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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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 Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:57 am Post subject: |
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French Asylum Plea Has U.S. Asking Painful Questions
By Paul F. Horvitz International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, November 19, 1991
When espionage occurs between such otherwise friendly governments as France and the United States, the political wounds might be expected to heal in time.
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But in the case of Maria Lamant and her daughter, Isabelle, the political wound may be reopening, largely because of the human factor.
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Two years ago, Mrs. Lamant was accused of using her job at the U.S. Embassy in Paris to spy for France against the United States. This year, her daughter and son-in-law fled France and filed a petition for political asylum in the United States, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has confirmed.
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Now, a trans-Atlantic feud between mother and daughter has turned vengeful, and the asylum petition may have placed the U.S. government in the awkward position of having to determine whether France is capable of wiretapping and harassing two of its own citizens.
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Mrs. Lamant said in an interview that the U.S. Embassy falsely accused her in February 1989 of spying for the French secret services. After 32 years working in a trusted role for the Americans, she resigned.
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Her daughter, Isabelle Blanc, 34, and Isabelle's husband, Yves, 43, left France in March in frustration and anger. In Washington, the Blancs contend that Mrs. Lamant was a spy and that they were subjected to intense surveillance, intimidation and attempts at blackmail after February 1989 by the French secret services.
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They say the French acted because Mrs. Blanc, herself a former employee at the Paris embassy, knew of her mother's activities but repeatedly refused to work for the French spy agency, instead helping the Americans confirm their suspicions about her mother.
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The Blancs concede that they can supply no unequivocal proof of harassment or wiretapping. They recently protested in front of the French Embassy in Washington, and they have contacted French and American journalists to tell their story.
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Washington's approval of their asylum request would mean that the Blancs have, as U.S. law states, a "well-founded fear" of persecution. A decision is expected before the end of the year. Only once in the last decade has the United States granted asylum to a French citizen, but the details could not be learned.
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In interviews, Mrs. Lamant, 57, has accused her daughter and son-in-law of being "mentally sick," and she says the story that her daughter tells of espionage is "completely in her imagination." Mrs. Lamant, who for years worked in the travel section of the embassy's personnel office, denies having worked as a spy.
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The U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation refused to comment on the assertions of the Blancs or on the reasons for Mrs. Lamant's resignation. A spokesman for the French Embassy in Washington said there would be no comment from the French government. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Paris said there would be no comment on security matters.
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However, Harry Brandon, deputy assistant FBI director in the intelligence division, confirmed in an interview that a travel coordinator who passed secrets to the French spy agency left the Paris embassy in recent years. Mr. Brandon declined to discuss Mrs. Lamant or Mrs. Blanc, except to confirm that both used to work at the embassy. Referring to the unnamed embassy spy and to reports last year of French industrial spying against U.S. companies, Mr. Brandon said: "We have a good professional relationship with our French counterparts. If there have been problems in the past, we hope that's behind us. It strains the relationship when something like this happens."
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The International Herald Tribune has learned independently of Washington officials that the travel coordinator referred to by the FBI is Mrs. Lamant.
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For more than a decade, Mrs. Lamant's duties at the embassy included acting as an official U.S. hostess for visiting American VIPs, including cabinet officials, senators and representatives.
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She says she has "hundreds" of laudatory letters from prominent American politicians and high-ranking officials who visited Paris.
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Her duties included staffing a "control room" at the Paris hotels where these American officials stayed and handling their travel and entertainment needs. She often had access to their hotel suites.
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In interviews, Mrs. Blanc contends that when she was 10 years old, her mother told her that she was spying on Americans.
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Mrs. Blanc says that in 1989, soon after both had resigned from the embassy, her mother described how she had purloined U.S. documents from the embassy building and from the hotel suites of visiting U.S. officials.
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According to Mrs. Blanc, her mother said the documents were supplied to the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, which is Paris's equivalent of the CIA.
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Mrs. Lamant calls this assertion "ridiculous" and said in an interview that she did not know what the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure was.
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She says security officials at the U.S. Embassy forced her into a confession and have no proof of spying. She also said she resigned her job for personal reasons that she declined to discuss.
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As for her daughter's assertion that the French wiretapped and intimidated the Blancs, Mrs. Lamant says she has not had a significant relationship with her daughter for more than a decade.
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"It is evident that she was never normal from the age of 18," Mrs. Lamant said, referring to her daughter's mental state.
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Mrs. Blanc insists that she is not paranoid or delusional.
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She resigned from her job as a payroll specialist at the embassy a day after she and her mother were questioned by U.S. security officials in 1989.
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She contends that she refused three efforts of the French spy agency to recruit her and that she never passed American secrets.
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She concedes that she did not tell embassy personnel that her mother was spying until she was questioned. But she says her parents had warned her that their lives would be in jeopardy if she did not keep her mother's secret.
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"She was supposed to protect me, but she did not," Mrs. Blanc said in an interview. "Now, we are nothing. We are not French. We are not American. We are dubious."
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Mrs. Blanc accuses France's spy agency and its internal security agency of harassing her and her husband by thwarting their efforts to find jobs, by overtly following them and by seeking covertly to entrap or blackmail them during 1989 and 1990.
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The Blancs say they complained about harassment in registered letters to senior French government officials during 1990 and in discussions and correspondence with U.S. Embassy security officials.
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In late 1990, they say, the French spy agency offered them 50,000 francs ($8,800) for unspecified "misfortune." They refused the money, Mrs. Blanc says, because she did not want to be "bought" by the French government. When espionage occurs between such otherwise friendly governments as France and the United States, the political wounds might be expected to heal in time. |
http://www.iht.com/articles/1991/11/19/mari.php
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Nowhere Man
Joined: 08 Feb 2004
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Real Reality
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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I wonder how his Korean supporters would feel if an American-born Korean citizen was found spying for the US in Seoul.
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Funny you should mention this. A while ago, when Kim was in the news (I think he was just being released from prison) there was a story in the Korea Herald about two Koreans getting caught doing industrial espionage for Taiwan. There was considerable moral outrage expressed. Quite ironic. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:00 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| There was considerable moral outrage expressed. Quite ironic. |
Moral outrage is often ironic in Korea. |
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Wangja
Joined: 17 May 2004
Location: Seoul, Yongsan
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Quote: |
I wonder how his Korean supporters would feel if an American-born Korean citizen was found spying for the US in Seoul.
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Funny you should mention this. A while ago, when Kim was in the news (I think he was just being released from prison) there was a story in the Korea Herald about two Koreans getting caught doing industrial espionage for Taiwan. There was considerable moral outrage expressed. Quite ironic. |
Do you mean (for Korea) IN taiwan? |
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