PARIS: STILL DOING IT DE GAULLE'S WAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300380031-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: December 24, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON POST
Approved For Release2?pQ/@*4-ftCj4DP88-01314
Fourth of et .series Other Cloaks, Other Daggers-.--IV
By Jim Hoagland from both left and right, De "Under Giscard, there is a
Wsnington Post Fore gn Service Gaulle did not. want a con much more realistic approach
.Gabon,' with an eye on
Cabinda's oil reserves, or with
outstanding political or other
debts for Foccart's help
PARIS-French in- centration of power in anyone' to what a small service can do during the De Gaulle and" telligencei. services have security service. Yet he was and a much more hardheaded . Pompidou days. It is at graphic
routinely, undertaken ;covert not one to pay attention to the economic approach to what'; demonstration of the per- f
operations in foreign coun- details of the daily operation French interests abroad are,i' sonalization of power by the
tries,.. been involved in the of government. says one foreign expert.-"The" Gaullists outside the channels
assassination of opponents In wartime De Gaulle`s days of intervening directlyin.1 ofgovernment.
and conducted internal spying followers got into the habit of Africa for sentiment or the . Foccart, . 64, was elbowed
on political dissidents since not placing too fine a point on I glory of France seem to be out of his job as presidential
World War II,. according to the legal niceties.. The Freer over ' ` adviser.. shortly after. Giscard.
published accounts of former French movement based in But Africa and com was elected in 197-1, and now
French operatives and to London was constantly on the. I partmentalization are still runs a large export-import
interviews with French and lookout for double agents important elements of Frenctr company here. His network of
foreign, experts on the in slipping across. the English covertoperations. informants and operatives is
telligence community here. Channel from Nazi-occupied SDECE, with Giscard s`d -still -largely. intact, although
i _.. . .
'Many, of the French exploits it France to join the Gaullist evident . appr.oval,. is-- nov " "diplomats report-- that the
have become well-known j resistance movement. A cooperating, for example; apparatus no longer receives
through leaks to the press and number of bodies of presumed with the CIA and Zaire's any substantial amount of
v
m
t
through highly partisan ac- President Mobutu Sese Seko.
double agents were dug up at~ by channeling arms and
counts written by disgruntled,' one point from the cellar of a
;
.
t Hld Rbt'
moneyooen.oeros
agents hoping to clear their r London building used by the Natinal .. Front for ~?the
own names or to turn a profit Free French. In the interest of `I Liberation 'of Angola,
with. a sensationalized best { allied unity, the scandal ac---
__--_ anamPlomaticsources. been meted out on
But there has been q nothing, having
comparable. here to the U.S. Britishsoilwas hushed u French support without any
p official
st government im
Senate's attempt to delineate Even after the wa
t l
r a
ea
o t
e r is also going directly
publicly the political some' of the Gaullist
h
t
d
~perativesI seeme
to have liberation front for the
sins laid at the door of the U.S. maintained the attitude that Cabinda enclave, known as
Central Intelligence Agency. they. were ouside thelaw;.and F EC, based in Gabon: The
There have been internal Gen- de Gaulle did little to i
he
f
ti
l:
m o
that
on..v-
after no
some o, the more De Gaulle's successors, the
spectacular French failures, late ,Georges Pompidou. and
but they have been carried out ! France's current president,
quietly, if at times? brutally, l Valery Giscard d'Estaing,
and always with the top ? . moved to centralize important
figures of the regime carefully! intelligence functions.-
insulated from. the,- reper-l Giscard has sharply curtailed
cussions, the freewheeling activities of
An important layer of the fringe operatives who mixed
insulation consists of the
multiplicity of French in-
telligence operations. At least
four different groups in
France carry out the kinds of
operations that have brought
the CIA and FBI under sharp
The proliferation grew up acronym is SDECE, has
d
un
er Gen. Charles de Gaulle, become more prof essionalized who encouraged security and is cooperating more
services that "paralleled" closely with the CIA and other
government. agencies and Western intelligence agencies
were loyal only to him and not than under De Gaulle.
to the formal bureaucracy. The French-services are
Faced at different times with } also putting more of their
serious threats of civil war resources into straight
commercial and economic
espionage and monitoring of
Communist country com-
munications and movements,
and sharply deemphasizing
their once paramount political
role in former French colonies.,..
in Africa, according to French
AppirbWdlforase 200
go
ern
en
money. .F -.
