By Kevin Dunleavy
France’s Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve said he supports the Obama administration's effort to persuade Apple to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
Speaking Friday at the George Washington University, Mr. Cazeneuve said that his government is waging a similar push in France. The French government has been unable to crack the encryption on the cell phones of terrorists who orchestrated the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that left 149 people dead.
“I completely understand the U.S. administration’s concern, which I share,” Mr. Cazeneuve said.
Mr. Cazeneuve urged companies to design communication products that can be monitored by law enforcement, even if it encroaches on civil liberties.
“If we do not crack encryption, our citizens who care so much about freedom and privacy will say, ‘What have we done to protect us, because these attacks will continue indefinitely,’” Mr. Cazeneuve said. “Then we will have other debates, much less healthy: What is a democracy worth if it’s not protecting us?”
Speaking at the Grand Ballroom of the Marvin Center, Mr. Cazeneuve outlined the terror threat faced by France and the steps the country has taken after devastating attacks in Paris in January and November of 2015.
In the lecture, shown live on C-SPAN and hosted by Frank Cilluffo, director of GW’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, Mr. Cazeneuve also discussed the relationships between France and Europe and between France and the United States as they pertain to counterterrorism.
Mr. Cazeneuve was also in D.C. to visit with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. These were his first public remarks in the United States following the November attacks in Paris.
Mr. Cazeneuve painted a daunting picture of the menace France faces and the difficulty of containing it.
“The past 10 years, the threat has considerably evolved,” Mr. Cazeneuve said. “The November attacks were planned from Syria and coordinated abroad. Yet all those were perpetrated by citizens on French soil, in some areas, in a short period of time. Today, in fact, the threat is more and more diffuse.”
Citing an example of the growing threat, Mr. Cazeneuve said that there are approximately 2,000 French nationals presently in Iraq and Syria, up 63 percent from a year ago. In addition, of the roughly 300 foreign fighters who have returned to France, approximately half have terror combat training.
Mr. Cazeneuve lauded the intelligence cooperation between France and the United States, saying it “has never been stronger.”
“France and the United States have a unique friendship,” he said. “When we are confronted with hard times, we always pull together.”
He also made special mention of the three Americans—Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos—who foiled a terrorist attack on a train carrying 500 passengers in France in August of last year.
For Michael Overton, a graduate student at the Elliott School of International Affairs, one major takeaway was the French spin on the phone encryption issue.
“I think the French care a great deal about individual liberty,” Mr. Overton said. “I thought it was really interesting that the minister spoke so much about how social media and new technologies are being used in a democratic way and how that is very much a part of French culture—valuing that liberty and that democracy.”