- Mar 13, 2002
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In French Deck, Bush Is King of Diamonds
Thu Sep 25, 8:57 PM ET
PARIS - The ace of spades? Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gets the honor in a new French deck of cards. President Bush (news - web sites) is the king of diamonds and Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) the joker. The game takes a jab at the famous deck of cards created for U.S. soldiers hunting down ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and other leaders from the deposed regime.
"I found it completely indecent to present a manhunt as a game," said Thierry Meyssan, the man behind the French deck. "We thought this card game would allow us to ... explain why we consider the government of George Bush a threat to international security."
Meyssan is the author of a one-time French best seller, "9-11: The Big Lie," claiming that no plane ever crashed into the Pentagon (news - web sites) on Sept. 11, and that the attacks were plotted by a faction within the U.S. military.
Now, Meyssan said in a telephone interview, he wants to expose "the 52 most dangerous American officials."
Meyssan heads the Voltaire Network, a left-wing association that put the cards on its Internet site.
A little over 2,500 decks a la francaise have been sold, at $9.20 each, on the Internet in recent weeks, Meyssan said. There are plans to sell the decks in stores soon and translate them into 10 languages, he said.
Each card carries a photo of the official and a text explaining the choice. Bush, as the king of diamonds, is described as "the president of a baseball club."