The post-World War II
.history-, of France's in-
telligence services. has been
stained'by repeated scandal",
internal :; intrigue and
cooperation with criminal
elements that makes the
known CIA-links to the Mafia
-look small.:-But no political'I
body here has had the in
dependence or strength to run
a fu11-scale inquiry similar to
money, arms and the promise'_ CIA.
to recruit mercenaries, is l Such a body would also have
widely believed here to be extreme difficulty in_ coming,,
directed by. Jacques Foccart, up with, documents or wit-,
once De Gaulle's chief nesse.s. Foccart carted ofil
operative on Africa and, they several truckloads of
reputed boss of France's dirty documents afters-the deaths of
tricks sector-under both De De Gaulle and Pompidou and
Gaulle and Pompidou. some of the key figures in,,,
The two largely independent' 'scandals brought>to:public-
operations represent more light have died violent deaths.."
than the, kind of routine f The four major French;
covering of bets that in-. l. intelligence services are:
telligence services often L-SDECE founded afterl
make.... World War II with help from SDECE's Interests in American intelligence, the
Angola seem `to be largely service is known as the
strategic; although there is a ` "swimming pool" ; by the
healthy dose'. of economic-; French ?_ because.` . of the
self-interest involved. The l Proximity of its headquarters
French share American : to the Tourelles swimming
concern about the spread-',of_ Pool on the outskirts of Paris.
intelligence "with drug
smuggling, vice and gangland
rivalries.
Under Giscard; the 2,000
man French equivalent of the
CIA, the service of external
documentation and coun-
interested in building their
influence in Zaire and
which is also helping the advisers and coordinates
National Front and its ally closely with Giscard's interior
UNITA. minister; Michel Foniatowski, !
Foccart's operation is i Like #De;. Gaulle's;"tnterioj
believed, however, to have-11 ministers; Poniato-wski %is
major commercial im-# probably the key man in.,
plications. It is said to be4 security and intelligences
ftdi? $31b'~0031`=8
, lPer i uccar can s.
01 the ministry of defense but
has a direct line of com-
put together from French ~COtlliCiti?kt
companies with interests in
 wed i=br? Tip are At its height in recent yews, The service's 2,0tl ipil"itw . Ea + { 1~i~4M.03QQ 0134-t$11-timde Taff
remini 11
11
l
ca on
f
orce has an official budget of discussions on how to kill embassy where electronic directors and cow
about $25 million a year, but tests havebeen run. 23,000 "correspondents
experts say that it can draw on Lumumba and Castro, one The DST was also im- ranging from -dedicated
agent has described bow the n0 budget any -. considered plicated in an attempt to tap Gaullist war veterans to the
in the e bgeet in y given n eliminating a gun runner he offices ac- counts are reportedly severely of France's leading most violent thugs in the
year. Agents' expense named, Marcel Leopold by satirical. newspaper, Lei Marseilles 'underground,
poisoning the milk bottles on Canard Enchaine, which has 1 according to Calzi.
scrutinized ;, by e::. finance-,~ his doorstep or sending him a published exposes on the Foccart's men were placed
ministry officials delegated to. 1 --h;- hnnlr rhnrt, ra;xteti French police, intelligence, in key positions on develop-
because-the . y might harm the-' arms dealings ana otner 1 men. uualua .auu a~oli~ target's family)' before doing sensitive subjects. channeling. government funds
him inwitha poison dart from The DST turned over to to Black Africa, giving them.
rt's network lists of life-and-death powers over the
Focc
ut of-
d
f
hi
bl
w
..
a
one
'o
gun
as
o
a
attaches in embassies. In tt=ai bicycle pump suspected dissidents in; weakest regimes and, it is
past;. much of-itheir.work, has~ The service's former top Marseilles, :Grenoble and: often said, the chance 'to
been.. confined; to traditional, . liaison man with. the CIA. in Lyons during the upheavals of gather large kickbacks from
f SAC'
intelligence-gathering, . while,
covert operations were left to
Foccart's network.
The. service,znaintains that,
it only operates abroad: But a
secret SDECE;report obtained-
by They Washington ?:Post?--
shows SDECE'surveilla`nce of`:.
French dissidents and foreign
leftists in France, and what
appears.- to, be?;troutine;
the ministry, of the interior,
the national police and, the
interior :ministry's domestic
The May, 1972 report con-
cerns meetings., in=.Toulouse-
between French intellectuals.
Washington, Philippe May.1963 as part of a plan to k cooperative regimes or ss
that of the
nd
u
t
..
reas
ry
h rand de Vos oli, claims in round up and intern potentia
.u is l {
a oo a in Canada troublemakers in_ 'soccer Gaullist Party generally.
last month that a. committee .;'stadiums or camps, according i SAC frequently intervened
headed-by Pompidou, then De
Gaulle's prime : minister,..;;'
approved plans . to . have,--,-
SDECE' :;assassinate foreign
those uocunients was a former holdups and blackmail were
BourguibaTof Tunisia. during a journalist named Dominique
___ 1 routine wave for SAC to build
i
i
l
Vosjoli was forced to leave -.; "parallel" police and was able
the service after becoming too., to make off with copies of
,close.. , to ..the CIA: for. pe .. many of its documents-.
