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The Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (generally known as DGSE) is France's external intelligence agency.
On April 2, 1982 it replaced the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE).
Its motto is Partout où nécessité fait loi (Everywhere necessity makes law).
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Organization
Headquarters
The DGSE is headquartered at 141 Boulevard Mortier in Paris. The building is often referred to as La piscine ("the swimming pool") because of the nearby Piscine des Tourelles of the French Swimming Federation.
Divisions
- Directorate of Administration
- Directorate of Strategy
- Directorate of Intelligence
- Technical Division - electronic intelligence and devices
- Operations Division (formerly Active Service Division) - clandestine operations, such as "arma" (destruction or theft of materiel),"homo" (homicide or abduction), "obs" (observation), with a majority of elite military personnel
- Action Division - formerly had available the 11th Shock Parachutist Regiment until its disbanding on June 30, 1995, when it was replaced by three centers: CPES in Cercottes, CIPS in Perpignan and CPEOM in Roscanvel.
Directors
- Pierre Marion, June 17, 1981 - November 10, 1982
- Adm. Pierre Lacoste, November 10, 1982 - September 19, 1985
- Gen. René Imbot, September 20, 1985 - December 1, 1986
- Gen. François Mermet, December 2, 1986 - Mars 23, 1989
- Claude Silberzahn, Mars 23, 1989 - June 7, 1993
- Jacques Dewatre, June 7, 1993 - December 19, 1999
- Jean-Claude Cousseran, December 19, 1999 - July 24, 2002
- Pierre Brochand, July 24, 2002 -
Famous mission
Mission SATANIC
On July 10, 1985, DGSE agents sunk the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in the harbour of Auckland, New Zealand. The French government wanted to prevent the ship from reaching the Muroroa Atoll where it was then conducting underground tests of nuclear weapons. A photographer, named Fernando Pereira, drowned attempting to fetch his equipment. An immediate homicide enquiry was started by Captain Dominique Prieur and Commander Alain Mafart (passing themselves as Alain and Delphine Turenge).
See also
External links
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