“Officers new to counterintelligence and overwhelmed by the scope of what they need to learn often ask the same question: ‘Where do I start?’ The best place might be the Dreyfus affair.”
The Lessons for Counter-Intelligence of the Dreyfus Affair — CIA Website
January 5 2021 — On January 5 1895, Dreyfus was summarily convicted in a secret court-martial, publicly stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in French Guiana. Following French military custom of the time, Dreyfus was formally degraded by having the rank insignia, buttons and braid cut from his uniform and his sword broken, all in the courtyard of the École Militaire before silent ranks of soldiers, while a large crowd of onlookers shouted abuse from behind railings. Follow us on twitter: @Intel_Today
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“I swear that I am innocent. I remain worthy of serving in the Army. Long live France! Long live the Army!”
Alfred Dreyfus (January 5 1895)
UPDATE (October 31 2021) — Eric Zemmour is placed by opinion polls in second or third place in the campaign for the April 2022 presidential election.
Zemmour, whose parents were Jewish Algerians with French citizenship, has repeatedly cast doubt — with no evidence whatsoever — on the innocence of Dreyfus.
“Lots of people were ready to clear Dreyfus, but this affair is murky,” Zemmour, 63, told one TV show late last year.
“We will never know” whether the allegations against him were lies, he said on another, adding that his innocence was “not obvious”.
This nonsense is hardly surprising. For the French Ultra-Right, the Dreyfus case remains a litmus test of blind French patriotism. You are either pro-France or pro-Dreyfus. You cannot be both.
From 1894 to 1984 — Zemmour likes to quote an Orwell line from 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
“History is, of course, sometimes revised, but through study, through the discovery of new archives, new witnesses. Knowledge is obviously not fixed,” historian Marc Knobel said.
“But as far as the Dreyfus affair is concerned, historians and researchers have been exploring this vast field of study for decades.
And they continue to demonstrate, unanimously, the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus. Only Zemmour spreads suspicion.” [The Guardian]
This week, French president Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the Alfred Dreyfus Museum beside the home of Emile Zola, the novelist who campaigned to clear the captain, at Médan near Paris.
In 1898, Émile Zola published an open letter to President Félix Faure under the headline “J’Accuse,” denouncing “the abominable Dreyfus Affair.”
For writing this letter, Zola was sentenced to a year in prison for libeling the army. And then, he died. In very mysterious circumstances…
By the way, every Counter-Intelligence analyst should carefully study the Dreyfus Case.
The main lesson to be learned is this simple. Never focus on WHO did it before you fully understand WHAT actually happened! [I hope that a member of the CIA ‘Havana Syndrome’ task force will read this post…]
Carefully collect the FACTS and build the best TIMELINE [WHAT, WHERE & WHEN] you can manage. Eventually, WHO and WHY will become rather obvious.
END of UPDATE
“The Dreyfus affair was not only the first modern Counter-Intelligence case, but it was also the first modern Counter-Intelligence disaster — that is, not just an investigative and legal error, but one that spilled over from the intelligence world into the sphere of mass politics, with consequences for culture and society as well.”
John Ehmman
In 1894, the French Army’s counter-intelligence section, led by Lieutenant Colonel Jean Sandherr, became aware that information regarding new artillery parts was being passed to the Germans by a highly placed spy, most likely on the General Staff.
Suspicion quickly fell upon Dreyfus, who was arrested for treason on October 15 1894.
In August 1896, the new chief of French military intelligence, Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, reported to his superiors that he had found evidence to the effect that the real traitor was a Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.
Picquart was silenced by being transferred to the southern desert of Tunisia in November 1896.
When reports of an army cover-up and Dreyfus’s possible innocence were leaked to the press, a heated debate ensued about anti-Semitism and France’s identity as a Catholic nation or a republic founded on equal rights for all citizens.
Esterhazy was found not guilty by a secret court martial, before fleeing to England.
Following a passionate campaign by Dreyfus’s supporters, including leading artists and intellectuals, he was given a second trial in 1899 and again declared guilty of treason despite the evidence in favor of his innocence.
However, due to public opinion, Dreyfus was offered and accepted a pardon by President Émile Loubet in 1899 and released from prison.
This was a compromise that saved face for the military’s mistake.
On July 12 1906, Dreyfus was officially exonerated by a military commission.
In an article (The Lessons for CI of the Dreyfus Affair) posted on the CIA website (Intelligence in Public Literature), John Ehmman writes:
“Is there anything new to be learned about the Dreyfus affair? More than 115 years have passed since Dreyfus was convicted of treason, and it has been more than a century since he was exonerated.
With the facts of the case long settled, the archives thoroughly mined, and hundreds of books and articles published, it would seem unlikely that there is much left to be discovered or said.
As the appearance of three new books within a year indicates, however, scholars still can find new ways to look at the affair and draw fresh insights from it.”
The Dreyfus affair was indeed the first modern Counter-Intelligence disaster, not just an investigative and legal error, but one that spilled over from the intelligence world into the sphere of mass politics.
In 1898, Émile Zola published an open letter to President Félix Faure under the headline “J’Accuse,” denouncing “the abominable Dreyfus Affair.”
For writing this letter, Zola was sentenced to a year in prison for libeling the army.
Sadly, some people still believe that Dreyfus was guilty.
In 1994 — 100 years after Dreyfus was charged — a French Army historian cast doubt on Dreyfus’s innocence by describing it as “the thesis now generally accepted by historians”.
Alfred Dreyfus (Documentary — Full video)
UPDATE (January 5 2020) — A great story will never get old. The Dreyfus Affair is a very important story that must be taught to every counter-intelligence officer. And there is always a new way to tell a great story.
Last summer (2019), Roman Polanski won the Venice film festival’s second-biggest prize with An Officer and a Spy.
David Sexton — from the Evening Standard — wrote that the movie is “an absolute masterclass in how to make an historical film”.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly recently suggested that Dreyfus could be posthumously promoted to General.
“The truth demands courage. 120 years later, the time has come for the army to give Alfred Dreyfus back the honor and years that were taken from him, and I will personally see that it is done. There are scars that cannot be healed,” she said.
END of UPDATE
REFERENCES
Alfred Dreyfus — Wikipedia
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On This Day — French Captain Alfred Dreyfus Is Convicted of Treason (January 5 1895)
On This Day — French Captain Alfred Dreyfus Is Convicted of Treason (January 5 1895) [2020]
On This Day — French Captain Alfred Dreyfus Is Convicted of Treason (January 5 1895) [2021]
On This Day — French Captain Alfred Dreyfus Is Convicted of Treason (January 5 1895) [UPDATE : French presidential candidate casts doubt on the innocence of Dreyfus]
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