France bans ministers' BlackBerries (BBC) {security risk--servers OUTSIDE the country!}

PARIS, France (AP) -- BlackBerry handheld computers, or "Le BlackBerry" as they are known here, have been called addictive, invasive, tiresome for thumbs -- and, now, a threat to French secrets.

That, at least, is the fear of French government defense experts who have advised against their use by officials in France's corridors of power, reportedly to avoid snooping by U.S. intelligence agencies and the loss of commercial and other secrets.

"It's not a question of trust," French lawmaker Pierre Lasbordes told The Associated Press. "We are friends with the Americans, the Anglo-Saxons, but it's economic war."

Le Monde broke the story. It described BlackBerry withdrawal among those who have given up their PDAs. "We feel that we are wasting huge amounts of time, having to relearn how to work in the old way," the daily quoted a ministry office director as saying.

E-mails sent from BlackBerries pass through servers in the United States and Britain, and France fears that makes the system vulnerable to snooping by the National Security Agency, the ears and eyes of U.S. intelligence, Le Monde reported. The company that makes BlackBerries, however, denies such spying is possible.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/06/20/france.blackberry.ap/index.html

Notice this was anticipated a couple of years ago ... evidently France still has professionals in charge of national security -- as opposed to RNC cronies appointed by le blossome turdique.

:rofl:

France of all nations whining about this...

I know the French invented modern espionage (it is a French word, after all), but no idea what they're up to nowadays.