casualties), a suspicion recently confirmed by Régis Debray and Gilles Ménage, who worked for President François Mitterrand in the Elysée cell involved in the wiretap scandal. He also committed, it was alleged, less serious "attacks", such as setting fire to Françoise Mallet-Joris's doormat. Mallet-Joris was a member of the Goncourt jury, and the fire was meant as a protest against the way literary prizes were awarded. Politically, Hallier was successively a Maoist, an admirer of Fidel Castro, while at the same time getting close to Jacques Chirac, and supported Pinochet after his return from his expedition to Chile. For a time, he was close to François Mitterrand, who successfully ran for President in 1981 for the Socialist Party (PS), but later opposed him, threatening to reveal the existence of his illegitimate daughter Mazarine Pingeot. From the moment he threatened to publish a pamphlet on Mitterrand in 1982, he was closely watched by the special cell in the Elysée Palace in an attempt to block the revelation of Mazarine's existence. Hallier's telephone conversations were continually eavesdropped on by the Elysée palace from 1982 onward. He and any potential publisher were hounded by tax inspectors dispatched to instil the fear of "God" (Mitterrand's nickname) into them. His apartment was also burned down in an arson attack. In 1991, L'Idiot international was one of the French newspapers which opposed participation to the Gulf War, and Jean-Edern Hallier went to Iraq to cover the events. Earlier, he had published Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988), and personally delivered a copy of the book to the Iranian embassy in Paris. He was sued for defamation in articles published in L'Idiot international by Jack Lang as well as other people. He never defended himself during the trials, and never went to Appeal Court; he had to auction off his flat in order to pay damages to Bernard Tapie who had successfully charged him with defamation. Jean-Edern Hallier died from a cerebral haemorrhage after falling from his bicycle in Deauville in 1997. Bibliography Works by Jean-Edern Hallier Les Aventures d'une jeune fille, Seuil, 1963: Le Grand écrivain, Seuil, 1967; La Cause des peuples, Seuil, 1972; Chagrin d'amour, Editions Libres-Hallier, 1974; Le Premier qui dort réveille l'autre, Le Sagittaire, 1977; Chaque matin qui se lève est une leçon de courage, Editions Libres-Hallier, 1978; Lettre ouverte au colin froid (a pamphlet against then-president Giscard d'Estaing), Albin Michel, 1978; Un