Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 24, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free August 24 of jilt French reopen probe into baffling murder or by Jonathan Randal the Washington Post Paris socialist government of president Francois Mitterrand has reopened the investigation into Henri cartels an apparently politic ally motivated killing that has become entangled in International controversy about soviet disinformation and intelligence penetration in the the saintly victim of a new Dreyfus affair Frame up to his to his enemies Curiel was a redoubtable so Viet spymaster and terrorist Boss sex he was assassinated Here by two gunmen May and efforts by supporters to identify and punish his killers Long but with two socialist ministers on a committee determined to Clear his name and officials in prime minister Pierre Maurois entourage swearing to get to the Bottom of the murder this curies friends see new since Mitterrand election in persistent which government officials decline to deny Sug Gest that the outgoing members of the administration of Valery Giscard Des Taing took All sensitive files on Curiel with the assassination of born in Egypt in 1914 the son of Rich italian bom is one of half a dozen apparently political kill Ings that occurred during the presidency of Giscard that the socialists Are pursuing out of a sense of a desire for political change perhaps most an instinct for Politi Cal according to socialist party Curiel ran an organization Here that he called a charitable institution de signed to help people working against undemocratic third world govern but his accusers say it was a cover for subversive the socialists Are moving now to establish their control Over the French intelligence which is suspected of having leaked allegations against Curiel to the French some influential socialists privately fear that they could fall victim to the kind of extreme righting politics that they Are convinced brought about the leaks and curies tracing information the socialists have also found suggestions in the files they did inherit third world contacts that Curiel fostered May have served Western intelligence at least As much As they aided soviet curies organization was penetrated by so Many intelligence organizations that they All lost an incredible element of of tracing which is the bread and butter of the when Curiel was said a socialist intelligence expert like most professionals in his line of asked that he not be for an alleged member of the world of surprisingly much is known about curies origins and act As a Young Man in Curiel became a communist and spent two years in King Farouk concentration Camps for his beliefs before being de ported in who was educated in French run Catholic missionary schools in entered France illegally and lived there clandestinely until he was arrested in 1960 for helping algerian nationalists fighting for Independence against but still stateless and with an expulsion order hanging Over his Curie became what his israeli left Wing Friend Ufi Avneri called a Oneman revolutionary Clearing House and contractor for revolutionary what angers me about the charges against Curiel is they contain just enough truth to make the lies convince Avneri said in a recent inter curies Many friends assert that had he really been an agent for the Kab or otherwise engaged in As has been the French police and intelligence establishment would have quickly brought him to curies defenders see instead a pattern of official tolerance for his activities during the 1960s stemming from the fact that his Aims in the third world and those of the ruling gaullist Coin the More conservative govern ments that succeeded Charles de Gaulle were with some minis tries still but others increasingly hostile to curies the most tangible indication of socialist determination in the Case came when the new government turned Over to curies widow and lawyer an official file that the Giscard government had refused to charge rejected the file included a judgment by a special government commission that cleared Curiel of rejecting an Interior ministry charge that he had used his third world oriented Volun tary organization Solidarity later renamed aide it Amitie for subversion in France and abroad and in aiding French lately have ruled in favor of curies widow and friends and associates whose names were mentioned in connection with his and who have brought libel last a Paris court considered such charges and curies alleged Kab connection As described in a Book entitled the Curiel network or humanitarian and found its a Roland guilty in a libel suit brought by Rose the curies longtime associate Joyce and Terre Basile country of an organization helping political refugees gaucher was ordered to pay a Fine of francs roughly As is customary in his publisher was obliged to insert a printed copy of the courts judgment in the Book and have three French publications print the verdict As the were awarded the traditional one franc in symbolic damages and the court or dered All mention of them in the Book to be blacked curies wife and Blau have brought a similar suit against american journalist Claire whose the terror was published in French after