All powers need to anticipate their decisions by obtaining information. Modern technological means have increased their collection to increase their collection. “The world” devotes a special issue there.
by Michel Lefebvre
When the Snowden affair broke out, in 2013, around the world, the amazement gives way to concern, then to anger. The United States, thanks to its big ears, listened to everyone and everyone to defend their strategic and economic interests. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, then is surprised, with great naivety, which one can be spared between allies. More than thirty years earlier, the France of a newly elected François Mitterrand in 1981 had immediately informed US President Ronald Reagan of the miraculous recruitment of a KGB agent, Vladimir Vetrov, code name “Farewell”, by the counter -French spying. The information provided by this source made it possible to reveal the extent of the looting of industrial technologies by the Soviet Union since its creation. Still naivety.
Just as when revealed by an Scottish journalist, in 1988, the existence of the Echelon network, set up by sealed agreements from 1945 between the United States and their privileged allies, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and United Kingdom, the famous “Five Eyes”, to intercept the communications of their enemies, as well as their “friends”. Naivety always.
During the Second World War, the British, well helped by the French secret services, obtained essential information thanks to the decryption of the Nazi machines Enigma. However, they have been careful not to communicate to the Soviets all the secrets of interceptions. But Stalin obtained them from his infiltrated agents at the heart of British espionage, led by Kim Philby.
all -round recruitments
In the intelligence world, there are no friends: there are partners, a day allies who can prove to be opponents in other circumstances. In the war in Ukraine, it is a safe bet that the secret services of all the countries involved act within the underlap; The decoding of the bent by historians will come later. Just like for the mysterious Chinese balloons or the deadly epidemic that kills the Russian oligarchs. All powers, from ancient tribes to large companies, including states, need to anticipate their decisions by obtaining information, in legality or not.
Modern technological means have increased the intelligence collection and complexified its analysis, but legitimate violence and its “permit to kill”, which are in principle the monopoly of states, remain a weapon for secret services around the world. Budget above, all -round recruitments: French services, faced with the moving evolution of terrorist, state and cyber threats, and faced with geopolitical uncertainty, do everything to try to adapt and hold their rank in wars of the shadow.
