Floyd Landis (The photo was taken from internet)
2006年自由車環法賽的冠軍選手藍迪斯(Floyd Landis)因使用禁藥被剝奪了冠軍資格，那是該年度的體壇大事。在調查藍迪斯使用禁藥的過程中卻意外的破獲了一起商業間諜案。
承包木柵線捷運施工的馬特拉公司，1988年七月與台北市捷運局簽約，但因土木工程部分包商施工延誤，連帶造成馬特拉的工期延長，增加成本費用，馬特拉因而要求台北市捷運局必須賠償廿多億元。營運後，馬特拉的維修報價高又將技術人員撤走；還有火燒車的事件。馬特拉與台北市捷運局的案子纏訟十二年多，最高法院2005年七月判決台北市捷運局敗訴確定；台北市捷運局約須付出十六億四千萬元。木柵線短短十公里，除了工程費用與營運費用，每一公里還要攤一億六千四百多萬的賠款。雖說當中可能有主責部門能力不足、人謀不臧、人事鬥爭... 等等因素，不過主觀上，對法商的印象就不好。
還有拉法葉艦的案子，回扣重重，法國前外長杜馬向費加洛報證實五億美元傭金，連中南海都有拿到。還有傳言湯普森一方面要賺台灣的錢，一方面又犧牲台灣利益，把賣給台灣的拉法葉艦的所有技術資料送給北京。
億而富ELF石油公司的賄賂案，雖然和台灣無關，也是一件骯髒的勾當，與拉法葉艦案一樣和外長杜馬（Roland Dumas）有關 。
1985年法國的情報組織就曾在紐西蘭炸沉一艘綠色和平組織的船彩虹戰士號，這次被查到的又是法國電力公司(Électricité de France，國營)雇用駭客在綠色和平組織的重要成員的電腦裡種木馬病毒。綠色和平組織的手段或許激烈了些，但是以國家機器的力量予以「制裁」，國營企業對其重要幹部予以「非法監視」，這一切實在太過分了。
或許這個極力宣揚「自由、平等、博愛」的國家就像其最具代表性人物拿破崙一般：一方面把「自由、平等、博愛」的法國人權宣言的理念，散布到全歐洲，進而傳揚於全世界；另一方面，也將血腥的戰火與屠殺，帶到全歐洲。而這位燃起歐洲革命之火的法蘭西共和國第一執政官，最後還是顯露出對權力的野心，結束了共和，成為專制的皇帝。
難怪一位友人很看不起法國人，「法國人在外國胡搞瞎搞，搞到無法收拾就拍拍屁股走掉。」此外法國觀光客小氣，傲慢無禮，被認為是全世界最差勁的旅客。
Published: August 24, 2009PARIS— The story has the elements of a corporate thriller: a cast that includes former French spies and military men, a cycling champion, Greenpeace advocates and a dogged judge whose investigation takes him from a sports doping laboratory outside Paris to a Moroccan jail and some top French corporations.
dogged adj. 頑強的;頑固的,固執的
It's dogged (as [that]) does it.【諺】天下無難事,衹怕有心人.
Like installments in a serial novel, revelations have been seeping out since March. And while the climax is months away, the story provides a glimpse into the shadowy business of gathering what corporations call
strategic intelligence.
seep v. 1. 滲出[進],滴下,滲漏;慢慢擴散;(觀念等)滲入
2. (水、油等)滲出的地方;水泉
3. 滲出[進],浸透,徐徐流出;滲出物;漏水;(土壤等的)滲液量
“Formost companies, on a daily basis there are many more things going onthan can possibly be handed off to the police,” said Christian Harbulot, director of the École de Guerre Économique, or School of Economic Warfare, in Paris.
The companies they turn to include corporate security giants like Kroll and what Mr. Harbulot terms “small operators” as various as former intelligence agents and computer hackers.
The case unfolding in France involves a mix of computer hackers and some of the country’s biggest companies, including Électricité de France, the world’s largest operator of nuclear powerplants, and Vivendi, the media and telecommunications giant.
According to a file compiled by the investigating judge, Thomas Cassuto, investigators stumbled on to the case in the wake of a doping scandal at the Tour de France in 2006.
An American cyclist,
Floyd Landis, was stripped of his title that summer after testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone. In November 2006, the French antidoping agency filed a complaint claiming that confidential documents related to Mr. Landis’s
drug tests had been stolen and sent to the news media and other labs.
The documents had been altered in what lab officials said appeared to have been an effort to discredit them by casting doubt on the handling of test samples. Investigators concluded that one such e-mail message had been sent from a computer using the same Internet protocol address as Arnie Baker, Mr. Landis’s coach.
A search of computers in the lab in Châtenay-Malabry, a suburb of Paris, turned up a Trojan horse, a program that allowed an outsider to remotely download files.
