Carla Bruni Reins In the Heavies to Calm l’affaire Twitter
THE SUNDAY TIMES: After rumours of extramarital affairs, telephone taps and a plot to destabilise the French state, the latest episode in France’s presidential soap opera features efforts by Carla Bruni, the president’s wife, to rein in “the firm”.

A cluster of Nicolas Sarkozy’s closest advisers called themselves “the firm” years ago in a tribute to the ruthless lawyers of the John Grisham thriller. Like guard dogs, they have protected “Sarko”, always ready to rip his opponents to shreds.

Unleashed last week, however, one of these political pitbulls wreaked so much havoc that the nation was left wondering whether its master had lost his mind.

Just as gossip about marital discord in the Sarkozy household had dissipated, Pierre Charon, who handles sensitive matters for the president, managed to reignite “l’affaire Twitter” with claims of a plot emanating from abroad to discredit the French leader by spreading rumours about his love life over the internet.

The culprits would be rooted out, he promised, by a criminal investigation.

It was whispered that Dominique de Villepin, the former prime minister and Sarkozy’s chief rival, had played a role in disseminating gossip that the president was having an affair with Chantal Jouanno, his ecology minister, and that Bruni, the singer and former model, was in a relationship with another musician. All have denied any infidelity.

Charon announced that the domestic intelligence service was investigating the rumours, which first surfaced on Twitter, the internet social networking site, in February.

One of the culprits, he had earlier alleged, was Rachida Dati, a former justice minister and a fallen presidential favourite. Sarkozy abruptly cancelled her car and bodyguards and told aides that he did not want to see the Euro MP and Paris district mayor ever again.
She suffered further humiliation when she went to Geneva to address an expatriate meeting on behalf of the president’s centre-right UMP party. Instead of booking her into the five-star hotel she had requested, the party, citing a need to crack down on expenses, put her in a room at the airport overlooking a car park.

Dati was said to have been on the verge of tears when told by reception that the hotel was full and she would have to share her room with a parliamentary aide. “That’s what happens when you attack the firm,” Charon told a group of Sarkozy supporters last week.

Dati has threatened to sue him or anyone else who links her to the rumours and appealed on Wednesday for an audience with the president so she could persuade him of her innocence. She has long been at loggerheads with Charon and other members of “the firm” such as Brice Hortefeux, the interior minister, who is one of Sarkozy’s best friends.

The bad feeling dates back to before Sarkozy was president, when Dati told Cécilia, his second wife, about his affair with a journalist from Le Figaro newspaper. >>> Matthew Campbell in Paris | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Nicolas Sarkozy 'Ordered French MI5 to Find Out Who Was Behind Affair Rumours'
THE TELEGRAPH: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's attempt to defuse rumours she and her husband were having affairs has backfired after it emerged Nicolas Sarkozy ordered French counter-intelligence to find out who was behind the rumours.

The revelation came just three hours after the president's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy went on air to deny there was any inquiry into speculation the couple's marriage was in trouble.

The first lady's radio interview was designed to counter claims that her husband believed the rumours of infidelity were part of an international conspiracy against France, but her damage limitation exercise backfired on one crucial point.

Press reports on Wednesday said that President Sarkozy ordered the DCRI, France's counterespionage service, to root out the source of unsubstantiated rumours that both he and his wife were having affairs. The reports said as part of the inquiry, Rachida Dati, the former justice minister, was bugged and subsequently declared persona non grata by the Elysée. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, April 08, 2010

Related:

Various articles on this story both in English and French >>>

Nicolas Sarkozy, a Modern Louis XVI?
THE GUARDIAN: The French president's techniques to uncover the source of rumours would not have been out of place in the ancien régime

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy sounded like an 18th-century first lady who lunches, when she appeared live on French national radio to laugh off rumours about infidelity at the Élysée Palace. "Non," she purred, there was nothing in the silly claims. She had not fallen for a hunky young pop singer called Benjamin Biolay and, "non", her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, was not being comforted by a young minister-come-karate champion called Chantal Jouanno. Moreover, there would be no possibility of revenge against the disloyal underlings accused of spreading the gossip – particularly former justice minister Rachida Dati who, Carla added ominously, remained "our friend".

So that was that all sorted then? Pas du tout! Forgetting all the grim allusions to affairs of state (or inter-ministerial "karaoke sessions" as one of Sarkozy's more entertaining wives once described them), what the latest scandal teaches us is that the court of the French head of state is as vindictive and cruel as it was in the days of Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis XVI.

