He worked for 40 years in the intelligence services. Michel Guérin, currently honorary inspector general of the national police, publishes an informed dictionary of espionage on June 18 at Mareuil Editions . He was Friday the guest of Anne Roumanoff, on Europe 1, and took the opportunity to give us some anecdotes on the profession of spy, and in particular on how spies hide their profession from those around them.
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Michel Guérin intends to be clear on one point: a spy does not spy on his loved ones! "No, no, no, no, no, no. One of the guarantees of peace of mind in this work is knowing how to disconnect between your professional life and your private life", replies the former member of the services of intelligence, questioned on the subject. "Searching cell phones is useless, only to harm yourself!", He insists. In the private sector, a spy must therefore avoid "keeping the reflexes of his professional life".
"It's a question of character, of training"
Michel Guérin also assures him: no one has ever asked him to spy privately. "Absolutely not !" Nobody, moreover, was aware of what he was doing. And when we asked him about his job? "I am able to speak, not to say nothing, but not to answer the questions you are going to ask me ...", he replies.
When questioned, the spy therefore replied "that he is a police officer, or that he works at the Ministry of the Interior ... which is not inaccurate". The secret is to "give details without giving THE details". How, then, to avoid arguing with loved ones by being so distant? "It is a question of character, of training, of partitioning too," explains Michel Guérin. Who insists: "That is why I say that you really have to cut between your professional life and your family life, your private life".