KGB, Czech services… What intelligence knew about French spies – L’Express

The forgery from the Czech secret services still appears, in February 2024, in the archives of the Paris police headquarters. Proof that the French police officers have completely fallen into the trap set by Eastern spies. “An anonymous correspondent sent me a letter of which you will find attached a photocopy”, wrote the prefect of police, Maurice Papon, not yet caught up in his vOkichyst turpitudes, in this letter dated November 8, 1966, and addressed in particular to Minister of the Interior as well as the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST), ancestor of the DGSI.

The missive in question was entirely fabricated by Statni bezpecnost (STB), the intelligence service of Czechoslovakia, with the complicity of one of their best agents in France, Gérard Leconte, advisor to the police prefect. The great reporter Vincent Jauvert tells the story in his book to be published on March 1, In the pay of Moscow (Threshold) – in which he reveals how leading journalists and politicians were recruited by Czechoslovak intelligence services during the Cold War.

The maneuver aims to discredit Pavel Tigrid, an opponent in exile in France. The false document, signed by a certain “Harry”, a supposed anti-Gaullist patriot, must present him as an ally of an extreme current of the CIA, ready to have de Gaulle killed. This particularly devious letter was found by The Express…in the archives of the police headquarters, in the file dedicated to Pavel Tigrid. “He did not even conceal the possible form of personal liquidation of the General […] I had to contact a certain Mr. Tigrid, editor of a magazine,” writes the fake “Harry” about his imaginary American interlocutor.

“Tigrid does not seem to have interfered”

The plot will never be suspected. On the contrary, Maurice Papon asks the recipients of his letter… to investigate the person concerned: “I would be very obliged if you would kindly let me know your feelings on this affair and especially on the situation of Mr. Tigrid”, writes the police chief. A month earlier, he seized the General Intelligence of the same investigation. The director of the RG will respond – logically – having found nothing on the future Czech minister: “Tigrid does not seem to have interfered to date in French internal political affairs.”

The archives of the Paris police headquarters reveal several truths about the French spies in the East recently revealed by Vincent Jauvert. For example, that of the common point between Claude Estier, Jean Clémentin, Albert-Paul Lentin, Paul-Marie de la Gorce and André Ulmann. All were approached or recruited by Czechoslovak intelligence. None will have been confused during their lifetime by the DST. However, the French police officers followed them: they had noted their proximity to the Communist Party.

This picture contrasts with the image of spies recruited outside Communist Party circles. On the contrary, the secret services of the Communist Bloc also recruit from people ideologically close to communism… as long as they have access to interesting information, or can be used for operations.

The General Information identifies, for example, the journal The Tribune of Nationsby André Ulmann, as a “left-wing weekly, of communist obedience”, in a note dated April 14, 1966. The report also indicates Ulmann’s links with communists and collaborators of the newspaper Humanity.

Another example, Jean Clémentin, described as a convinced communist. A note from the RG of April 23, 1963 indicates that the journalist from Le Canard chainé was part, during his assignment in Indochina, “of the ‘Marxist cultural group’ and of the ‘action committee for peace and repatriation'”, which overlaps with information from Vincent Jauvert, according to which Clémentin becomes progressive in Indochina. According to Military Security, Clémentin, then correspondent for the Associated Press agency, would have cabled “distorted information, claiming to be a ‘highly qualified French source'” and would be “in contact with the rebels”. The RG note paints an unflattering portrait of the STB “mole”: “Clémentin is represented as ambitious and an unscrupulous individual.” In a report from February 1955, the police headquarters also noted that Clémentin was friends with André Baranès, a journalist with a murky role in the “leak affair” – this secret-defense information disseminated in far-left circles in 1954 – who also happens to be a source of the STB, under the pseudonym “Faust”, according to Czech researcher Jan Koura.

Estier “outside the framework” of the PCF

The case of Claude Estier is the most ambiguous. His links with the Communist Party are undeniable, and date back to his youth. When he went underground to avoid his arrest in 1942, it was his history teacher Pierre Angrand, a member of the Communist Party, who took him to the free zone. After the war, according to his memoirs, he joined the SFIO for reasons of “natural filiation”, before being excluded in 1947 because of an article which attacked the Minister of the Interior Jules Moch. The files of the Paris police headquarters indicate another reason: Estier would have been excluded because Guy Mollet would have discovered that Estier was a “senior executive” of the Communist Party, including an infiltrator. According to Vincent Jauvert, Estier would have been in contact with the STB from 1954; despite regular contact with the officers in charge, he transmits little information, and is not keen to be recruited. In 2016, The Express had revealed how the Romanian secret services requested it, under the Mitterrand presidency. “Stanica” was her code name.

None of the moles is suspected by the RG of being in contact with Prague, despite the in-depth investigations carried out on these people or their entourage. Despite several alerts, Paul-Marie de la Gorce, for example, has never been worried. The police took note of his trip to Bucharest, Romania, in August 1953. The journalist, future collaborator of Soviet military intelligence and the STB under the alias “Gabriel”, attended the World Festival of Youth and Students there. for peace. In 1962, an investigation was opened against him, at the request of Military Security. The young journalist is accused of “provoking soldiers to disobedience” and of complicity in the same offense, after the publication of two articles in The Obs and in The Express. The procedure was dismissed in September 1962. According to General Intelligence, de la Gorce was also… a loyal Gaullist, member of the RPF since 1947. Which stood out a little compared to his comrades.

Pro-Chinese groups

Albert-Paul Lentin is, for example, a radical left activist. The archives appear to confirm the links between this journalist and the Algerian leaders – several notes mention his trips to this country in 1969 and 1972. It is true that Lentin had, Releasespecialized in colonial issues, which undoubtedly allowed him to establish contacts.

Ditto for his links with the far left and the elite of the left-wing political world. Lentin increases his participation in different progressive groups and associations, such as “Groupe information Congo” created in 1973 to denounce the repression after the coup d’état led in this country in 1972 by Lieutenant Diawara. Among the people we find in these associations are Michel Foucault, Marguerite Duras, François Maspero and Alain Krivine. He also participates in various radical left newspapers, such as Friendly peoples, France-USSR, France-Hungary, Horizons, Africa action, Socialist Tribune. Or Politics-Hebdofounded in 1970. He also meets Pierre Cot, a former minister, whose proximity to the Soviet secret services has often been discussed, in the magazine Defense of peace. More surprising, according to notes from the police headquarters, at the end of the 1960s, Lentin turned to pro-Chinese groups – he represented “New Democracy” at the tricontinental conference in Havana in 1966 -, opposed to Moscow.

In 1971, Albert-Paul Lentin was almost recruited… to The Express. It is a note from General Intelligence, dated June 1, 1971, which affirms this. At the time, for Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, it was a matter of “securing the clientele of a certain youth that The new observer (where Lentin works) is also trying to interest”. The transfer will not take place. But ironically, another spy is preparing to arrive at the newspaper: Philippe Grumbach is appointed political director in August 1971. He signs in the KGB, under the alias “Brok”, since 1946.