Word: baranes
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Even Frenchmen inured to the back biting and cynical misbehavior of their politicos were shocked last week by a sensational trial in Paris. Eighteen months ago André Baranès, a devious little Tunisian newspaperman and police informer, was arrested for transmitting vital French defense secrets to a Communist newspaper publisher. Baranés claimed he had got the information from two assistants of respected, 50-year-old Jean Mons, secretary general of the Defense Committee (France's rough equivalent of the U.S.'s National Security Council). Last week, as the trial of Mons, Baran...
...Laughed." But then Baranés changed his story, not once but repeatedly. He claimed, in succession: 1) that he was "100% Communist and party spy," 2) that he was "a patriotic Frenchman who deserves a Legion of Honor for uprooting a Red espionage net," 3) that he was a Communist, but an "anti-Moscow" Red devoted to the welfare of France. He said that he had delivered his records to Duclos. He then said that he had not delivered them to Duclos but to two other fellows. He later said that he had delivered them to Duclos but Duclos...
When confronted with Baranés' stories, portly Communist Boss Duclos denied he had ever met him. "All I can tell you is that André Baranés is a dirty dog," he growled to reporters. Then, to add to the confusion, Turpin and Labrusse renounced their confessions. "I never gave Baranés any documents," said Labrusse. He said he had only "chatted" with Baranés as he would with any newspaperman. Turpin said he had only been "imprudent," but he had hoped his "imprudences" would reach Laniel opponents, who were trying to stop the Indo...
...foreground of the story whirled with contradictions, the background became clearer. Obviously, there was something very peculiar about the activities of ex-Chief Police Inspector Jean Dides. He had known about Baranés' access to defense secrets since May, even paid him $570 a month to stay in the Communist network. But, apparently, Dides was content to go on "watching" as the ring delivered crucial defense decisions and information of France's plight in Indo-China without lifting a finger to stop it. Why? What was he waiting...
...Mitterrand began cleaning out Martinaud-Déplat's protégés, fired Prefect of Police Jean Baylot and demoted Dides from his Red-hunting job. Then, say the theorists, the plotting began. Certainly, Dides scarcely acted like a disinterested cop. When he learned through Baranés of new leaks, Dides did not tell his boss Mitterrand; he took his information to an old right-wing Gaullist friend in the Cabinet. At the same time, allegedly at the urging of Martinaud-Déplat and Baylot, he planted reports with U.S. intelligence that Mitterrand...