Direction de la surveillance du territoire

Directorate of Territorial Surveillance
Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire
Agency overview
Formed 1944
Preceding agency
  • Surveillance du Territoire
Dissolved 2008
Superseding agency
Jurisdiction Government of France
Headquarters 7 rue Nélaton, Paris, France
Minister responsible
Agency executive
  • Bernard Squarcini, Director
Parent agency French National Police

The Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST; English: Directorate of Territorial Surveillance) was a directorate of the French National Police operating as a domestic intelligence agency. It was responsible for counterespionage, counterterrorism and more generally the security of France against foreign threats and interference. It was created in 1944 with its headquarters situated at 7 rue Nélaton in Paris. On 1 July 2008, it was merged with the Direction centrale des renseignements généraux into the new Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur.[1]

The DST Economic Security and Protection of National Assets department had units in the 22 regions of France to protect French technology. It operated for 20 years, not only on behalf of defense industry leaders, but also for pharmaceuticals, telecoms, the automobile industry, and all manufacturing and service sectors.

History

Decree about the organisation of Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST). Archives nationales de France.

According to a 2003 book,[2] the DST has never been infiltrated by any foreign agency in all of its history.

During the Algerian War (1954–62), the agency created the Organization of the French Algerian Resistance (ORAF), a group of counter-terrorists whose mission was to carry out false flag terrorist attacks with the aim of quashing any hopes of political compromise.[3]

On 3 December 1973, agents of the DST, disguised as plumbers, were caught trying to install a spy microphone in the offices of the Canard Enchaîné newspaper. The resulting scandal forced Interior Minister Raymond Marcellin to leave the government.

Reporter Marie-Monique Robin, author of a book investigating relationship between the Algerian War and Operation Condor, said to L'Humanité newspaper that "[the] French have systematized a military technique in urban environments which would be copied and pasted to Latin American dictatorships."[4] Roger Trinquier's famous book on counter-insurgency had a very strong influence in South America. Robin was "shocked" to learn that the DST communicated to the Chilean DINA the name of the refugees who returned to Chile (Operation Retorno), all of whom were later killed.[4]

One of the greatest success of the DST was the recruitment of the Soviet KGB officer Vladimir Vetrov. Between the spring of 1981 and early 1982 he handed almost 4,000 secret documents over to the French, including the complete official list of 250 Line X KGB officers stationed under legal cover in embassies around the world, before being arrested in February 1982 and executed in 1983.

Directors of the DST

References

  1. ↑ "La réorganisation des services de renseignement", official website of the French Ministry of the Interior, 13 September 2007
  2. ↑ Frédéric Ploquin and E. Merlen, 'Carnets intimes de la DST', Fayard 2003
  3. ↑ Roger Faligot and Pascal Krop, DST, Police Secrète, Flammarion, 1999, p.174
  4. 1 2 de la torture, interview with Marie-Monique Robin in L'Humanité, 30 August 2003 (French)

External links

Coordinates: 48°51′10″N 2°17′20″E / 48.8527°N 2.289°E / 48.8527; 2.289

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