Within hours of Bruni-Sarkozy's devastating reference to Dati, the former head of the DCRI, the Gallic version of MI5, appeared on another radio station to confirm that he had been ordered to find and punish the blabbermouth. This was not long after Dati, who is now an MEP, had been stripped of her chauffeur-driven car, three bodyguards and even governmental smart phone. >>> Nabila Ramdani | Friday, April 09, 2010

Nicolas Sarkozy in Marriage Rumour Bugging Claims
THE TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign to find out who started rumours alleging he and his wife were having affairs threatened to spiral into an affair of state, amid reports claiming that his former justice minister was bugged to see whether she instigated them.

Reports claim that Sarkozy's former justice minister was bugged to see whether she instigated the affair rumours. Photograph: The Telegraph
Mr Sarkozy said last month he did not have "half a minute" to spare on "idiotic" rumours over the state of his marriage after they appeared on Twitter and the blog on the website of a respected weekly newspaper.

But just when the buzz over the rumour that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy had an affair with the musician Benjamin Biolay while her husband sought solace in the arms of Chantal Jouanno, his ecology minister, began to fade, the presidents' aides launched a virulent counter-attack this week.

Pierre Charon, Mr Sarkozy's chief communication adviser, promised to wage a campaign of terror against rumour-mongers, apparently pointing the finger at the president's former justice minister, Rachida Dati, and suggesting there may be a concerted plot by foreign "financial" circles to discredit the president because he preaches regulating global capitalism. The name of Dominique de Villepin, Mr Sarkozy's arch-rival, was also thrown into the mix by other Elysée sources.

Yesterday, sources were claiming that French domestic intelligence had bugged the phone calls of Miss Dati, a fallen cabinet star and now the mayor of Paris' 7th arrondissement and an MEP, and surmised that she had either started or spread the rumours.

A government spokesman denied the bugging claims, but Mr Sarkozy's chief adviser yesterday said the president "does not want to see Rachida Dati anymore", apparently confirming he holds her at least in part responsible for the rumours. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Related / Liens en relation avec l’article:

LE FIGARO: Face aux rumeurs, Dati se dit «scandalisée» >>> Par figaro.fr le | Mercredi 07 Avril 2010

LE POINT: Rumeurs sur la vie privée du couple présidentiel : RÉACTION - Me Herzog, avocat de Sarkozy : "Je ne peux pas exclure que ce soit une machination" >>> Par Cyriel Martin | Mardi 06 Avril 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Carla Bruni attempts to calm storm over marriage rumours: The scandal surrounding rumours over the state of Nicolas Sarkozy's marriage last night threatened to spiral into an affair of state. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Wednesday, April 07, 2010

LE FIGARO: Rumeurs : pour Carla Sarkozy, «il n'y a pas de complot» : «Il n'y a pas de vengeance, ces rumeurs insignifiantes ne nous concernent en rien», assure la première dame, qui dément également l'existence d'une enquête sur l'origine des ragots. Une version contredite par le patron du renseignement intérieur. >>> Par Constance Jamet | Mercredi 07 Avril 2010

TIMES ONLINE: Nicolas Sarkozy pays for not letting rumour die: President Sarkozy’s attempts to quash rumours about problems in his marriage have backfired after his advisers spoke out about an international plot, blamed a glamorous former minister and ordered the state security service to investigate. >>> Charles Bremner, Paris | Thursday, April 08, 2010

Sarkozy Blames 'Anglo-Saxon Financiers' For Spreading Rumours About His Marriage As Dati Protests Her Innocence
MAIL ONLINE: French president Nicolas Sarkozy has accused British financiers of being part of a 'plot' to destabilise his country's economy by spreading rumours his marriage was in crisis.

The furious president is is said to believe that 'Anglo-Saxon financiers' may have started rumours that he and wife Carla Bruni were both having affairs.

The comments from his spokesman came as former justice minister Rachida Dati formally denied that she was behind the rumours.

In the latest dramatic twist to the Elysee Palace soap opera, the 44-year-old single mother ‘denied vehemently’ having said that the President and his wife were both having affairs.

Her comments came as a criminal inquiry was launched into the scandal, with those found guilty facing prison.

The president's spokesman Pierre Charon has ordered a 'campaign of terror' against those who started the rumours, which first appeared on Twitter then in newspapers across Europe.

The Elyseé Palace seems persuaded that the rumours originated in the Anglo-Saxon dominated financial markets as part of a conspiracy to initiate speculation against French debt.

'We shall find out if there has now been some kind of organised plot involving financial movements,' Mr Charon said in an interview with internet newspaper Rue 89.

'The fact that these rumours were spread in the newspapers in Britain, Germany and Switzerland makes us think of a conspiracy while France is preparing to take over the presidency of the G20 in 2011,' he said.

