PARIS (Reuters)
French authorities have raided the home of a journalist and placed him under official investigation for publishing a document on al-Qaeda that was classified a defense secret, a judicial source said on Friday.
Guillaume Dasquie was placed under official investigation overnight after spending two nights in detention, the source said.
The investigation relates to an article published in Le Monde in April entitled "Sept. 11, 2001 - The French knew a lot about it", in which Dasquie cited reports by the DGSE foreign intelligence service dating back to 2000 and 2001.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the search carried out in Dasquie's home.
"It is unprecedented and outrageous that counter-espionage police raided a journalist's home at dawn, searched it for five hours and then took him into custody," RSF said.
"A leak from within the intelligence services or the office of an investigative judge cannot not be blamed on the journalist who publishes the information, which in this case clearly deserved to be made public. Dasquie just did his job and does not deserve to be treated like this," RSF said in a statement.
"I'm profoundly upset by what I have gone through," Dasquie, who was released on bail, was quoted as saying by Le Monde. "The aim of my arrest was really to get to know my sources." |
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Classified information Dasquie, an independent journalist, is accused of possessing classified defense documents and divulging classified files and information, the source said.
Dasquie's article in April referred to classified documents by the DGSE that showed foreign agents had infiltrated Osama bin Laden's network and were carefully tracking its moves.
One document prepared in January 2001 was entitled "Plan to hijack an aircraft by Islamic radicals", and said the operation had been discussed in Kabul at the start of 2000 by al-Qaeda.
The article said the French report of January 2001 had been handed over to a CIA operative in Paris, but that no mention of it had ever been made in the official U.S. September 11 Commission, which produced its findings in July 2004. |
