Editing Mata Hari (section)

===Scapegoat===
In 1917, France had been badly shaken by the [[French Army Mutinies|Great Mutinies]] of the French Army in the spring of 1917 following the failure of the [[Nivelle Offensive]] and massive strikes. France might have collapsed from war exhaustion. Having one German spy on whom everything that went wrong with the war could be blamed was convenient for the French government. Mata Hari seemed the perfect scapegoat. The case against her received maximum publicity in the French press and led to her importance being greatly exaggerated.<ref>{{cite web |last=Arbuckle |first=Alex |title=The Dramatic Tale of Mata Hari Dancer, courtesan, scapegoat, spy? |publisher=Retronaut |date=May 2016 |url= http://mashable.com/2016/04/01/mata-hari/#zA5Ty6j4ikqf|access-date=10 August 2016}}</ref> The Canadian historian [[Wesley Wark]] stated in a 2014 interview that Mata Hari was never an important spy but a scapegoat for French military failures that had nothing to do with her.  Wark stated: "They needed a scapegoat, and she was a notable target for scapegoating."<ref name="Edwards">{{cite news |last=Edwards |first=Peter |title=Condemned spy Mata Hari glib during final interrogation: MI5 files |newspaper=The Toronto Star |date=24 April 2014 |url= https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/04/24/condemned_spy_mata_hari_glib_during_final_interrogation_mi5_files.html |access-date=10 August 2016}}</ref> The British historian [[Julie Wheelwright]] stated: "She really did not pass on anything that you couldn't find in the local newspapers in Spain."<ref name="Edwards"/> Wheelwright described Zelle as "an independent woman, a divorcée, a citizen of a neutral country, a courtesan, and a dancer, which made her a perfect scapegoat for the French, who were then losing the war. She was ... held up as an example of what might happen if your morals were too loose."<ref name="Edwards"/>

Claiming her innocence, Zelle wrote letters to the Dutch Ambassador in Paris. "My international connections are due [to] my work as a dancer, nothing else&nbsp;.... Because I really did not spy, it is terrible that I cannot defend myself."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gahetna.nl/actueel/nieuws/2011/brieven-mata-hari |title=Brieven van Mata Hari (Letters of Mata Hari) |work=Dutch National Archives. Gahetna.nl |date=17 June 2011 |access-date=15 October 2011 |lang=nl}}</ref> The most terrible and heartbreaking moment for Mata Hari during the trial occurred when her lover Maslov—by now deeply embittered as a result of losing his eye in combat—declined to testify for her and told her that he did not care whether she was convicted.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cockfield |first=Jamie H |year=1997 |title=With Snow on Their Boots: The Tragic Odyssey of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France During World War I |place= |publisher=St Martin's Press |isbn=978-0312173562 |pages=330–31}}</ref> When Zelle learned that Maslov had abandoned her, she fainted.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cockfield |first=Jamie H |year=1997 |title=With Snow on Their Boots: The Tragic Odyssey of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France During World War I |place= |publisher=St Martin's Press |isbn=978-0312173562 |pages=331}}</ref>

Her defense counsel, veteran international lawyer {{ill|Édouard Clunet|qid=Q16335955}},<ref>{{cite book |last=Macedonio |first=Mauro |year=2017 |title=Mata Hari, a life through images' |place= |publisher=Tricase: Youcanprint |isbn=978-8892637818 |page=207}}</ref> faced impossible odds; he was denied permission to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses or to examine his witnesses directly.<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6qX2DAAAQBAJ&q=%C3%89douard+Clunet+mata+hari+examine+witnesses&pg=PA31 |last=Milton |first=Giles |year=2016 |title=When Churchill Slaughtered Sheep and Stalin Robbed a Bank: History's Unknown Chapters |place= |publisher=Palgrave MacMillan |isbn=978-1250078759 |page=}}</ref> Bouchardon used the fact that Zelle was a woman as evidence of her guilt, saying: "Without scruples, accustomed to making use of men, she is the type of woman who is born to be a spy."<ref name="Biography of Mata Hari"/> Zelle has often been portrayed as a femme fatale, the dangerous, seductive woman who uses her sexuality to manipulate men effortlessly, but others view her differently: in the words of the American historians Norman Polmer and Thomas Allen she was "naïve and easily duped", a victim of men rather than a victimizer.<ref name="Polmer, Norman page 357"/>

Although news reports following her execution claimed she had admitted to spying for Germany, Mata Hari made no such admission. She maintained throughout her ordeal that she had never been a German spy. At her trial, Zelle vehemently insisted that her sympathies were with the Allies and declared her passionate love of France, her adopted homeland. In October 2001, documents released from the archives of [[MI5]] (British counter-intelligence) were used by a Dutch group, the Mata Hari Foundation, to ask the French government to exonerate Zelle as they argued that the MI5 files proved she was not guilty of the charges she was convicted of.<ref name=Jeffries/> A spokesperson from the Mata Hari Foundation argued that at most, Zelle was a low-level spy who provided no secrets to either side, stating: "We believe that there are sufficient doubts concerning the dossier of information that was used to convict her to warrant re-opening the case. Maybe she wasn't entirely innocent, but it seems clear she wasn't the master-spy whose information sent thousands of soldiers to their deaths, as has been claimed."<ref name=Jeffries/>