An interesting story about Jacques Chirac...

I can't say if this is true...

A former French secret agent has accused President Jacques Chirac of ordering him to run a private secret service to channel ransom money to hostage-takers in Lebanon and Bosnia.

Jean-Charles Marchiani, 62, also a former MEP, made the claims at the start of his trial this week for allegedly receiving 1.3 million euros (£880,000) in kickbacks from military contractors.

Investigators want to know why and how Marchiani amassed several million euros in his Swiss bank accounts.

Prosecutors say some of the money came from an illicit commission paid by the German company, Renk, to secure a contract supplying tank gearboxes.

But Marchiani claims that the money was transferred to his accounts to set up an "intelligence outfit" on the orders of the former interior minister, Charles Pasqua in the mid-1980s, when Mr Chirac was prime minister.

"It was a system put in place at the request of Charles Pasqua in place of the official secret services," said Marchiani.

Marchiani said he used the funds to secure the release of hostages in Lebanon, held by Hizbollah in 1986.