the american edition came out last a chapter from the Book by a former free Lance correspondent for the washing ton Post in was published by the Washington Post Magazine March the chapter deals extensively with curies alleged subversive even before the French edition came the plaintiffs lawyers succeeded in having certain passages and a footnote to that effect on the first Page of the Curiel chapter sought to diminish the publishers the unsubstantiated charges of spy ing and terrorism were first made in 1976 in the French there is Mitterrand government is committed to solving political murder that occurred while Giscard left was former president Pompidou abundant circumstantial evidence that the allegations were leaked deliberately by the French intelligence establish gaucher Book Speaks of a heavily footnoted counterintelligence report of 250 pages and reproduces in an Annex documents purporting to be facsimiles of official French documents on what remains unclear although the subject of much speculation was the in France both the direct Ion de la surveillance do Terr Toire St roughly counterintelligence inside France and the service de documentation it contre espionage dece but not involved in intelligence operations abroad Are covered by official secrecy divulging information contained in their files to the Public is a serious criminal offence punishable by a heavy Fine or it was this aspect of the Curiel Case that led Jeanmarie the now retired editor of the left Wing Catholic monthly to compare it to the Dreyfus at the turn of the Century France was divided into two Camps either defend ing or attacking Alfred it was finally had been cashiered from the army and jailed on trumped up charges of spy the French news Magazine be Point first published the charges against Curiel anonymously in june then under pressure acknowledged that senior staffer Georges Suffert had written the with relatively minor variations suf forts article formed the basis for subsequent repetition of the accusations about curies alleged terrorist in addition to Sterling and others making similar charges were Brian crazier of the Institute for the study of conflict and Robert Moss in the economist foreign both based in and such righting French publications Asle Cra Pouilot and parts Arnaud de a former Newsweek correspondent and coauthor with Moss of the bestselling the which alleges Kab penetration of Western wrote to Suffert in 1980 that curies subversive activities were an open secret for the Western intelligence Domenaco commented that an open secret was one whose nature is to be hidden we always keep coming Back to this stupefying Paradox that proof is exactly what must not a in the june 1978 economist foreign Moss reported that French intelligence listed Curiel As a c2 to agent working for a foreign and said his file number with the St was 53 Over the years various officially unchallenged versions appeared in the French press claiming to identify the source of suffers original Allega the daily be Monde wrote on july that Alexandre de then the director general of had allowed the counter espionage file on Curiel to be leaked to Stop his dece officials neither con firm nor deny Public reports about their much less request made a High Interior ministry civil servant replying to a february request for confirmation of Moses detailed information it is not forbidden to think that the very fact of ordering the appraisal As he termed the re quest is Likely to incite the disappearance of the fact one seeks to Ascer the request was made to the administrative court of Paris under the French equivalent of the free Dom of information Curiel argued in 1977 that my activities Are successive min ister Sof the Interior have never tried to suppress them despite the sometimes scarcely orthodox aspects of some of he made that argument in Success fully getting the French government to reverse the Interior ministry decision to confine him to the Small town of Digne in the Southeastern Alps on an allegation of being a Public menace and threat to French the government commission investigating the charge cleared even by gaucher critical from the end of the algerian War in 1962 to de Gaul Les downfall in curies vision of the third world by and Large coincided with the one thing they had in common was a desire to weaken influence in Asia and South America As Well As in where Curiel officially helped american army As presidents Georges Pompidou and Giscard increasingly moved to the Curiel turned to a domestically less controversial Field that always had been close to his heart establishing dialogue Between Moder ate palestinians and israelis such As a prominent and the anticommunist Exair Force com Matti noted that if the French foreign and defence ministries had by this time no formal objections to curies this was certainly not the Case at the St and their Normal professional suspicions were complicated by the turbulence of French political life since the end of the second world two a cold colonial conflicts in indo China and the 1968 student worker upheaval All left their curies band of friends Revere his memory and appear determined to Clear his Early christians must have talked about Jesus after