A 90-minute tv documentary fascinated the French on France 2. It tells of the investigations, strategies, adventures and traps of the Normal Directorate of Exterior Safety (DGSE), the French model of a overseas secret counterintelligence service.
On the DGSE, the French secret service, Nothing is extra vital than discretion. Nevertheless, for the primary time in its historical past, a tv crew was allowed to be there for a number of weeks.
Behind the scenes
Representatives from all providers spoke about their motivations. They informed how the engineers, troopers, college students, linguists and editors turned France's “secret brokers”. a demanding coaching.
As well as, for the primary time everybody was allowed to supply proof of their statements two forms of missions: the struggle towards the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the seek for these accountable for a jihadist assault in Mauritania in 2007.
Within the confessions of the brokers' strategies, it turned clear that this was some of the common techniques utilized by Russian intelligence to acquire info It doesn't work for them: “the honey entice” or because the British name it honey entice.
Amorous affairs? “My spouse is aware of”
The Russians got here to the conclusion that there was no level in making an attempt to lure their French colleagues right into a entice and put them underneath stress with “affairs”. gorgeous blondes. The French response shocked them: “Ahead. “My spouse already is aware of.”
An agent with a distorted voice who referred to as himself Nicolás stated that “deserters from the Soviet Union spoke of the 'French paradox.'” Particularly after they caught a Frenchman with a lover and stated, “We caught you within the act, with a 22 12 months outdated lady named Tatyana.” “Work for us or we'll inform your spouse” it didn't work.”
“That was as a result of the agent often replied: ‘Present it.’ She’ll perceive,” or “She already is aware of,” Nicolás stated.
The instance was to indicate “motivations” with French intelligence providers, recognized within the espionage guidelines as MICE (Cash, ideology, compromise, ego (or cash, ideology, dedication and ego)
No son James Bond
However the French brokers consider they’re removed from the picture of James Bond, that means they’re British and a task mannequin for MI6, the dominion's counterintelligence service. No Toman Vodka Martini They don't drive Aston Martins or kill them in spectacular settings and in tuxedos.
The DGSE consists of: “Abnormal individuals do extraordinary issues with extraordinary means“, says Bernard Emie, head of the French secret service till December 2023.
Emie vigorously defended allegations that France “napped” when Russian troops had been deployed to the Ukrainian border in February 2022.
“When Russia started its struggle in Ukraine, the DGSE had the identical info know-how as its American companions. The issue is how the data is exploited and analyzed and the best way during which one thinks an occasion will or is not going to occur,” he defined.
French brokers analyzed the struggle in Iraq, during which French President Jacques Chirac refused to participate, and stated that “the Anglo-Saxons blended photographs of rolled-up carpets in a manufacturing facility and oil pipelines loaded with missiles” to argue about weapons of mass destruction.
They revealed that the British and Individuals “They spend more cash socializing.”
A double life
An agent defined that they He led a “double life”with a enterprise with staff and prospects and with a second mission to acquire details about this firm.
One other downside is the connection between their roles as secret brokers and their households: “You be taught to not ask.”
“It’s not James Bond. Many of the secret brokers of the DGSE They’re hidden in messages. “On the whole, we rely extra on subtlety and discretion and rigorous communications administration than on a Glock pistol,” considered one of them stated.