At 7:30 am on on Friday, 27 November [2009], we penetrated into the sacred zone surrounding 84 rue de Villiers in Levallois-Perret, the offices of the French CIA.[2] Ever since they started taking all of our friends there, one could legitimately wonder what this mysterious place would be like. In truth, it completely resembles a four-star hotel for American seminarians, with its glass hall and its disgusting prefabricated outbuildings (which, one notes in passing, are the rooms that they have precisely reserved for our friends). This time, it was Christophe[3] who paid the price of the armed despair of Judge Fragnoli, once more lacking [new] developments [in the case]. Christophe is, it seems, accused of being too close to some of those who were indicted, in particular, his wife Manon, who he regularly sees, according to sources close to the case. We decided to throw him a little party.
On Friday the 27th, at the break of day, and when his lawyer was first able to see him (the 72d hour of his detention having come), twenty people wearing sunglasses and carrying umbrellas congregated around a mini-van parked just opposite the aforementioned prefabricated elements. From the vehicle came a hoarse and wild music, to which the cries of the small bizarre and dancing crowd responded. Looking more carefully, it seemed that, ensconced in the glove compartment below the vehicle's ceiling, two suspect individuals were busying themselves with a drum and a howling synthesizer. The sound managed to penetrate the sound-proofed depths and the incipient deafness of our comrade, who -- his lawyer assures us -- heard something.
Such an unusual crowd troubled the agents of the SDAT, who no doubt did not feel like making arrests, armed and masked, for "early-morning disturbance of the peace on a public road in furtherance of a terrorist enterprise." Disconcerted by this thorny case, they finally appealed for help from the police of the normal people, who in turn were quite annoyed. The four poor agents desperately sought someone in charge and identification papers, but only obtained gurgling sounds in Italian and a sincere interpretation of [the old naval song] "It is a little ship." Everyone left without fanfare and at first were mechanically followed by the men in blue, who quickly gave up following something that they could not name.
[1] Translator: The French here, Parloir sauvage a la SDAT, calls upon the penal administrative concept of the "unauthorized visit," which under current European law is punishable by a year in prison and a fine of 15,000. The SDAT is the Anti-Terrorist Subdivision of the French national police.
[2] Author: the Central Administration for Domestic Intelligence (DCRI), which is a fusion of the Administration for the Security of the Territory (DST) and General Intelligence (RG), which shares its offices with the Anti-Terrorist Subdivision (SDAT) of the Central Administration of the Judicial Police (DCPJ).
[3] Translator: arrested on 24 November 2009.
(Originally published in French. Translated 30 November 2009 by NOT BORED! Footnotes as indicated.)