No evidence has surfaced to connect Mr. Landis or Mr. Baker to the hacking, and each has denied any involvement. They did, however, use the documents in their unsuccessful effort to overturn Mr. Landis’s cycling ban.The trail, picked up by a special unit of the French interior ministry, led to a computer specialist named Alain Quiros, who was eventually caught in Mohammedia, Morocco. Under questioning, Mr. Quiros initially denied any knowledge of the theft but later admitted that he had been paid $2,800 to $4,000 to break into the testing lab’s computers. He identified Thierry Lorho, head of Kargus Consultants, a corporate intelligence company in Paris, as being behind the computer attack.
Then things got complicated. As the authorities delved into Mr. Quiros’s computer, they found a copy of the hard drive of Yannick Jadot, the former campaign director of Greenpeace France, as well as that of Frédérik-Karel Canoy, a lawyer and shareholder advocate.
delve vt. (為獲得情報)徹底調查(過去、記錄、資料等),鑽研,探索
Mr. Lorho, a former French intelligence agent, told French officials that another man, Jean-François Dominguez, had paid him for the lab reports. Both men are being investigated. Mr. Lorho also
admitted that he had collected data on Greenpeace on behalf of Électricité de France, which wanted information on antinuclear campaigners.
Mr. Lorho said that his contacts at Électricité de France, were “perfectly aware” of the hacking. .
Électricitéde France has denied any knowledge of the theft and has portrayed itself as a victim of illegal acts by Kargus Consultants. But Judge Cassuto, who took over the investigation in April 2008, declared Électricité de France, an “assisted witness,” one step short of being under formal investigation. Alexis Gublin, a lawyer representing the company, said it was cooperating with the inquiry.
Through their lawyers, Mr. Quiros, Mr. Dominguez and Mr. Lorho declined to comment.
Spying by corporations is not new.
In the mid-1960s, General Motors used private detectives to dig up information on Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate, when he began to criticize the auto industry’s safety record. In the last two years, some of the biggest companies in Germany, including DeutscheTelekom and Deutsche Bank, have been caught overstepping the line regarding surveillance.
The investigation into
Électricité de France, which is 85 percent owned by the French government, has touched a nerve in France,
whose intelligence agents bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in 1985 in Auckland, New Zealand, killing a photographer. But no evidence suggests that the French government was aware of or involved in the hacking.
In an interview with an intelligence Web site, Lerenseignement.com, Mr.Lorho said he assumed “full responsibility” for hacking the Greenpeace computer, but he added that “I would like to see E.D.F., which sponsored the operation, take responsibility for its part.”
On April 10, Électricité de France said that it had ended its relationship with Kargus Consultants and had temporarily removed two security employees who had been dealing with the firm. The two — Pierre-Paul François, a site protection engineer and former police officer, and his superior, Pascal Durieux, a security manager and former French Navy admiral — are under investigation by Judge Cassuto. Each maintains his innocence.
Électricité de France defended its need to monitor advocacy groups.
“It’s important to know, for example, if this or that group is in the radical extreme or if it is above board,” Jean-Marc Sabathé, the company’s security director, said in an April interview with Le Monde. “But wehave no need to pay hackers to find out.”
above board 光明正大地
Meanwhile, the investigation continues.
Inthe doping lab case, Mr. Dominguez, who has been described in the French media as a photographer with links to French intelligence, told investigators that he had acted only as a middleman, passing data he received from Kargus to another man, who has not been found.
Judge Cassuto summoned Mr. Landis and Mr. Baker to Paris in May for questioning, but neither appeared for the hearing. Mr. Landis did not respond to requests for comment through Team Ouch, his new cycle racing squad. But he told Cycling News in November 2006, when rumors of the hacking surfaced, that “any claims attributing these actions to me or my defense team are baseless, untrue, irresponsible and another example of the character assassination that I have faced.”
In a recent e-mail message, Mr. Baker denied any involvement in the hacking.
Since 2002, Mr. Canoy, the shareholder advocate, has filed 13 lawsuits against Vivendi, which has filed two countersuits, Antoine Lefort, as pokesman for Vivendi, said.
Mr. Harbulot, the specialist in economic intelligence, said the most curious thing about the case was why a company like Électricité de France would get involved with “these kinds of people.”
“All of E.D.F.’s security needs should be taken care of by the state, because it’s strategically important,” he said.
A version of this article appeared in print on August 25, 2009, on page B4 of the New York edition.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/business/global/25spy.html?ref=businessWednesday, 23 February, 2000, 17:14 GMT Frances accuses US of economic espionage
France says an American-run surveillance network setup during the Cold War is being used for economic espionage, prompting French companies to encrypt sensitive information.
The French Justice Minister, Elisabeth Guigou, told parliament that the Echelon surveillance network had apparently been diverted to keeping a watch on commercial rivals, who had therefore to beparticularly vigilant.
Hercomments came as a report commissioned by the European Parliament alleged that Britain was helping the Americans to spy on its European partners, using sophisticated technology to intercept telephones, faxes and emails.
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair,denied theallegations, saying there were strict rules governing suchissues andthey were always applied.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/653914.stm
The stories were taken from the New York Times and BBC World Service. The copyright remains with their original owners. The author of this story and the New York Times & BBC are not involved with, nor endorse the production of this blog.
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