Officials Seek to Ban BlackBerry

Jun 21, 08:05 AM

Current Headlines: By JOHN LEICESTER

By John Leicester

The Associated Press

PARIS

BlackBerry handhelds have been called addictive, invasive, wonderful - and now, a threat to French state 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.

"It's not a question of trust," French lawmaker Pierre Lasbordes said .

"We are friends with the Americans, the Anglo-Saxons, but it's economic war."

Le Monde newspaper, which broke the story, described BlackBerry withdrawal among those who have given them up.

"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 "Le BlackBerry" pass through servers in the United States and Britain, and France fears that makes the system vulnerable to snooping by the U.S. National Security Agency, Le Monde reported.

The company that makes BlackBerrys, Research in Motion Ltd., however, denies such spying is possible.

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