The security of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will not just be a matter of police officers on the street, it also depends on the ability to anticipate the threats weighing on this global competition. In response to requests from the intelligence services mobilized for the summer event, Matignon decided to let go of the surveillance means available to French spies.
According to information from Worldthe Prime Minister’s services are finalizing a provisional, classified decree, which plans to increase by 20% – during the Games – the information collection capacities (eavesdropping, geolocation, computer data, image capture and sound, etc.).
The intelligence services seemed to take for granted that they would have free rein, but the control authorities were keen to point out that, if monitoring an exceptional event required resources, this could not be the door open to unbridled surveillance.
“Diversity of threats”
Two meetings, organized on January 29 and February 5, with the national coordinator for intelligence and the fight against terrorism, prefect Pascal Mailhos, close advisor to the President of the Republic, made it possible to find a compromise.
Decided jointly with Serge Lasvignes, president of the National Commission for the Control of Intelligence Techniques – the only independent counter-power to state surveillance, which issues an advisory opinion on each request – these meetings took place in a courteous atmosphere, according to certain participants solicited by The world.
The intelligence services justified their expectations by describing “the diversity of threats” and the means they had to implement during the competition. They also stressed their fear of congestion at the level of the Commission, whose resources are limited. Concern dispelled by the body which specified that it would reinforce its permanent staff during the Games.
Around the table were Julien Le Guen, internal security advisor at Matignon, prefect Michel Cadot, interministerial delegate to the Olympic Games, and representatives of the services: internal security (DGSI) and external security (DGSE), military intelligence, intelligence of the Paris police headquarters, territorial intelligence and interministerial control group (GIC), an organization which centralizes all administrative interceptions for the police and intelligence services.
You have 42.22% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.