“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
The Lessons for Counter-Intelligence of the Dreyfus Affair (CIA Website)

January 13 2021 — “J’Accuse…!” was an open letter published on January 13 1898 in the newspaper L’Aurore by the influential writer Émile Zola. In the letter, Zola addressed President of France Félix Faure and accused the government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Army General Staff officer who was sentenced to lifelong penal servitude for espionage. As a result of the popularity of the letter, even in the English-speaking world, J’accuse! has become a common generic expression of outrage and accusation against someone powerful.  Follow us on twitter: @Intel_Today

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UPDATE (January 13 2023) — 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.

In early December 2022, Elon Musk polled Twitter’s users on whether whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange should be pardoned by the US government.

The poll received 3,316,014 votes. An overwhelming majority (80.5%) believes that both men should be pardoned.

The two cases are very different and I suspect that an even greater majority would support Assange if two polls were conducted independently.

Will a US President ever pardon Julian Assange?

END of UPDATE

“The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it.”

Emile Zola
(about the Dreyfus Affair)

UPDATE (January 13 2022) — Nobel Prize Nomination

Zola’s 1898 article is rare and superb example of an intellectual who used his reputation to shape public opinion, and thus managed to force a state to acknowledge its error.

Zola was nominated for the first (and second) Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901. The Swedish Academy’s decision to award Sully Prudhomme — often described as “a second rate poet who had not achieved anything”– the first Nobel Prize in Literature was heavily criticized at the time and remains one of the most criticized prize decisions in the history of the Nobel Prize in literature. Not even the 2016 prize attributed to Bob Dylan caused such a stir!

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Most observers believed that Leo Tolstoy was the superior candidate for the prize.

RELATED POST: 50 Years Ago — Pablo Neruda Awarded Literature Nobel Prize (October 21 1971) — Was Neruda a KGB Agent?

Many great writers, from Gabriel García Márquez  to Federico García Lorca, ranked Pablo Neruda as the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language. Neruda was awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize.

Yet, just last week, we learned that the 1971 judging panel were concerned the Chilean winner’s politics were ‘incompatible with the purpose of the prize.’

According to the newly opened archives, Patrick White, André Malraux and Eugenio Montale made the 1971 shortlist.

White (in 1973) and Montale (1975) would later win the prize, but Malraux never did.

Why didn’t Andre Malraux win the Nobel Prize? — The quality of Malraux’s work is exceptional and, without a doubt, worthy of a Nobel prize. [Malraux was nominated 45 times!] The Nobel committee chose not to give Andre Malraux the prize because of his close connection to the conservative government of Charles de Gaulle. 

RELATED POST: On This Day — British Foreign Office urges UK Newspaper to run Fake News about “French Kim Philby” (January 3 1968)

“Tragedy, in our times, is politics.”

END of UPDATE

“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

UPDATE (January 13 2021) — On January 13 1898, Émile Zola published an open letter to President Félix Faure under the headline “J’Accuse,” denouncing “the abominable Dreyfus Affair.”

Zola pointed out judicial errors and lack of serious evidence. The letter was printed on the front page of the newspaper and caused a stir in France and abroad. Zola was prosecuted for libel and found guilty on February 23 1898.

Zola was sentenced to a year in prison for libeling the army. To avoid imprisonment, he fled to England, returning home in June 1899.

And then, he died. In very mysterious circumstances…

In 1953, an investigation (“Zola a-t-il été assassiné?”) published by the journalist Jean Borel in the newspaper Libération raised the idea that Zola’s death might have been a murder rather than an accident.

It is based on the revelation of the Norman pharmacist Pierre Hacquin, who was told by the chimney-sweep Henri Buronfosse that the latter intentionally blocked the chimney of Zola’s apartment in Paris.

PS — 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. Will a US President ever pardon Julian Assange?

END of UPDATE

“Hacquin, je vais vous dire comment Zola est mort. […] Zola a été asphyxié volontairement. C’est nous qui avons bouché la cheminée de son appartement.”

Henri Buronfosse — Letter to Pierre Hacquin

UPDATE (January 13 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

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.

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.

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.

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)

REFERENCES

Alfred Dreyfus — Wikipedia

J’ Accuse…! — Wikipedia

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On This Day — Zola : “J’accuse…!” (January 13 1898)

On This Day — Zola : “J’accuse…!” (January 13 1898) [2020]

On This Day — Zola : “J’accuse…!” (January 13 1898) [2021]

On This Day — Zola : “J’accuse…!” (January 13 1898) [Nobel Prize Nomination]

On This Day — Zola : “J’accuse…!” (January 13 1898) [Will a US President ever pardon Julian Assange?]