Book Description

For the first time since more than half a century a French spy of the DGSE, the French foreign intelligence agency breaks the wall of secrecy. The author, who voluntarily enlisted in espionage in 1980 and left in the early 2000s, describes the extent of domestic spying in France, and how French spies are recruited and trained. He also delivers numerous detailed explanations on the sophisticated way France carries out influence and cultural warfare. And he explains how the DGSE conducts its espionage operations abroad and in the United States in particular, the country where this agency is the most active since the 1960s. Along the 600 pages of this dense book, the reader will discover how deceptive the appearances of mutual understanding between France and the United States are, and the realities of the untold special relationship between France and Russia in the context of intelligence. The reader must not expect to find in this book the personal story of a spy, but rather a highly detailed report enhanced with numerous real examples and anecdotes, with a focus on influence, propaganda and cultural warfare. Technical sketches and maps are added whenever necessary. Dominique Poirier, the author grew up in a family whose members were involved in intelligence since the WWII. His stepfather was a high-ranking executive in domestic intelligence (the Renseignements Generaux). His elder brother was recruited in domestic intelligence in the 1960s, and he was steered towards counterespionage in the mid-1970s, a branch in which he immediately specialized in operations against Great Britain and the United States. Dominique Poirier joined the DGSE when this intelligence agency still was called SDECE, one year before the Socialist Party took the power in France, and ten year before the end of the Cold War. A few years later, this agency steered him towards influence and cultural warfare, a growing branch of the whole French intelligence community at that time. From the early 1990s on, he was increasingly involved in intelligence activities against the United States with a specialty in influence and propaganda, a period when he began to be introduced to the join intelligence operations between the DGSE and its German counterpart the BND. From 1996 on, he was progressively enlightened on the French Russian special relationship, and he began to meet agents and intelligence officers of the SVR RF, the foreign intelligence agency of the Russian Federation that succeeded the KGB.