Spies break cover to protest at conditions

FRANCE: It was meant to be the French FBI –a secretive intelligence agency fighting terrorism. But it is more likely to be known as the Federal Bureau of Insurrection after a public protest scheduled for today.

Agents are to demonstrate at the headquarters of the Central Directorate of Interior Information outside Paris amid discontent over labour relations and alleged political interference. Commentators said that while strikes and protests were a feature of French life it was the first time they had heard of one involving the country’s spies.

The action has been called by the National Union of Police Officers, which is well represented among the 3100 agents at the directorate, to mark its disapproval of ‘‘human resources management’’.

Union representatives say young officers are taking command posts ahead of experienced intelligence agents.

But critics say that the roots of the discord lie in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision in 2008 to create the directorate by merging two domestic agencies into what he hoped would be the equivalent of the FBI.

Sarkozy was accused of trying to keep political control of the new agency when he appointed Bernard Squarcini, a close associate, as its director.

The attacks intensified when Squarcini ordered officers to find out who was behind unsubstantiated rumours that Sarkozy was having an affair with one of his ministers, and that Carla Bruni, his wife, was sleeping with a singer.

Squarcini’s detractors said that he was diverting agents from more important tasks, such as keeping track of the al Qaeda terror network.

He drew further criticism when he was placed under formal investigation for allegedly obtaining the telephone records of a journalist at Le Monde without authorisation from a magistrate.