>
> Can somebody tell me about this guy? The name rings a very faint bell, but
> he's only in my consciousness at present because apparently he wrote a piece
> in Le Monde about his experiences in Georgia that turned out to be complete
> fabrication (http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/Article.aspx?id=2645 )
>
I have loads of material about BHL in my upcoming book, *The Liberal Defense of Murder*. He's authentic ruling class, loaded to the hilt, has several mansions, and is deeply imbricated with the PS-wing of the French political class. He spent his early years as a marxist of some stripe under the influence of Louis Althusser, before deciding to become an 'antitotalitarian' when much of the French left was freaking out about the Union of the Left and praising Alexander Solzhenitsyn beyond all proportion. He cozied up to the Mitterrand administration in the early 1980s, helping to form SOS Racisme, a vacuous anti-racist organisation with strong ties to the Socialist Party. He has always defended US imperialism, and co-signed an appeal on behalf of the Contras. He has had some years of involvement in Afghan politics, including an intriguing romance of sorts with Ahmed Shah Massoud of the Northern Alliance, and was sent by Paris as an envoy to the country in 2002. He was also one of Izetbegovic's main PR agents in France. His main brief today is to be a figurehead for the 'anti-anti-American' tendency in France, berating critics of Israel as antisemitic, championing a front against the 'new totalitarianism' in the form of Political Islam, and helping to drive the Socialist Party further to the right.
What more do you want to know?