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| Europe |
| The French Have Saved Us. (No, really!) |
| 2004-12-10 |
| "Don't think because nothing hit New York, nothing was tried," says Swetnam, who used to be a CIA officer and a special consultant to the first President Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. "Plenty was tried, but everything was thwarted. And this might surprise you, but French intelligence was key." There have been at least four attempts uncovered in the past two years to strike the U.S., he says, including specific attacks on New York, but the plans were intercepted and the operations preempted. "The last one was a big attempt to strike our financial centers. A year before that, they were putting together a ricin attack. Both attacks were planned and staged from Great Britain," says Swetnam. Also, adds Redlener, "attacks on American and international schools overseas have been detected in advance and prevented." How is that possible, when the CIA's intelligence-gathering is supposedly in a shambles? Because of good friends in shadowy places. "The French intelligence services have been just phenomenal," says Swetnam. "We wouldn't have captured those cells in Great Britain if it wasn't for the French, as well as the British and Germans." Even the ISI—Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which once used drug money to help finance the Taliban in Afghanistan—has become a crucial U.S. partner in the spy game. "They're really a bad intelligence service, in terms of morals, but really effective," says Swetnam. |
| Posted by:Chuck |
| #10 Okay, I'll bite - iff this article bodes true then what is CHIRAC doing, or hoping to accomplish, with his virulent anti-Ameicanisms!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2004-12-10 9:03:57 PM |
| #9 Thank Frank Church (may he rot in hell) and his commission As though Boy Scouts would know about the bad stuff coming down. Luckily the rest of the world isn't so naive. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-12-10 3:20:06 PM |
| #8 And they are not hamstrung by Church Committee fallout / insanity... IIUC, our CIA is even officially proscribed from bribing officials of any government. Hell, if followed, that puts 95% - oh, okay, 99% - of the world off-limits to effective intel. Sigh. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-12-10 3:17:23 PM |
| #7 France does an excellent job in identifying and deterring and handling domestic threats. Their security forces are far better organized than ours and their judges have vastly more power than the most hysterical anti-Patriot Act idjets can even imagine. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-12-10 3:07:51 PM |
| #6 A hearty thank you, then, to that part of the French government that values results over posturing. So, does this begin to make up for their forged Nigerian yellowcake documents? (The ones that Wilson made such a fuss about?) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-12-10 11:57:53 AM |
| #5 Anybody that blows up a Greenpeace ship can't be all bad. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-12-10 11:33:35 AM |
| #4 I just hope that, now that the story has been broken, the French spooks don't get in trouble for helping us! I'm only half kidding. |
| Posted by: Justrand 2004-12-10 10:43:05 AM |
| #3 I think that the American problem is that civilians, bureaucrats, political leaders and the intelligence community have lost touch with what spying is all about. By their Cold War definition, spying is about "gathering information". But while important, there is a lot more to spying than this. Going back to bibical times, spies were assassins, saboteurs, fifth columnists, agents provacateurs, *and* gatherers of information. In truth, they are "expendable", and never to be trusted fully. They exist in the shadows and should never be allowed to stand in the corridors of power. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-12-10 10:25:39 AM |
| #2 This should be no surprise: having a first class covert intelligence service is probably the most prudent thing to have if they can't afford a REAL military force. Fits right in with their character... All snarkiness aside, I thank the French spooks. I can hope Old Patriot has a few French contacts and can pass those thanks along. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-12-10 10:12:40 AM |
| #1 That's prolly cuz they don't have the ALCU and other "patriotic" groups whining whenever they come out of their offices to investigate things. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2004-12-10 9:37:44 AM |