the crucifixion in much the same Avneri Curiel is still idolized As an extraordinary by the end of his almost any of 30 organizations in half As Many countries could have had reasons to kill according to those who have studied the the potential killers ranged from South american dictatorships to South from Israel to the French Mili which was said to be worried by his interest in setting up so called sol Diers committees contesting author Ity in the a lot of considered Curiel an a specialist in the prime ministers office and that was worse than being a after get connoisseur service not fit for an Empress Canadian taxpayers can Stop worry ing that air Canada might blow so much on its connoisseur service free Bies that it will run up a deficit they will have to the Peoples airline is keeping a tight rein on and is relying on its advertising to offset the differences Between connoisseur and the competing Empress offered by up first of the matter of names should be particularly in the Empress is a time honoured name in the Canadian Pacific it ships were called pm so and its Empress class has a history to but what about connoisseur it is not in any English language it is the French spelling for a word that Means someone who is a critical judge of or in matters of air Canada has chosen not to Call its new service connoisseur but it is close enough to the English spell ing to be and it is Comfort ing to know that air Canada has not lost its determination to avoid anything that might offend their French speak ing the connoisseur advertisements say it is an upgrading of services and amenities Given to passengers who pay the regular Economy so is pm press both Are also concessions to people who Are paying for a return Winnipeg to Fred Cleverley and become angry when they disco Vered they were sitting beside someone else who paid for the same but were still required to Fork out the same for a As the the ads say that a special service counter is provided for passengers on either it is still a ticket counter if anyone is unlucky to arrive at the same time As a few dozen others at the special counters he is in the same lineup As the cattle class passengers who do not get the free the connoisseur service says drinks Are on the the phrase holds True in Empress where the Cabin staff accomplished two rounds before dinner on a flight Between Van Couver and but on a similar connoisseur it would have been More accurate to say the drink is on the a Man in a nearby seat made three attempts to get another Beer before he found the he tipped Bis nearly empty Glass on the and asked the Call Button for the she and quickly in the following a cloth to wipe up the a card covering the dry cleaning of the few drops on the mans and another air Canada has always had a marvelous Knack for making anyone who wants a second even at feel that he must be an alcohol both classes offer free the connoisseur and says they fit Over the but the accompanying illustration is far different from the ear Pierc ing variety that Are connoisseur says a Little More where we keep the space around you its not always but we know youre often or need to work while flying and Well try to up air makes no such one of the things that makes it impossible for air Canada is when employees want to exercise their pass As knowledgeable air they usually try for first but sometimes have to be Satis fied with their drinks Are free As it is encouraging to discover that air Canada is so interested in a Happy connoisseur service is not without its because the aircraft had extra baggage to Board in Vancou ver after standby passengers were Al located those on the righthand Side of the aircraft did not mind at All the 30minute delay in air Canada says nothing about its aircraft leaving on the baggage cart rolled along with that moving Belt that convey the bags to the for 20 passengers enjoyed a display of baggage handling that should Settle for All time the question about television commercials being unfair to there is a commercial for Luggage while it does not exactly say the suitcases Are being moved by shows them disappearing on a Belt that looks much like those behind airline ticket the next sequence shows a Gorilla bashing the bags against Stone stamping on and reducing one not the advertisers product to an unrecognizable to be there were no bags broken at but the mirth that was generated at the enthusiasm with which the handler transferred the bags from the cart to the conveyor Belt was directly related to whether the bag was owned by the the Only thing left to compare is on air it was easy to give up the corned beef on a and a Jar whose contents had to be tasted to determine whether they were salad or pudding to the lady in the next seat because she had boarded on stand was told that there were not enough meals to go even the 20 cents Worth of chocolate was easy to give it would have been much harder to give up the meal on up although both airlines advertise that their two Oclock flight from Vancouver to Winni Peg serves a they obviously define the term air Canada served its Bun on a plastic but with Metal up airs snack was served on also with Metal for Empress the snack was loin Steak and doonesbury office and Kipping ;