The
new French president, Emmanuel Macron, who was thrust into the French
presidential race as a pro-European Union counterweight to prevent the
election of National Front leader Marine Le Pen, appears to have more
than a casual relationship with the United States. While he worked
within the Ministry of the Economy as both a special inspector and as
minister, Macron oversaw the virtual theft of strategic French
industries by American firms having strong links to the U.S.
Intelligence Community.
The
hacking of the computers of Macron’s «En Marche!» campaign movement by
unknown parties yielded some interesting material. Defenders of Macron
contend that the computer files released were either «fake» or
extraneous information. However, one set of files dealing with the
virtual theft of France’s top information technology giant by
individuals connected to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is exactly
the type of files one would expect the Macron campaign would keep.
Macron’s first job in the French government was to protect the interests
of French companies from foreign competition and, most of all,
acquisition.
The
move by the American intelligence services to acquire French smart card
technology leader Gemplus International began in 2001 and the operation
was largely complete by 2004, the year Macron became an Inspector of
Finances in the French Ministry of Economy. French industry has long
been a target for surveillance and/or acquisition by American companies
and the CIA has played an important role in such «economic warfare»
operations. For example, the French electronics firm Thomson-CSF was
long a top target for U.S. National Security Agency and CIA
surveillance.
Documents
concerning the successful takeover of Gemplus, along with its main
factory in Gemenos, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, by an American firm called
Texas Pacific Group (TPG) are included in the tranche of files lifted
from the «En Marche!» computers. TPG first acquired Gemplus shares in
February 2000. In 2006, Gemplus merged with Axalto to form Gemalto and
the effective U.S. control of the firm was complete.
In
September 2002, Alex Mandl, an American native of Vienna, Austria, and a
former President of AT&T, chairman and CEO of Teligent, board
member of the CIA's venture capital firm IN-Q-TEL, and member of the
board of the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, was named
CEO of Gemplus International. He continues as the executive chairman of
Gemalto.
As
a result of the disclosures of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, it
is now known that the British Government Communications Headquarters
(GCHQ), working with the NSA, successfully penetrated the SIM cards used
by Gemalto. The GCHQ/NSA successfully intercepted mobile communications
using encryption-enabled Gemalto SIM cards in Afghanistan, Yemen,
India, Serbia, Iran, Iceland, Somalia, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The
GCHQ-NSA attack also targeted Gemalto SIM card personalization centers
in Japan, Colombia. and Italy. The NSA and GCHQ hack of Gemalto's SIM
chips by their joint Mobile Handset Exploitation Team (MHET) represents
perhaps the largest NSA interception operation in history, one that saw
billions of mobile calls and text messages successfully intercepted and
decoded by NSA and its Bitish partner. More sinister is the inclusion of
Gemalto SIM card identification data in the CIA's database of cell
phones targeted in U.S. drone strikes.
«En
Marche!» internal documents point to four French government agencies
having conducted investigations into the Gemplus takeover. They are the
«Renseignements généraux» (RG) (General Intelligence), «Direction de la
sûreté du territoire» (DST), the Industry Ministry, and Macron's Economy
Ministry.
The
French corporate press, which lavished Macron with praise, a former
Rothschild banker, describes the Gemplus documents as having nothing to
do with Macron. The French media argues that Macron was a mere student
at the elitist French civil service academy, the École nationale
d'administration (ENA) until he graduated in 2004. However, as the
leaked documents clearly indicate, the Gemplus takeover was still being
investigated by the French government when Macron became an Inspector
within the Economy Ministry in 2004. Since Macron's role was to ensure
that French companies were free of foreign attempts to stymie French
economic growth, his performance, as seen in the loss of French jobs to
foreign interests, was abysmal.
It
is very likely that En Marche's files on the Gemplus takeover were to
have backup information at the ready in the event Macron's role in
covering up details of the American takeover of Gemplus were to become
public. Any political party must be prepared to confront revelations
exposed by «opposition research» into their candidates. It is also
noteworthy that one of En Marche's few published policy planks stated it
was Macron’s policy to «monitor» but not prevent foreign ownership of
strategic French industries and businesses.
In
2008, Macron left government to join the Rothschild & Cie Banque.
He also became a leader in the neoconservative-heavy French-American
Foundation, which counts among its alum Hillary Clinton, General Wesley
Clark, and former World Bank president Robert Zoellick.
