French spies are immune to honeytrap schemes because their wives already know they are having affairs, MI6’s French counterpart has revealed.
The Russians realized that generating blackmail by establishing illegal relations with French spies was not working, according to intelligence officers from the Directorate General of External Security (DGSE).
“Go ahead, my wife already knows,” was a standard response according to an agent in a documentary The Making of Secret Agents in which the French spy service was scrutinized.
It was broadcast on Tuesday evening on the French television channel France 2.
The agent ‘Nicolas’, who appeared anonymously on the show, said that defectors from the Soviet Union talked about the ‘French paradox’.
He said the phenomenon consisted of: if you say to a Frenchman with a mistress: ‘we caught you red-handed with a 22-year-old named Tatyana, work for us or we will tell your wife, it didn’t work’, The Telegraph reports.
French spies are immune to honeytrap schemes because their wives already know they are having affairs, MI6’s French counterpart has revealed (stock photo)
This is because they would normally say ‘she already knows’ or ‘Go ahead, show her, she will understand’.
It comes after senior Tory MP William Wragg resigned from the top party and Commons jobs after revealing he gave away colleagues’ phone numbers after being entrapped on a gay dating app.
William Wragg resigned as vice chairman of the 1922 Committee, the backstabbing Conservative organization, and as chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC).
The MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester admitted last week that he gave away his colleagues’ phone numbers to a Grindr contact out of fear that intimate images of himself would be leaked.
Scotland Yard has said it is investigating reports of the so-called ‘honeytrap’ scam after it was suggested that at least 12 men in political circles – including journalists – received unsolicited messages, raising security concerns.
It came as Mr Wragg was criticized by more of his Tory colleagues for his actions, amid some calls for his suspension from the party.
Bernard Emié, 65, France’s spy chief until December last year, says the country’s secret service is staffed by “ordinary people doing extraordinary things with extraordinary resources.”
Access to the spy agency was granted after recent negative press.
IMP William Wragg admitted passing on MPs’ phone numbers for fear of blackmail after being set up
In part of the documentary, Emié strongly refutes claims that French spies were unaware of Russia’s impending invasion of Ukraine when Putin’s troops deployed at the border in February 2022.
Britain and the US had warned that Putin planned to begin his invasion “in the coming days”, but the French said this did not happen. And President Emmanuel Macron was criticized for continuing to talk to the Russian president.
The documentary struck a chord with “Anglo-Saxons” who claimed they had photos showing the Iraq dictator holding missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction, but confusing rolled carpets in a factory for gasoline pipelines and rockets.
It added that the “Anglo-Saxons” were more likely to “throw more money into the search for contacts” but that the French spies are focusing on the ulterior motives of their targets.