[A-List] Europe/US rivalry: France & EU expansion

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

French accuse US of masterminding fall of the eastern bloc

Gabriel Ronay reveals how a fresh claim of CIA intrigue in toppling
Ceausescu is widening the divide between old and new Europeans
The Sunday Herald, 30 March 2003

Amid signs that Jacques Chirac has decided the rift between Old Europe and
the pro-American New Europeans is unbridgeable, Paris has resorted to a
'diversion' to disqualify the most vocal of East Europeans by questioning
the political legitimacy of the entire leadership of Romania, branding Uncle
Sam's Balkans admirers 'long-term CIA collaborators'.

The allegations, aired in the French media, appear to be part of a war of
words first unleashed by Chirac after letters from East European states
backing America's anti-Saddam crusade. In turn, President Ion Iliescu and
Prime Minister Adrian Nastase of Romania repudiated Chirac's put-down of New
Europeans for their 'infantile and irresponsible behaviour'. Now they are
being punished for their temerity to challenge the French president's quest
to turn Old Europe into a counter-weight to US power. The French media has
endorsed Chirac's view of the New Europeans who, as he said, 'should know
when to keep quiet'.

The defamation of the Romanian leadership as having 'established CIA
collaborators when they seized power in the 1989 anti-Stalinist uprising'
appears part of this hard-line posture.

French historian Catherine Durandin has presented her revelations on
France-3 television channel under the telling title Pieces ^ Conviction
(Incontrovertible Proof). To give extra weight, former DGSE secret agent
Dominique Fonvielle and Christian Harbulot, director of the School of
Economic Warfare, also participated in the programme. A transcript of
Durandin's documentary has been seen by the Sunday Herald. As one of the
principal sources of her documentary was General Francois Mermet, the
influential director-general of DGSE, the French external intelligence
service, the timing of it, and the political intent appear to be rather
obvious.

The shock claim that Romania's frustrated pro-Moscow opponents of the
dictator Nicolae Ceausescu 'had been manipulated by the CIA well before the
anti-communist revolution of 1989' has created a stir in Bucharest. The
popular daily Ziua carried the French allegations under the banner headline
'The CIA is leading Romania'. And it gleefully quoted the France-3
documentary. The pro-government press dismissed the claims as 'baseless
slurs'.

The central theme of Mme Durandin's programme is that even now 'the
politicians and power brokers of Bucharest are being manipulated by the
CIA'. And the CIA penetration under President Ronald Reagan is given as a
crucial factor in the overthrow of Ceausescu, though she acknowledges the
KGB's 'intervention'.

Her startling conclusion is that 'the events of December [1989] in Bucharest
were the consequence of a secret accord between Moscow and Washington'.
This, of course, would undermine the claims of the present Romanian
political elite of having come to power in a people's revolution. 'The CIA
penetrated the highest echelons of the Romanian power structure at the very
time when 'the frustrated Gorbachevists' [of the Communist Party] were
converted by the CIA'.

At the time of Romania's bloody revolution there were reports that the
spontaneous uprising, sparked by the ethnic Hungarian Protestant pastor
Laszlo Toekes, was turned into a palace coup d'Ztat by pro-Moscow communists
aided by the KGB. The Kremlin was known to be keen to get rid of the
hardline placemen who refused to introduce Gorbachev's Glasnost . But the
CIA was as determined not to watch from the sidelines .

In a key passage of the programme, the France-3 presenter asks the
historian: 'Which was the most successful ever exploit of the CIA?'

Durandin replies: 'I have had the chance to study the declassified material
of the CIA archives in Washington. The most extraordinary discovery I made
was the early infiltration of the future democracies [of Eastern Europe].'

Presenter: 'Which one? Bulgaria?'

Durandin: 'No. Romania in particular, but also Poland ... It had begun at
the start of the Reagan Administration and continued up to the start of Bush
senior's presidency.

'It was an extraordinary effort by the CIA to win over the elite of the
[anti-Ceausescu] opposition, which is even now yielding channels of
influence.

'Those targeted were the silent but disaffected [party] people; the pro-
Gorbachev Romanians who had no way to make themselves heard, or influence
events. They were invited to the US, turned during the months of their
sojourn and sent back to their circuits in Romania. Now they are government
ministers and good Nato clients.'

Presenter: 'Right, we do understand what's happening [in Romania] today.'

Because of the outrage in Romania over her allegations, Durandin has started
to back-pedal. But as her theories are extracts from her recently published
book La CIA en Guerre, this is little more than an empty gesture. She has
complained to Pascal Richard, the director of France-3, about the
'truncation, selective quotes and distortion of my documentary' by the
Romanian media. But such belated claims can hardly disguise the French
political intent behind the programme or the hurt occasioned to 'New
Europeans' who challenge Chirac's quest for hegemony in Europe .