June 23, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1423

PARIS: President Jacques Chirac plans to fire the heads of France’s intelligence and counter-intelligence services on suspicion they launched inquiries against him, the daily Le Monde reported on Saturday.

The president believes the spy bosses ordered or tolerated investigations into alleged links with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and Japanese financier Shoichi Osada, former chairman of the failed Tokyo Sowa Bank, the paper said.

Jean-Claude Cousseran, head of France’s equivalent of the CIA, and Jean-Jacques Pascal, head of the internal state security department, stand to lose their jobs now that presidential and legislative elections gave full powers to Chirac, the article said.

Chirac believes Pascal’s department stirred up old rumours that a covert ransom was paid to Iran in 1988 for the release of five French hostages held by Lebanese militia groups and that French politicians pocketed part of the cash, it added.—Reuters