confirmed nor denied that he had gone rogue and threatened the hoaxsters.
The important thing is that Haiti's debt remains unpaid; we'll track the story until the matter is resolved...