SUNDAY TIMES June 25 2000 EUROPE French spymaster revels in publishing the truth Tony Allen-Mills, Paris IF Dame Stella Rimington wants advice on how to deal with the political storms that greeted her decision to publish her memoirs, the former head of MI5 should contact Pierre Marion, a retired French spymaster with a taste for literary indiscretion. Marion's last book caused a stir; his next may cause a sensation. While British security circles agonise over Rimington's plan, the former head of the French version of MI6 is happily embarking on his third book while the writs are still flying around the second. "I'm not fond of secrecy," Marion, 79, declared last week. "There is nothing difficult or dangerous about a spy chief speaking his mind." He has driven a coach and horses through the long-established convention in France that books by senior bureaucrats should be too dull for anyone to read. In his last, Memoirs of the Shadows, Marion launched a scathing attack on his former boss, the late President François Mitterrand, depicting him as a corrupt schemer who used the secret services to protect his mistress and his illegitimate daughter, Mazarine Pingeot. The book, published last autumn, has sold 60,000 copies - rare for a political volume - and provoked Pingeot into issuing a writ on behalf of her dead father. A court of appeal is due to rule on the case this week. Undaunted, Marion is pressing ahead with a potentially explosive new book on the long-veiled secrets of French freemasonry, nine years after publishing his first volume of memoirs, Mission Impossible. In a Paris hotel bar last week, he spoke with startling candour about his 18 months at the heart of the French intelligence structure in the early 1980s. It is difficult to imagine any senior British official publicly admitting to planning the assassination of foreign diplomats, yet that was only one of Marion's revelations from his time as head of the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), the French counter-intelligence agency. After a successful career as an aerospace executive with good security contacts, Marion was recommended to Mitterrand in 1981 for a job that none of the new Socialist president's left-wing supporters would touch. "I was an industrialist, not a politician," Marion said. "But I had plenty of international experience, I was sympathetic to the left and I had a small reputation as a tough guy." Disillusionment set in fast. In Memoirs of the Shadows, Marion recounts his bitter disappointment as Mitterrand, already suffering secretly from cancer, began to demand that the security services monitor his many enemies. "He wanted us to run spying operations on French citizens, not for national security but for the security of his mistress and his daughter." For a man who had been struggling to persuade the president to crack down on Syrian- inspired terrorism - and whose agents had targeted Syrian diplomats for retaliatory assassination - nursemaiding the president's child was not an appealing prospect. When his book was published, with copious references to Mitterrand's "egocentrism and cynicism", and the president's "strategy of lies", it attracted an unusual writ from Pingeot, who claimed to have identified 25 passages that were "prejudicial" or defamatory to both her father and his family. She demanded that the offending passages be excised and sought £100,000 in damages. In a court hearing, Pingeot's lawyer argued that Marion was consumed by rancour and bitterness and had attacked someone who could not defend himself. Marion's lawyers relied on the standard legal defence that it was impossible to libel a dead man. Intriguingly, nobody in France suggested it was inappropriate for a former guardian of the country's secrets to be spilling the beans in public. Critics noted that Marion was far from the first spy chief to write his memoirs. The court dismissed Pingeot's claim with costs against her. The court ruled that defamation of a dead man could be redressed in court only if it was proved that the heirs were also defamed. "It has never been shown that the author intended to injure Pingeot's honour," the ruling said. Marion had merely been participating in public debate about the personality and actions of the former head of state. Pingeot appealed at once. Last week Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, urged Rimington to think again about publishing her memoirs for security reasons. Yet it has never been suggested in France that Marion might have compromised national security. "The danger is that, like the British, you get into the habit of not speaking," he said. "But citizens need to understand what the secret world involves." Tape recordings made by a former model and actress who claims to have been Mitterrand's favourite astrologer were released yesterday. Elisabeth Teissier said he had phoned her regularly between 1989 and 1995 before taking big decisions. Mitterrand is heard to ask before the 1991 Gulf war for advice on when he should make a public speech. "Which is the best day to speak? Can you check for me?" he says. Teissier says that she often taped the conversations with Mitterrand's approval - and that subjects covered also included France's relations with the then crumbling Soviet Union. Additional reporting: Sylvie Deroche <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html <A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