France's first couple were at the centre of media frenzy last month after false rumours erupted that Ms Bruni was having an affair with pop star Benjamin Biolay, six years her junior.

Mr Sarkozy was said to have sought comfort in the arms his attractive ecology minister Chantal Jouanno, a claim she has denied.

Those responsible for starting the rumours will be 'hunted down and punbished'[sic] and a criminal investigation had been launched by police and intelligence agencies, Mr Charon said.

He added: 'We are going to war on these ignominious reports. We want to take things as far as we can to make sure this will never happen again. We want those who tried to spread fear to feel fear themselves.'

France's left-wing Liberation [sic] newspaper described the language used as 'paranoid'.

French daily Sud-Ouest wrote: 'Can't Mr sarkozy see that it is precisely this kind of threatening language that makes people want to target him in the first place.'

And reporters at the Journal du Dimanche - which repeated the rumours in a blog on the paper's website - protested what they called the 'unprecedented bullying and inquisitorial' attitude of the Elysie. >>> Mail Foreign Service | Tuesday, April 06, 2010

LE POINT: Rumeurs sur la vie privée du couple présidentiel : RÉACTION - Me Herzog, avocat de Sarkozy : "Je ne peux pas exclure que ce soit une machination" >>> Par Cyriel Martin | Mardi 06 Avril 2010

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Rumeurs sur les Sarkozy: "Rachida Dati n'est pas impliquée" : FRANCE | Le rôle prêté à Rachida Dati dans la propagation de rumeurs autour de la vie privée du couple présidentiel est "impensable" et susceptible de relever de la diffamation, a déclaré l'avocat de l'ex-garde des Sceaux, Me Georges Kiejman. >>> AFP | Mardi 06 Avril 2010

Carla Bruni and Nicolas Sarkozy: L’affaire twitter
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Reports that the marriage of France’s first couple was in trouble sprang from just two postings on the social networking site

When Nicolas Sarkozy, the French leader, and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, hosted a state banquet for Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, at the Elysée Palace recently it was not only Carla’s figure-hugging dress that caught people’s attention.

After dinner, in an unusual departure from custom, the Sarkozys failed to show up for coffee in the drawing room with their guests. Something must have been wrong, one of those present later told a foreign diplomat: they must be having a row.

Spare a thought for “Sarko” and his première dame, a singer and former top model. Ever since they met at a dinner party, and married just over two years ago, the country has been wondering how long it will last. A president known for a roving eye, a willowy beauty renowned as a “man-eater” — to many it seemed destined to end in tears.

No wonder, then, that their body language, and everything else about them, is scrutinised so intensely: the merest detail is enough to set off the gossips. If Carla appears at the president’s side in heels, as she did for the Russian banquet, she must be signalling her displeasure by towering over the pint-sized Sarkozy. Mustn’t she?

In the grand old days of Versailles, it would take weeks for gossip to filter through the ramparts to the hungry masses outside. Today the internet is being used like a battering ram against the high palace walls.

In the age of Twitter, rumours flash around the world in a second and can end up in newspapers, regardless of whether they are true. It has prompted debate among lawyers about whether victims can pursue Twitterers, and if simply relaying a defamatory tweet should also be punishable under the law.

Even before the Medvedev dinner 12 days ago, rumours were flying in cyberspace. Carla was having an affair, it was said, with Benjamin Biolay, a 37-year-old singer, and had been on holiday with him to Thailand. A jealous Sarkozy had sent a jet to bring her home.

That was not all. Twitterers went on to say that the president was consoling himself in the arms of Chantal Jouanno, his junior ecology minister, a karate champion. By the time the British press got hold of the story last Wednesday, the French first couple were reported to be on the verge of rupture.

At a press conference with Gordon Brown, the prime minister, in London last Friday, Sarkozy was asked about the rumours. He glowered at the offending journalist: “I certainly don’t have time to deal with these wild imaginings, not even half a fraction of a second. I don’t even know why you use your speaking time to put such an idiotic question.”

For her part, Jouanno, who is married with three children — to whom she described her job as being minister “for the birds and the bees” — is threatening to sue any publication that refers to any affair between her and Sarkozy. Biolay has likewise threatened to sue.

So how did a few bits of internet gossip make global headlines? And what, if anything other than pure fantasy, is behind all the tweets? >>> Matthew Campbell in Paris | Sunday, March 14, 2010

Carla Bruni: 'Who Knows If It's Forever*'
THE TELEGRAPH: Carla Bruni has done little to end speculation about her relationship with Nicolas Sarkozy by giving a half-hearted response when questioned about whether her marriage "was forever".

In an interview with Sky News, the French first lady described her relationship as a "fairy tale" but went on to say she did not know how long it would last.

