By Philippe Madelin | Journaliste | 07/10/2009 | 10H58
An observation about my colleagues talking about a witness, Rondot, at the Clearstream trial. It is horrifying to hear the journalists, including radio, on a repeating loop: "General Rondot, the master spy".
We can talk about master spy Vetrov or Commander Paul in the Farewell affair. Not for Rondot, who began his "spy" career by getting fired from the SDECE for carelessness when stationed in Bucharest, before being rehired by Pierre Joxe as an advisor at the Ministry of Defense.
The least of his errors were of little note throughout his life, taking notes in order to compile a service history of army.
Moreover, by his own admission, Rondot dislikes being called a spy; he prefers "intelligence officer". Do his colleagues really know the difference?
In the process, they relate a series of exploits. Including the arrest of "Illich Ramirez Sanchez, alias Carlos to Khartoum. Forgetting to clarify that Carlos has been rolled by the CIA to the former DST, the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance.
Banned from foreign missions, the DST could not lead an open operation.
Never mind: the DST tasked Rondot with covering the operation. The Sudanese secret service, glad to get rid of Carlos, crammed him with sleeping pills. In other words, "Carlos the Jackal" was delivered, bound hand and foot, for French officers to come and pick him up.
The 'official' version is typical of this curious general. Most exploits about Rondot draw from the same barrel. He has extensively popularized his role without worrying too much about evidence.
Suggesting that only he could succeed where the whole team failed.
The secret account of Chirac in Japan
Ok, one last thing for the road: the case of Chirac's secret account in Japan. Concerned about his police career, Rondot was the main informant for the press in this case. The Chirac account has even been investigated in Japan, he said. Which is possible, too. He found nothing consistent, while suggesting that there was a catch.
But, as Nicolas Beau reported in Bakhich info, when Rondot was interviewed 3rd June by Jean Francois Redonnet, a judge from Tahiti, and asked to clarify his thinking, Rondot agreed (in minutes) that he held no credible evidence. Nicolas Beau wrote:
"[Questions from the judge] are accurate, point by point, against the digressions and smokescreens of the visibly embarrassed General. So, the questioning turns assassin for Rondot who recants, contradicts himself and fails to provide any consistency as to his role in this affair over a Japanese account .
The judge tries, ten years after the fact, to discover the cause of a possible assassination of journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud, who was investigating the assets of Flosse and Chirac in Japan. "
Nicolas Beau deservers even more credit for publishing this information as he was himself a great paragon of this secret Japanese account affair, devoting an entire book.
If you read the detailed account of the Clearstream trial by Pascal Junghans in The Tribune this Monday, October 5, you will find that Rondot continues to show fuzzy, uncertain, contradictory evidence, based on his own notes which have little legal value.
So when we called Rondot Master Spy, it is necessary to question the journalists who continue to follow the same legend.
It is true that "Master Spy" sounds better than "intelligence officer".
Read also Rue89 and Eco89
Elsewhere on the Web
- ► Rondot, a master spy trial Clearstream on LeFigaro.fr
- ► Clearstream Trials: the master spy charge Villepin, on the Dépêche.fr
- ► Clearstream: a master spy waiting at the bar on LeParisien.fr
No comments:
Post a Comment