Interesting the way you talk about "US companies" and "Russia" and "France" rather than "Russian companies" and "French companies".

I saw a few weeks ago a TV program mentionning "German companies" that went on selling devices during the embargo.
One interviewed (an arab businessman) said companies from 22 countries (US included) have been dealing with Iraq since Saddam came to power.

Also, before this war, Iraq was exporting more oil to the US than to France (of course, there are 4 to 5 times more americans, too).

About the universal competence, well, an anecdote: seeing that the TV was going to show a debate about this, I sent a question through the internet and my question and my name were read out loud by the presentator: "Imagine Iraqi victims would sue Bush. What happens to the relations with the US?" They answered those claims would be filtered. 2 weeks later, bang...Iraqi families sue Bush father for the first Gulf war. One of the promoters of this law said : "this kills the law as it never was meant to be politicized" and here we are with an obvious case of political initiative.
I wish this law were abandoned as quickly as possible.

Raoul