Posted on 11/12/2006 2:29:07 AM PST by MadIvan
French intelligence chiefs yesterday faced embarrassment after it emerged that £18m from a secret emergency war chest had gone missing and that some of it may have been spent on what one spymaster called “dancing girls”, writes Matthew Campbell.
Judges investigating a separate affair learnt of the missing funds from a note written by General Philippe Rondot, a former intelligence chief, to Michèle Alliot-Marie, the defence minister, in 2002.
It mentions a “serious breakdown in the management of special funds allotted to the service”. The money was part of a fund established secretly after the second world war. It was maintained during the cold war to finance a French state in exile if the country were ever invaded by the Soviets.
According to Le Parisien newspaper, the money was controlled by a handful of agents. No records were kept and details of bank accounts around the world were passed to successors only by word of mouth.
The money was supposed to be available “in case of crises or major operations to be undertaken urgently”, Rondot wrote, “and not to entertain the dancing girls of a few out-of-control contacts of the DGSE” (the French overseas intelligence service).
Rondot’s notes were seized by judges investigating the Clearstream affair, which came to light when an anonymous letter gave details of supposed payments made through a clearing house to French officials including Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and likely centre right presidential candidate in next year’s elections.
The details turned out to have been fabricated, however, and the judges, who questioned Alliot-Marie on Friday, were trying to determine if Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, tried to use the affair to discredit Sarkozy, his chief political rival.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
That explains why the French military can only afford used bed sheets to surrender with.
yeesh! and if the French French are anything like the Quebec French anything that walks the street and swivels her butt at passing cars is a 'dancer'. (told hubby in the U.S. we call 'em Ho's.) lol
"Rondot’s notes were seized by judges investigating the Clearstream affair, which came to light when an anonymous letter gave details of supposed payments made through a clearing house to French officials including Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and likely centre right presidential candidate in next year’s elections.
The details turned out to have been fabricated, however, and the judges, who questioned Alliot-Marie on Friday, were trying to determine if Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, tried to use the affair to discredit Sarkozy, his chief political rival.
At this time of the night during the Saturday night of the weekend, you have to spell it out for us.
So all this was fabricated?
After all, the French are all about love!
/ sarc
Regards, Ivan
"All the girls in Paris France
Love to do the Can Can Dance
Kick their legs up in the air
Shake, shake, shake their derrier
"...Then from pauper up to king
Everybody starts to sing:
Ta-la-la-boom-dee-ay,
Ta-la-la...."
It shows how much you think you know.
For just a man, I don't sing.
I'm the new found royalty of the socialist wing.
I'm reformed don't you know?
Our gate swings both ways
like the French wind blows.
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