While discussing her husband, she was asked: "Is he for keeps – is he forever?"

After a long pause, she replied: "I guess marriage should be forever but who knows what happens. I wish it was forever, that's my hope ... but we could be dead tomorrow." >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Wednesday, March 10, 2010

*By Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s own admission, she has always found the idea of monogamy boring. What reason have we got to believe that she has changed her mind? It is my belief that she will probably stick with Nico for as long as he is Président de la République. Being la première dame de la République, after all, is too good to miss out on. Isn’t living in the elegant Élysée Palace and all the trappings that come with the position the real "fairy tale"? One doesn’t usually walk away from a fairy tale while it's unfolding; but when the time comes that she’ll have to move out of there, when the fairy tale will be at an end, possibly with Nico at her side, it will be a different story. If I’m not greatly mistaken, when that time comes, she’ll cast Nico aside like an old shoe, and she’ll go for a newer model! Nicolas will be unable to offer her the excitement any longer, the excitement she so obviously craves. – © Mark

THE TELEGRAPH: To the picture gallery / À la galerie de photos / Zur Fotogalerie >>>

TIMESONLINE: Carla Bruni denies affair rumours sparked by Twitter and internet gossip >>> Charles Bremner, Paris | Wednesday, March 10, 2010

France's Hardline Immigration Minister Accused of Planning to Convert to Islam to Marry His Young Muslim Girlfriend
MAIL ONLINE: France's hardline immigration minister Eric Besson is threatening to sue over hotly denied claims he is about to convert to Islam to marry his young Muslim girlfriend.

The rumours, reported on French news website Bakchich Info, come as the 51-year-old spearheads a campaign against alien religions and cultures swamping his country.

He has already called for the Muslim burkha to be banned, and wants potential immigrants to take French tests and swear allegiance to the Republic.

This particularly applies to those arriving from Muslim countries who do not share the same values as France’s predominantly Roman Catholic population.

Divorced Mr Besson has admitted that he currently lives with a Paris art school student who is the great-granddaughter of Wassila Bourguiba, the wife of the former Tunisian president, Habib Bourguiba.

The father-of-three's younger lover was named as Yasmine Tordjman, who is in her 20s.

Before Christmas he travelled to the north African country to meet Ms Tordjman's mother, prompting speculation that he would re-marry in June.

Islam does not allow mixed marriages, meaning the minister would have to convert from Catholicism to Islam.

But Besson has now released an official statement stating that he ‘deplores having to deny a conversion to a religion which I otherwise respect, I am very attached to the secular character of our Republic.’ >>> Peter Allen | Wednesday, February 10, 2010

White House, Hawaii Again Try to Deal with Questions about Obama's Birth
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Officials point to proof that the president is a naturally born U.S. citizen. Yet even 'if I had some DNA,' the disbelievers wouldn't be satisfied, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says.

Reporting from Washington - It is the Internet rumor that has been discredited but will not die: President Obama is not a naturally born U.S. citizen and therefore constitutionally is not qualified to serve.



This week, months after the allegations first cropped up on the Web and talk radio, the White House and Hawaii officials addressed the rumor -- with the state's health director saying that she had reviewed the records in question and found that they verified Obama was born in Hawaii.



At the same time, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, there probably was nothing that would quiet the disbelievers.



"If I had some DNA, it wouldn't assuage those that don't believe he was born here," Gibbs told reporters Monday. "But I have news for them and for all of us: The president was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the 50th state of the greatest country on the face of the Earth. He's a citizen." >>> Mark Silva | Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Muslims’ fascination with rumours and conspiracy theories
GULF NEWS: The Muslim world seems to be in the grip of all kinds of rumours. The willingness of large numbers of Muslims to believe some outrageous assertions reflects pervasive insecurity coupled with widespread ignorance.

The contemporary Muslim fascination for conspiracy theories limits the capacity for rational discussion of international affairs. For example, a recent poll indicates that only 3 per cent of Pakistanis believe that Al Qaida was responsible for the 9/11 attacks in the US, notwithstanding Osama Bin Laden and his deputies have taken credit for the attacks on more than one occasion.

The acceptance of rumours and the readiness to embrace the notion of a conspiracy does not apply exclusively to the realm of politics. Villagers in rural Nigeria are refusing to administer the polio vaccine to their infant children out of fear that the vaccine will make their offspring sterile.

Some religious leaders in Pakistan's Pashtun tribal areas bordering Afghanis-tan have also voiced concerns about a "Western-Zionist conspiracy" to sterilise the next generation of Muslims as part of what they allege is an "ongoing war against Islam". Reasons for decline of the Muslim world (Read on)

Mark Alexander