Mediapart: When the airports turn into a den of spies

France's Mediapart has conducted a lengthy investigation into the secret war, which he said is taking place at departure halls when France's closest allies in the war on terror, such as the United States and Israel, under cover of co-operation to prevent attacks, take advantage of some security measures at airports for industrial espionage purposes.

The site reviewed the story of a secretary in the French Ministry of Education interviewed by the Israeli security at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and then followed her phone was disabled during her holiday in Israel, and was later found to be working in the administration prevented Israeli researchers from accessing French laboratories secret.

According to the website, the Department of Homeland Security alerted the authorities several times between December 2018 and April 2019, to the gravity of the "Allied Air Security Measures", in documents showing that some countries are using the procedures for industrial espionage purposes at French airports.

In a lengthy article, the website monitors some of the stories of this covert war between the allies, after two months of investigation and interviews with public and private figures, in which it was confirmed that French allies, especially the United States and Israel, And steal their information at the security or customs investigation at airports.

Search outside the border

The website warned that the threat posed by jihadist cells to air transport is not merely an illusion, as evidenced by the attacks of September 11, 2001, and other incidents, and that "a high degree of technology has been able to design innovative, non- To detect during security inspections at airports. "

In response to this threat, the United States adopted the doctrine of the Jewish state, which imposed - in response to hijackings in the 1970s - initial controls at all airports wishing to establish ties with Israel. The Americans and Israelis transferred control of the border to the starting point rather than the arrival point On their land.

As for Charles de Gaulle Airport, about 70 million passengers a year are traveling to 330 destinations, it is tempting for the security services and intelligence to see what they carry in their bags, computers, tablets and phones that contain many secrets of their companies and departments. Fertile ground to put pressure on them.

Information gathering begins even before the initial steps at the airport. The United States, Canada and Australia provide entry facilities in exchange for providing particularly accurate personal and professional information. The TSA program encourages "reliable" travelers (ie, All questions) by exempting them from removing belts, shoes and jackets and offering portable devices for examination at US Customs.

The airline's check-in procedures provide a golden opportunity for intelligence services to supplement their information. The author of Mossad's Secret Warfare, Yevonik Donwell, explains how the intelligence services penetrated the Air France system to find a client address that Israeli spies were looking for.

The site featured the story of the hydrogen researcher and the head of a division of the Atomic Energy Commission, who presented herself in September 2017 at Charles de Gaulle airport. She was then taken by an Israeli security agent and interrogated for an hour and a half, checking her private and professional life. Her hand and the contents of her own computer which does not contain much because it was for the purpose of travel.

This researcher, who traveled to Israel at the request of an industrial partner to assess the technological level of an emerging company, gave her USB key to a staff member to transfer information to him. Once she returned to her country and put it on the work computer, a message of a Trojan horse appeared on the computer.

In another incident reviewed by the site, the Director General of a company in southern France specializing in prospecting in the field of health and nuclear energy on the way back from a conference on radiation oncology held in San Antonio, Texas, when three customs officers dropped him from his plane at Atlanta International Airport and questioned him For more than two hours they searched his phone and computer.

On his return to France, the manager discovered that his computer's hard drive, which included the company's various programs, had been copied.

The site pointed out that those who work for a private Airbus agency are subject to many obstacles and inspections when they run into American territory. An example is the arrest of Thomas Enders, who was still the chief executive of Europe's leading airline in January 2019 for two hours by Customs At Washington Airport.

Reset the devices in the carto n

In an incident in June 2014, the site was taken for granted as customs officials at Tel Aviv airport confiscated all electronic equipment from a French company official and forced him to put his equipment in two boxes for shipment to him later in France.

The official was from a company called Qosmos Software, which specializes in collective surveillance technology, and classifies part of its activities as confidential because it works with French intelligence services.

In September 2017, the director general of a French medical company was returning from the United States after spending time there with his colleagues. At the departure lounge, an airport security officer asked him to accompany him on suspicion of containing explosives on his laptop.

After the inspection, the manager was forced to turn on his computer and then deliver the passwords. The client then transferred the computer to a nearby room before being returned an hour later. The general manager boarded the plane just before leaving.

The manager returned to Paris after the hard drive was copied to his computer, which holds all of the company's strategic data, including the client file, which includes the commercial contracts, four thousand mail messages, a 2025 financing plan, and so on.

The website pointed out that the economic intervention involving some of France's closest allies under the pretext of combating terrorism is also being carried out in the issuance of travel documents to impede the free movement of businessmen competing with the jewels of industry in a region dominated by the United States.

In this context, a European arms company was particularly targeted. It organized a tourist trip to Guatemala, where staff were supposed to stop in the United States, but a security official at Roissy Airport in Paris canceled a senior executive visa for a false reason That his machine reported his loss.

Three years ago, the US immigration officer canceled another executive officer's visa in a French company on the grounds that he had lived in Iraq, where he had to go as part of his professional activity. He was detained for hours before he was allowed out.

Tips for travelers

In April 2018, the French General Directorate of Internal Security drafted a secret memorandum entitled "Panorama of American economic intervention in France", which was revealed by Le Figaro. In this note, the "public and private entities" The looting of butter produced by the strategic sectors.

In the face of repeated interference by the Allies, the National Agency for Information Systems Security and the Department of Public Security has increased awareness sessions for public and private economic actors.

Both devices recommend the use of mission-specific equipment that does not contain information other than those required for this occasion, by encrypting data and using the secure cloud.

These recommendations include: "It is necessary at airports to avoid attracting attention and travel with minimal electronic devices." The spies themselves apply these recommendations. The agents of the General Directorate of External Security travel with the old Motorola telephone phone to send text messages that do not connect to the Internet.

Once you return from travel, you must analyze the electronic devices before connecting them to the company's intranets, so as not to enter a virus or spyware without the knowledge of the user.

In conclusion, the philosopher and researcher Olivier Chopin believes that many countries have published their sensors in the name of the terrorist threat on the new borders, airports, and that the threat through these channels has diminished, and the complete control structure that results must result in these countries returning to logic Defense of interests, namely, economic espionage.