Excerpted from: URL: http://www.oss.net/zhi/95-7-oss OSS Notices, July, 1995 France Identifies USA as "Main Adversary" The following material is so important that we have chosen to reprint it in its entirety from Intelligence Newsletter, which we continue to recommend highly. Call them at (33 1) 44 88 26 10 for a sample issue or to order your subscription. FRANCE: Ringing the Alarm Bells "For the first time in France, a boss of the country's Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) spoke in public at a seminar on the theme "Companies and Business Intelligence" that was laid on by the Institute des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale (IHEDN) at the French Senate on July 4. As he himself declared on the occasion, Philippe Parant agreed to speak out 'despite the special nature' of his functions in order to alert French business circles of the dangers of 'economic warfare'. To be sure, the main aim of the gathering which drew a full house was to ring the alarm bell. According to Gen. Bernard Norlain, head of IHEDN, economic warfare now forms part and parcel of 'an overall approach to defence'. IHEDN will dispense a course on business intelligence to 30 high-level trainees in the fall. "Most of those who spoke at the seminar identified the U.S. as both the main adversary in the war and the best model of how it is fought. This was especially the case of Francois David, head of French export credit guarantee agency COFACE who said the only response to the U.S. 'could be European' in scale. Elsewhere, Remy Pautrat, deputy dead of France's Secretariat General de la Defense Nationale (SGDN) paid tribute to the French president for signing a decree on April 1 that gave birth to a Comite pour la Competitivite et la Security Economique under the authority of the French Prime Minister. Pautrat said the Committee formed "the nerve center of a more ambitious system" that was currently being set up, partly in secret." FRANCE-the DST's New Defences "During the seminar cited above DST chief Philippe Parant reckoned that economic, scientific, and industrial espionage had increased considerably over the past few years. It now accounted for 60% of cases that come to the authorities' attention compared to 40% for political, diplomatic, and military spying. Methods had also changed because state-sponsored espionage had increasingly taken a back seat to a type practices by private intelligence companies, international audit firms, head-hunter concerns, as well as insurance and reinsurance companies. Parant said that effective defence against the onslaught could not come from government services alone. "If that were the case the game would be lost in advance," he declared. He suggested that as many staff as possible in big companies be made aware of business intelligence concerns. In addition he called for "genuine information-management training in engineering universities." For maximum impact, he said, such training should not be dispensed by security services but rather by specialists in each specific discipline." L'Expansion Cover Story With the above background in mind, we can now better understand the cover story in L'Expansion of 10-18 July 1995. This prestigious journal, widely regarded as the French equivalent of Forbes, Fortune, and Business Week, appears to have been manipulated by French civilian intelligence and self-promoting private sector business intelligence activities. The cover story of L'Expansion is nothing less than a call to arms for the French business community, and the opening declaration of war on the United States of America. Unfortunately, this article was very likely drafted in active cooperation with French civilian intelligence experts, and should be considered a "covert media placement". I have taken a personal interest in the article because it links me with President William Clinton, Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch, and the founder of Kroll Associates, Jules Kroll. I am honored. Sadly, the article, while identifying me as the apostle of open source intelligence, is gravely in error when it identifies me as the linch-pin for a new covert strategy to undermine the French economy, and also alleges that I have been actively discouraged from implanting myself in France by the French authorities. There are three "realities" that need to be explored here. First, there is a budget battle going on in France, and the French civilian intelligence services are doing everything they can to "hype" the threat and obtain increased manning and funding. This should not surprise us, but the apparent subversion of the previously prestigious journal L'Expansion to the desires of French civilian intelligence, is cause for concern. Second, my sources in France tell me that the larger French companies, especially those in the defense sector, do not take this threat seriously because they are much superior to U.S. companies at the business of industrial espionage. A very well-informed source has suggested to me that this cover story is the result of an alliance between French civilian intelligence (attempting to increase its budget) and General Pichot-Duclos of INTELCO, who is attempting to increase his business practice among the small businesses in France foolish enough to believe in this exaggerated threat. Finally, for the record, I wish to note that I was invited to France by Mr. Francois Leotard, the Minister of Defense, with the explicit approval of Prime Minister Balladur, in order to join Admiral Pierre Lacoste, General Jean Heinrich, and General Jeannou Lacaze in speaking to a very select group of 300 French leaders from government, industry, and the academy on 23 October 1993. We spoke about the need to reinvent intelligence and significantly increase reliance on open sources. The presentations that these distinguished flag officers and I made have been published in a book called Defence and Intelligence, available (in French) from Editions L'Harmattan, 5-7, rue de l'Ecole-Polytechnique, 7500 5 Paris. Robert D. Steele, Publisher Open sources Solutions, Inc. International Public Information Clearinghouse 11005 Langton Arms Court, Oakton, Virginia 22124-1807