Backchannel chatter: U.S.-French spy wars

Did the CIA bug the Paris apartment of the chief of French intelligence?

A forthcoming book says that French security agents discovered hidden microphones in the Paris apartment of Pierre Brochand, head of the DGSE, France’s version of the CIA, in 2008.

“Diplomats: Behind the Façade of France’s Embassies,” by Franck Renaud, says the alleged bugs were part of an underground war between French and U.S. intelligence that Adm. Dennis Blair, who submitted his resignation as DNI last week, tried to heal.

The White House rejected Blair’s proposed “non-aggression pact” with the DGSE, according to the Paris-based Intelligence Online newsletter, which first reported on Renaud’s book, to be published in early June.

Asked for comment, CIA spokesman George Little would say only, “A lot of books get a lot of things wrong.”