WikiLeaks
All major
French political parties were targeted for infiltration by the CIA's
human ("HUMINT") and electronic ("SIGINT") spies
in the seven months leading up to France's 2012 presidential
election. The revelations are contained within three CIA tasking
orders published today by WikiLeaks as context for its forth coming
CIA Vault 7 series. Named specifically as targets are the French
Socialist Party (PS), the National Front (FN) and Union for a Popular
Movement (UMP) together with current President Francois Hollande,
then President Nicolas Sarkozy, current round one presidential front
runner Marine Le Pen, and former presidential candidates Martine
Aubry and Dominique Strauss-Khan.
The CIA
assessed that President Sarkozy's party was not assured re-election.
Specific tasking concerning his party included obtaining the
"Strategic Election Plans" of the Union for a Popular
Movement (UMP); schisms or alliances developing in the UMP elite;
private UMP reactions to Sarkozy's campaign stratagies; discussions
within the UMP on any "perceived vulnerabilities to maintaining
power" after the election; efforts to change the party's
ideological mission; and discussions about Sarkozy's support for the
UMP and "the value he places on the continuation of the party's
dominance". Specific instructions tasked CIA officers to
discover Sarkozy's private deliberations "on the other
candidates" as well as how he interacted with his advisors.
Sarkozy's earlier self-identification as "Sarkozy the American"
did not protect him from US espionage in the 2012 election or during
his presidency.
The
espionage order for "Non Ruling Political Parties and Candidates
Strategic Election Plans" which targeted Francois Holland,
Marine Le Pen and other opposition figures requires obtaining
opposition parties' strategies for the election; information on
internal party dynamics and rising leaders; efforts to influence and
implement political decisions; support from local government
officials, government elites or business elites; views of the United
States; efforts to reach out to other countries, including Germany,
U.K., Libya, Israel, Palestine, Syria & Cote d'Ivoire; as well as
information about party and candidate funding.
Significantly,
two CIA opposition espionage tasks, "What policies do they
promote to help boost France's economic growth prospects?" and
"What are their opinions on the German model of export-led
growth?" resonate with a U.S. economic espionage order from the
same year. That order requires obtaining details of every prospective
French export contract or deal valued at $200m or more.
The
opposition espionage order also places weight on obtaining the
candidates' attitudes to the E.U's economic crisis, centering around
their position on the Greek debt crisis; the role of France and
Germany in the management of the Greek debt crisis; the vulnerability
of French government and French banks to a Greek default; and
"specific proposals and recommendations" to deal with "the
euro-zone crisis".
The CIA
espionage orders published today are classified and restricted to
U.S. eyes only ("NOFORN") due to "Friends-on-Friends
sensitivities". The orders state that the collected information
is to "support" the activities of the CIA, the Defence
Intelligence Agency (DIA)'s E.U section, and the U.S. State
Department's Intelligence and Research Branch.
The CIA
operation ran for ten months from 21 Nov 2011 to 29 Sep 2012,
crossing the April-May 2012 French presidential election and several
months into the formation of the new government.
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