Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE)

Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) is France's foreign intelligence service.

The DGSE is probably best known for sinking the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in 1985, in Auckland, New Zealand. According to a New Zealand Government publication: "Just before midnight on 10 July 1985, agents of the French Secret Service of DGSE, detonated two limpet mines against the hull of the ship, sinking the vessel and drowning photographer Fernando Pereira." 

SourceWatch resources

 * Greenpeace
 * The sinking of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior
 * List of intelligence agencies

Articles

 * Peter Lewis, "French DGSE adapts to new world order", Jane's Intelligence Review, 2000, quoted on the mpr.co.uk (Military Policy Research) website.
 * "The Western intelligence forces lining up against terrorism", The Observer, September 30, 2001.
 * Michael Smith, "French secret service 'kept CIA in the dark over Iraq and uranium'", Daily Telegraph, July 14, 2003.
 * Philip Jacobson, "Bungle in the jungle", Daily Telegraph, August 3, 2003.
 * "French Connections United Kingdom", salaam.co.uk, October 13, 2003.
 * "Hostage coup boosts French pride", BBC News Online, 23 December, 2004.
 * "Mitterrand Ordered Greenpeace Ship Sabotaged - Paper", Reuters, July 11, 2005.