- published: 07 Feb 2015
- views: 69
The General Directorate for External Security (French: Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure, DGSE) is France's external intelligence agency. Operating under the direction of the French ministry of defence, the agency works alongside the DGSI (the General Directorate for Internal Security) in providing intelligence and national security, notably by performing paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad. As with most other intelligence agencies, details of its operations and organization are not made public. Its head office is in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said (with respect to economic intelligence) that "in terms of the next capable next to the Chinese are probably the French. And they've been doing it a long time." It is the French equivalent to the United Kingdom's MI6 and the United States' CIA.
The DGSE can trace its roots back to 1947, when a central external intelligence agency, known as the SDECE, was founded to combine under one head a variety of separate agencies – some, such as the Deuxième Bureau, dating from the time of Napoleon III and some, such as the BCRA, from the Free French of World War II. It remained independent until the mid-1960s, when the SDECE was discovered to have been involved in the kidnapping and presumed murder of Mehdi Ben Barka, a Moroccan revolutionary living in Paris. Following this scandal, the agency was placed under the control of the French ministry of defence. It was restructured in 1981, eventually acquiring its current name (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure) in April 1982.
(Phillips, Lee, Wagon)
I came home one night tuned my T.V. in
my favorite show was about to begin
as I was scanning across the dial
I saw her read the news with delectable style
Then I was sure that within a while
I was Stuck
Stuck in a pagoda
with Tricia Toyota
I¡¯m Stuck
We were watching Abe Vigoda
then every thing will be fine
Later that night we went for a drive
and I can say I never felt more alive
taking in the sights of old Tokyo
with Tricia by my side and money to blow
I knew then I never wanted to let her go
Chorus
Lead
Chorus
Always in a daze Always in a dream
Always find that things are not what they seem
A little Asian Goddess came from up above
I thank you NBC for sending my love
And Tricia is the one I've been dreaming of
Chorus