The Mysterious Nut Case

There were more than enough rumors and full-blown theories last week to tantalize those who were curious about President Francois Mitterrand's motive in expelling Soviet officials from France. Perhaps the most intriguing hypothesis centered on the unsolved murder of a top French intelligence officer two months ago. One morning last

February, three maintenance workers clearing snow from a winding country road 40 miles north of Nice came upon an empty Peugeot. The door on the driver's side had been left open, and the radio was blaring. The work team soon discovered why. Sprawled in front of the car was the body of a man, dusted with snow. A frozen pool of blood had formed under a gaping gunshot wound in his head.

Police found a military ID card identifying the dead man as Lieut. Colonel Bernard Nut, 47, the chief of the Direction Generate de la Securite Exterieure, the French equivalent of the CIA, for all of southeastern France. But investigators came across precious few other clues to help crack the Nut case. The intelligence officer's .357 Magnum revolver was found 15 ft. from his body, ruling out the possibility of suicide. And even though three shots had been fired from the gun, no bullet was found in Nut's body. An autopsy revealed that he had eaten a hearty meal at least three hours before his death, but a search of local restaurants and cafes turned up no clues of his whereabouts on the night of the murder.

To complicate the investigation further, police noticed that the gas tank in Nut's rented car was empty. Days before the murder, the brakes in Nut's own car had worn through under mysterious circumstances. If he had been set up, the rented car might have also been fixed so that Nut would have been left stranded on the deserted road at the mercy of a killer masquerading as a helpful passerby. It was equally possible that Nut might have left the motor running while he jumped out of his car to make a quick, and fatal, rendezvous.

None of the clues have led police to a suspect. Nut is rumored to have been carrying on a stormy affair with a Lebanese woman and might have been the victim of a crime of passion. But given his intelligence connections, it seemed more likely that he was the target of a foreign operative, perhaps even a double agent.

Though Nut ostensibly kept watch on vital French nuclear installations in his region, he is known to have been running a team of undercover agents and informants, providing information on Soviet intelligence activities in France. He made several trips to Italy, which prompted speculation that he might have been investigating Bulgarian links in the plot to kill Pope John Paul II. Nut could also have played a role in uncovering Soviet Agent Victor Pronin, who was arrested in Rome the day before the French intelligence officer was murdered. Italian Under Secretary of Defense Bartolo Ciccardini seemed convinced that Nut's death played a role in last week's mass expulsion. Said he: "This assassination triggered a war between the French and Soviet secret services. The French could not allow an incident like this simply to slip by."

James Bondian notions of espionage notwithstanding, secret agents generally avoid killing one another: it is considered a violation of the rules of the game and can lead to reprisals. Still, many West Europeans wondered last week whether the violent murder of so high-ranking a spook had not played a key role in persuading Mitterrand that it was time to send the Soviet officials packing. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.