Silence, France has ears.

Roberta Namour, 247 correspondent in Paris

Anyone landing for the first time at Roissy-Charles de Gaulles airport in Paris might be impressed by the dozens of soldiers who patrol the terminals daily, heavily armed with rifles. But the scene becomes commonplace after a few days on Parisian soil. They are everywhere. Underneath the Eiffel Tower, on the steps of the Sacre Coeur, in the metro stations. Of all the nations in Europe, France has always been the most paranoid, perhaps due to the terrorist attacks of the 80s. Its first anti-terrorism law emerged from there in 1986. But the fall of the Twin Towers in New York was responsible for transforming the urban landscape and the Penal Code of the land of liberty. The uniformed soldiers reinforcing the police force are just a small visible part of this change in French behavior.

The country has since transformed into a giant Big Brother. Today, France is the European champion in telecommunications interception. In 2009, the land of human rights made almost 515 requests for access to the "logs" (who called or emailed whom, when, where, and for how long) kept by fixed and mobile telephone operators and internet service providers. By comparison, the most populous country in the EU, Germany, made only 12,7 such requests, or 42 times fewer than France.

The invasion of privacy in the name of national security went even further in 2006. Created by the then Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Law on Combating Terrorism (LCT) extends the obligation to retain the "traffic data" of cyber cafes. It also allows anti-terrorism agencies to access them without any judicial oversight.

Currently, the screening of "enemies" of the State is carried out by an agency that has been in operation since July 1, 2008. The Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence, the DCRI, was created from the merger of two surveillance services of the Ministry of the Interior. Almost three thousand people use its absolute powers in the fight against terrorism, but also in the control of private companies, political demonstrations, and journalists.

In early September, Interior Minister Claude Guéant acknowledged that the phone communications of Le Monde journalist Gérard Davet had been intercepted. He is one of the authors of the recently published book "Sarko m'a tuer" (Sarko Killed Me). The book accuses the French president of receiving envelopes containing money from L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who is now over 80 years old. Everything indicates that this is a regular practice of the French government. And to think that the United Kingdom stopped after the scandal of illegal wiretapping by the News of the World newspaper, part of Rupert Murdoch's group.

The state's reach extends further with surveillance cameras that are everywhere. The country intends to triple their number from 20 to 60 in 2011 – 1 in Paris alone.