VILLEPIN'S POLICE ADVISOR DISCUSSES FRENCH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 001807

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2015
TAGS: PREL PTER FR PGOV KJUS
SUBJECT: VILLEPIN'S POLICE ADVISOR DISCUSSES FRENCH
INTERNAL SECURITY

REF: PARIS 1569

Classified By: POLITICAL MINISTER COUNSELOR JOSIAH ROSENBLATT, FOR REAS
ONS 1.4 B/D


1. (C) Summary: Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin's
cabinet advisor on the police said March 15 that the French
security establishment is going through a period of
"synthesis," in which reforms proposed over the past decades
are gradually finding their place within standard operating
procedure. He said France remains as focused "as ever" on
combating terrorism, but that the latitude offered terrorism
investigating judges in the 1980s and 1990s may be waning due
to the country's increasing distance from periods when
terrorists repeatedly struck on French soil. Regarding
violence in French society, he said virtually all acts of
violence and criminality were on the decrease, except for
troubling increases in the amount of rapes and "gratuitous
violence." End summary.


2. (C) On March 15, Poloff met with Jerome Leonnet, the
"technical counselor" in Interior Minister Villepin's cabinet
in charge of "the organization and administration of
police/terrorism/relations with Renseignements Generaux"
(France's police intelligence agency). Leonnet has been in
Villepin's cabinet since summer 2004. He said he previously
worked for seven years with the DST (France's internal
security service),seven years with Renseignements Generaux,
and a number of years with the Prefecture of Police in Paris.


3. (C) Leonnet described the 1980s and 1990s as decades of
great turmoil within the security establishment. He said
that terrorism attacks during that period, especially in
Paris during the mid-1980s, fed a perception among French
citizens that the security establishment was relatively
helpless to stop terrorism. In addition, in the late 1990s,
France underwent a significant rise in violent crimes,
something it had not experienced before. In response, the
GOF instituted a number of different laws, including the
famous "terrorist conspiracy" law, to give more freedom of
action to its security services. This period of reform
lasted through 2004, said Leonnet, with the passage of Perben
II, an omnibus legal reform bill (reftel). Pointing to two
thick red books of criminal law on his shelf, Leonnet said
that France had no more need of new laws; what was needed now
was bureaucratic implementation, streamlining and
coordination. Leonnet expected this period of "synthesis" to
continue for the next few years, with a particular focus on
training and crisis-response. He also addressed the
oft-debated idea to combine the DST and RG intelligence
services. It was a bad idea, said Leonnet, because each
service had different goals and competencies, and when any
mixing of dossiers occurred, it was quickly ironed out
through the interagency process.


4. (C) Turning to terrorism, Leonnet said he expected that
getting convictions with the "terrorist conspiracy" charge
(used to great effect from the 1980s onward) will become more
difficult for France's terrorism investigating judges.
Initially, said Leonnet, investigating judges like Jean-Louis
Bruguiere were given enormous leeway in the conduct of their
investigations. Standards of proof for "terrorist
conspiracy" were much lower than standards in other criminal
cases. However, said Leonnet, the level of evidence required
for "terrorist conspiracy" convictions is on the increase.
Terrorism investigating judges will need more evidence than
was necessary before. Leonnet described this evolution as a
natural progression away from the reactive policies of the
1980s and 1990s that takes into account current realities, in
which the memory of actual terrorist acts has grown distant
and the demand for civil liberties has become stronger.
Still, he considered French citizens sensitized to terrorism
and aware that France remained a prime target for terrorists.


5. (C) Asked to comment on a newspaper article in early
February drawing on Renseignement Generaux sources that
reported Islamist radicals controlled approximately 40
mosques/prayer halls in France and numbered approximately 500
militants and 5000 sympathizers, Leonnet said the estimates
were correct. There had clearly been an increase in radical
Islam in France over the past few years, said Leonnet.
Nonetheless, he was optimistic that the long-term trend
towards radical Islam would begin to decline. Citing efforts
by the GOF such as ensuring that all imams spoke French,
close surveillance of mosques and troubled neighborhoods by
police and security services, the "veil" law, and a
determination from President Chirac on down to foster
integration, Leonnet said the GOF was well aware of its
challenges regarding the spread of radical Islam, and it was
taking the necessary steps.


6. (C) In any case, said Leonnet, the issues of integration
and immigration had no effect on criminal violence. He said
that over the past few years, incidents of violence and
criminality have been on the decrease. Violence perpetrated
by immigrants usually has a financial or social goal, said
Leonnet, and those types of crimes have gone down. The two
exceptions were cases of rape and "gratuitous violence." On
the increase in rapes, Leonnet speculated that the wide
diffusion of pornographic films on cable television was an
important contributing factor. Regarding "gratuitous
violence," or violence committed with no goal in mind,
Leonnet said that societal structures that previously weeded
out and controlled such behavior no longer played the same
role. Mandatory military service was gone, as was full
employment and cohesive family structures, all of which
contributed to identifying individuals with a propensity
towards gratuitous violent acts.
Leach