New in SpyWeek: Olympics Spies and Sabotage

Espionage and sabotage in France, FBI efforts to thwart adversaries on social media, a suspected Chinese spy arrested in Florida, the Strzok & Page cases and more in this week’s intel news roundup.

GRAY PAREE: “The French will have an opening ceremony like no other,” a suspected FSB officer reportedly told his superior two months ago.

Although the suspected FSB officer was arrested earlier this month by authorities in France after he drunkenly babbled about his plans, he wasn’t wrong. 

As the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games got underway Friday in Paris, high-speed rail lines into the French capital were snarled by what authorities called “coordinated sabotage” and an “attack on France.” No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. 

The French railway said that the suspected arsonists had cut and burned cables used for train signaling far outside Paris. Each cable is a bundle of dozens or even hundreds of fiber optic threads that have to be repaired, reconnected, and tested. “They knew exactly where to strike to cause maximum chaos,” The New York Times reported. 

“Suspicion fell immediately on ultra-left radicals, from security sources briefing French media,” the BBC reported, “but there has been no claim of responsibility from any source.”