'
-Gaulle's liking,, Calzi, who was jailedon
De Marenches has been able longstanding charges shortly
to reestablish fairly good ,after the leaks about the DST
and leftists from Cuba, Brazil -.Working relations with the
Reflecting a deep-rooted'i
French distrust of secretl
American agency, according-
to French and foreign sources.';
CIA Deputy Director Vernon;
Walters reportedly praised't
SDECE in Paris for its
cooperation during -the I
oumk,c,. ,...,nign-ranxing
military men,; whose disputes
with their'care'er cloak and
dagger ','deputies have.,
produced-..amuch ofthe
in
formation. that has leaked out;'
about the ,service,, haver
usually held the post.
Pompidou'iappointed the
aristocratic Col, Alexandre de'
Marenches, 55, in 1970 to clean.,
up and revitalize the service,
shakert by discovery of serious
Communist: infiltration, the
linking of some of its agents to
drug.smuggling and the purge.,
De . Gaulle ordered after
SDECE's role in helping
arrange the 1965 kidnaping in
Paris that led to the presumed
murder of Moroccan dissident -
Mehdi Ben Barka became
public knowledge:. That
operation. was apparently a
return favor to the Moroccan
secret services in return for
past favors rendered.
SDECE itself routinely-
carried out assassinations of -
gun runners and Algerian
rebels during the Algerian
diplomatic cover as military
The portly De Marenches
has- also intensified com-;-
mercial spying. -A French!
source who usually offers not
compliments to. the service2
says that the French were-1
kept, fully.informed of secrete
Ameriean negotiating;
proposals, during this year's;
"deal of-the century," when,
.American. and - French-
manufacturers competed to
.sell jet fighters to four
smaller European nations.
De Marenches is con-
centrating on-?. recruiting
graduates of France's most
prestigious universities to fill :
lower level vacancies and has,
brought military men into the
top: ranks of the. service's
operational branches to exert
more control.
2.-The Directorate of
Territorial Surveillance
comes , uncoer Poniatowski's
direct control. and handles
counterespionage inside
France: There- is strong
evidence that the DST taps the
phones of the embassies not
published.by the French press for important missions like
last year. x the Argoud kidnaping and a
number of murders Calzi pins
lists appeared, published his
own account last month of that.
incident-and of more than a
dozen other major scandals,
accusing Foccart's men of the
Ben Barka kidnaping, gold
and drug smuggling, the
kidnaping in West Germany of
Col. Antoine Argoud, a top
leader of the military men
who rebelled against De
Gaulle over Algeria; and of
murdering African exile
.learler Felix. oumie in
s for. political.
cr
m
na
operations.
4.-The General Infor-
mation (RG) section of the.
national police has frequently
worked closely with all three I
of the other services; Its-
primary mission is internal
political espionage. It appears
to bs the least trusted of the
intelligence services, partly
because it is highly politicized
without" having . declared
exclusive allegiance to De l
Gaulle and his successors. -
Following the established
tradition of the pre-De
Gaulle era, agents appear not
to be above trying to curry.
favor with- opposition groups
3.-The Civil Action Service 1 power tomorrow.
is the formal name of Foc-' "Sure, we knew the RG was ?<
cart's network; known by its spying-, on' us during, the =
French initials, SAC, or more campaign,'., says, a Socialist, i
popularly-as "LesBarbouzes" -
(the false beards). 1 - Party official of the 1974
According to Calzi and other presidential elections- Can-
French sources, Foccart built didate Francois "Mitterrand
his network out of the. strong- always had the radio playing
arm "order" section of De in his office and-the blinds'
Gaulle's postwar political drawn when we discussed'
movement, the authoritarian- campaign plans. Anyway, we
inclined Rally of the French were getting . information
People. Originally conceived ,
by De Gaulle and Foccart as a Cotitirrt)6t
means to infiltrate the state-1
services and prepare the way
for taking power, the unof-
ficial service grew rapidly,
during the Algerian war and
became the chief instrument ,
of dirty tricks during De
Gaulle's rule,
revolt, according to former only of all Communist nations,
SDECEagents. -butt also of Israel, key former
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p
regime could not be too
confident of Its information on
us."
But a more ,expert and..
detached observer of that-
campaign recalled: "Yes, the
Socialists were getting a little
information, but, they
couldn't have been getting
much because an RG agent
infiltrated their top planning
staff and. they didn't know' it.
until it-came out in -
the-papers.."
A ministry.. of - interior- of
ficial described the section's,
functions "as a kind of public
opinion poll, that's all. They
are Just there to let the,.,
government know what the._
people are thinking politically,
so we can have a good idea of
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