LATE French President Francois Mitterrand, used an "anti terrorist cell" at the Elysee Palace as a personal secret police force to spy on his enemies. Mr Mitterrand's misuse of "the cell", headed by Commandant (later Colonel, then Prefect) Christian Prouteau, and created by Mr Mitterrand himself, was proved by the discovery of Mr Prouteau's archives in a garage outside Paris this winter.
L'Express magazine and Le Monde newspaper have just published excerpts from the archives, written on the Elysee letterhead. Many of the documents bear the annotation vu ("seen") in Mr Mitterrand's handwriting.
The newspaper Liberation revealed four years ago that Mr Prouteau's rogue unit had tapped the telephones of several hundred people, including journalists, lawyers, politicians and writers. In some cases, people were listened to merely because they were in contact with someone already under surveillance.
In 1993 Mr Prouteau wrote to then Prime Minister, Mr Pierre Beregovoy, saying that "at no time did I or my men undertake investigations unless we were asked to do so".
Twelve people, including Mr Prouteau and his secretary, were placed under investigation in the phone tapping scandal one of the 12 committed suicide in 1994. But Mr Mitterrand's personal oversight of the espionage network was not made public until cast week, 15 months after his death.
In a memorandum sent to President Mitterrand on November 6th, 1985, Mr Prouteau addressed the question of "your security, in the broad sense". It was indispensable, Mr Prouteau said, that he should enjoy "working autonomy" from "certain ministries"; he complained that the prime minister's office was systematically refusing requests for new phone taps. "It is a question of guaranteeing total discretion about your movements (especially in what we refer to as `the private life')", Mr Prouteau said.
At that time, Mr Mitterrand led a double life between his wife and two sons and his mistress Anne Pingeot and their daughter Mazarine. He also carried on an affair with a Swedish journalist.
One of Mr Mitterrand's betes noires was the journalist Jean Edern Hallier, who tried to publish a pamphlet revealing the existence of Mazarine. Through wire taps, Mr Prouteau's cell learned that Hallier was scheduled to be the guest on a television talk show. The Elysee put pressure on the television station to cancel the programme.
The telephone of Edwy Plenel, a correspondent for Le Monde, was also tapped. It was Mr Plenel who disclosed, in February 1983, that three Irish "super terrorists" arrested in Vincennes the previous August had in fact been framed by Mr Prouteau's unit.
Mr Plenel also broke the story of the sabotage by French defence ministry frogmen of the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior ship in 1985.
The archives discovered this winter show that Mr Prouteau attempted to obstruct justice in the affair of the three "Irlandais de Vincennes", who were none the less cleared.
History may not be kind to Mr Mitterrand, who spent much of his 14 years in office writing memoirs and building monuments to his rule.
Le Monde condemned Mr Mitterrand's use of his "black cabinet" as reminiscent of pre revolutionary monarchist tradition. He had violated the law, insulted the Republic and ridiculed the very freedoms he claimed to defend, Le Monde said. "Under cover of humanist rhetoric, Francois Mitterrand was a cynical politician," Patrick Devedjian, a centre right deputy said. "The president of the Republic cannot be tried, except in the case of high treason - which is defined by no text," Mr Devedjian added. "So the president of the Republic is above the law."
