LONDON TIMES SAYS FRENCH PARTY LEADER BRIBED TO PLACE SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100080005-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 2011
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: January 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/14 :CIA-RDP90-
ARTICLE AP ED
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STAT
leader bribed to place spy
WASHINGTON TIMES
1 January 1986
009658000100080005-1
London Times says Frencn par[y
By Peter Almond
THE WASHINGTON TIMES FOREIGN SERVICE
Romantan secret mt~e t ence serv-.
ice an t t e rte a to
ront party ea er can- ane
Pen a- - [ T-e~~ to se_c_u_re-T1ts
parliamentary seat.
1Tl a agent forme communist Ro-
manian government was idegtified
by the Sunday Times as Gustave
Pordea, aRomanian-born, nat-
uralized French citizen who has
been a controversial member of the
small, 10-man National Front dele=
gation to the European Parliament at
Strasbourg since June 1984. He has
been controversial ever since Mr. Le
Pen placed him, unknown and un-
announced to most of the rest of the
party, high on a list of candidates for
.seats the National Front was sure to
win in the Euro-elections.
The reason for being placed high
on the list, the Sunday Times
claimed, was Mr. Pordea's "bribe"-
although Mr. Le Pen reportedly did
not know it came from the resources
of a communist government.
The alleged links between Mr.
Pordea and the Romanian intelli-
gence service were first spotlighted
by the Paris newspaper Le Matin as
long ago as the eve of election day in
1984. But the paper made no men-
tion of the bribe, and Mr. Le Pen
claimed at the time that Le Matin
was trying to smear the National
Front, which has been accused of
xenophobia.
Mr. Le Pen said the selection of
Mr. Pordea showed that the party
considered any Frenchman of for-
eign origin to be completely French'
and that Mr. Pordea would be a
spokesman for the people of Eastern
Europe.
The European Parliament has lit-
tle real power, but it is considered a
useful contact point for European-
mindedpoliticians and has a real po-
tentialfor control over the European
Economic Commission. Romania is
the only East-bloc country to recog-
nize the EEC.
LONDON - A
ma'or
British
news a er Sunda
c atme
to
ve
stablis e t t a
enc
n
t
win " mem er o t e uro can
ar-
iament is in fact an agent o
e
Mr. Pordea successfully sued Le
Matin, then successfully sued it
again when the paper quoted a letter
from Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa,
deputy director of the Romanian in-
telligence service until he defected
to the West in 1978, stating that he
had personally reactivated Mr. Por-
dea as an agent of influence in .the
early 1970s.
Gen. Pacepa did not give evidence
in Mr. Pordea's lawsuit against Le
Matin earlier this year, and the pa-
per lost the case. But the Sunday
Times said it had been in contact
with Gen. Pacepa in the United
States and had "received a categoric
assurance" that the letter to Le
Matin fingering Mr. Pordea as a Ro-
manian agent was accurate and that
it was only security considerations
that kept him from testifying
against Mr. Pordea in Paris.
According to the Sunday Times
report, by Paris correspondent Jon
Swain, Mr. Pordea, 69, was a Roma-
nian diplomat who chose exile in
France rather than return to Bucha-
rest in 1947. He then worked for a
publisher and has written many
books, mostly on the theme of Roma-
nian nationalism.
On D e became a nat-
uralized Frenchman. Five da s ater
according to the Sundav Times, e
flew to Vienna and met with Costel _
lVIitran. a Bucharest-based Roma-
nian diplomat who has been iden-
ified b Western securit a enctes
as a senior figure in the DI , t e
R mantan secret servtce res onst-
ble for runnine Rorn_anian un er-
c vep r agents in foreign countries.
r. t ran renorte v to Mr.
Pordea Romanian intelligence had
fixe a u get or-t ie -
eration to get im mto t e uropean
ar lament.
Back in Paris, Mr. Pordea tried
through a political organization
called the Fondation Pour 1'Europ to
get himself on a center-right coali-
tion list led by Simone Veil. He
failed, and was later dismissed from
the foundation.
Mr. Pordea then reportedly tried
to approach Jean-Marie Le Pen's
right-wing National Front through
the "sympathetic" Unification
Church of the nev. ~uii ,.,yu~.s
Moon, even though Mr. Pordea was
said to be a devout Roman Catholic.
"He sat at the back [of church
meetings] eating sandwiches;' a
Unification Church member was
quoted as saying. "He made much of
the fact that he lived on very little
money and was a widower who had
brought up six children. He made
himself to be a figure almost to be
pitied:'
But the Sunday Times said Unifi-
cation Church members were suspi-
cious of Mr. Pordea's motives and
refused to arrange an introduction
to Mr. Le Pen.
He finally succeeded through an
old friend, the Comtesse de Solliers,
who reportedly told Mr. Le Pen's?
wife, Pierrette, that Mr. Pordea had
unspecified friends who would pay
four million francs ($500,000) to get
Mr. Pordea fifth or sixth in
prominence on the National Front
list of candidates. Mr. Le Pen
accepted -and put Mr. Pordea on
the list at No. 4.
The Sunday Times reported that
the financial link between Mr. Le
Pen and Mr. Pordea was made by
Pierre Darier, son of the head of the
Banque Darier in Geneva.
On June 17t 1984, the National
Front won 11 percent of the vote in
the European elections, its biggest
victory to date. Mr. Pordea was guar-
anteed aseat in Parliament.
Confronted by the Sunday Times'
investigation, Mr. Pordea reportedly
said: "Very funny. I have nothing to
say. I am not going to confirm or
deny anything"
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/14 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100080005-1