The
operative question about Macron is: what did he know about the Gemplus
takeover and when did he know it? «En Marche’s» Gemplus files, contained
in a folder labeled «Macron» and dealing with the American takeover,
read like a John LeCarré spy novel.
One
file, marked «Confidential», and sent to Stefan Quandt of the
billionaire Quandt family of BMW and Daimler fame in Germany, deals with
Gemplus’s plummeting stock value in 2001 amid «extremely tense
relationship and clashes between the main people at the top echelons,
and breakdown of communication with the personnel. As a result, the bulk
of them is completely unmotivated today».
As
an inspector within the Economy Ministry, it is astounding that Macron
would not have been aware of the violation of French law that occurred
with the American takeover of Gemplus. This is also described in another
Gemplus file from his campaign, which points to the situation regarding
Gemplus’s post-U.S. takeover: «Irresponsible statements, often followed
by reversals on site closures and firing of personnel, even before
consulting with their representatives (as the law and common sense
requires)».
The
Quandts are very publicity-shy and there is a good reason for it.
Guenther Quandt manufactured Mauser firearms and anti-aircraft rockets
for the Third Reich. He divorced his first wife, Magde Quandt, after
they had one child, Harald Quandt. Magde then married Nazi Propaganda
Minister Joseph Goebbels. Stefan Quandt, who was involved in the
takeover of Gemplus, is the son of Harald Quandt's half-brother Herbert
Quandt.
The
negative information on Gemplus resulted in a January 24, 2002 report
from Goldman Sachs that urged the company to continue with its
American-directed restructuring to maintain market health. Although he
was a student at the ENA at the time, there is scant information on what
projects to which Macron was assigned from 2001 to 2003 by his civil
service professors.
Other
Gemplus-related files in the «En Marche!» folder include those related
to one of the principals of Gemplus, Ziad Takieddine, a French-Lebanese
Druze arms broker and graduate of the CIA-linked American University of
Beirut. Takieddine helped engineer the American takeover with the help
of Herr Quandt. Takieddine has helped conclude major French arms deals
with Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. Accused of money
laundering in the British Virgin Islands by his ex-wife, Takieddine is
also the uncle of Amal Alamuddin, the wife of actor George Clooney.
Takieddine is also a bitter political foe of former President Nicolas
Sarkozy, who lost out in the presidential race in 2017 to rival
conservative François Fillon. Macron edged out Fillon in the first round
of the presidential election, coming in second ahead of Fillon's third
place finish.
Takieddine,
Quandt, and a suspected CIA-linked firm, Texas Pacific Group (TPG),
were all clearly part of a conspiracy to get rid of Gemini’s French
co-founder Marc Lassus and the firm’s French executives. The decision to
fire Lassus and his French colleagues was made at a Gemplus board
meeting held in Washington, DC, not in France, on December 15, 2001.
Another principal in the American takeover of Gemplus was Lee Kheng Nam,
a Singapore business executive and a recipient of an M.S. degree in
Operations Research and System Analysis from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate
School in Monterey, California. The co-founder of TPG, David Bonderman
of Fort Worth, Texas was also heavily involved in the hostile takeover
of Gemplus. TPG's acquisition of Gemplus shares was conducted through a
virtually unknown shell company registered in Gibraltar that was called
«Zensus». Bonderman, who is Jewish, created a political stir in 2012 in
Egypt when he met with Khairat El-Shater, the deputy leader of the
Muslim Brotherhood and a member of the Mohamed Morsi government.
Bonderman said he was looking for «investment opportunities» in Egypt.
In
an undated Word document found in the «En Marche!» computers, Lassus is
quoted as saying, «I am convinced that the investment TPG had some kind
of agreement with its government to move the head office to California.
They tried again in January 2002». The Gemplus workers' unions
predicted the firm's production would move from France to Poland. The
largest French union, «Confédération générale du travail» (CGT), said
the takeover of Gemplus was to strip France of its smart card technology
leadership. Gemplus employed 7000 French workers before its takeover by
the Americans. The undated Word document also refers to French
government agencies having «launched inquiries» and sought «internal
informers». Did Macron play a role in either the investigations by the
Economy Ministry or ratting out Gemplus «internal informers» to his
American friends?
When
the U.S. firm General Electric took over the French turbine and nuclear
technology company Alstom, then-Economy Minister Macron said he
approved of such takeovers because «state intervention in industry only
happens in Venezuela». That came as music to the ears of the
billionaires in the Donald Trump administration.
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