General Directorate for Internal Security
Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure
Agency overview
Formed12 May 2014 (2014-05-12)
JurisdictionFrench Ministry of the Interior
Headquarters84 Rue de Villiers, Levallois-Perret, France
Employees> 3,300
Annual budget€300 million
Minister responsible
Agency executive
  • Nicolas Lerner
Websitedgsi.interieur.gouv.fr

The General Directorate for Internal Security (French: Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure, DGSI; also known as the Directorate-General for Internal Security in English)[1] is a French security agency. It is charged with counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, countering cybercrime and surveillance of potentially threatening groups, organisations and social phenomena.

The agency was created in 2008 under the name Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (French: Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur, DCRI), merging the Direction centrale des renseignements généraux (RG) and the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST) of the National Police. It acquired its current name in 2014, with a small structural shift: contrary to the DCRI which was part of the National Police, the DGSI reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior.[2]

The DGSI is headed by General Director Nicolas Lerner.[3] The agency is informally known as the "RG", a nickname formerly used for the Direction centrale des renseignements généraux which merged into it.

The DGSI performs among the others the following tasks: prevents and halts any action or interference from foreign entities; fights acts of terrorism or acts that threaten the security and sustainability of the state or undermine the integrity of the territory; participates in the surveillance of radicalised individuals and groups who may turn to violence and threaten national security; fights against international criminal organisations that may have an impact on national security. As Aleksander Olech, the DGSI is the only secret service in the French Republic to cooperate directly with judicial institutions (l’institution judiciaire).[4]

History

Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur (DCRI)

The fusion of the RG and the DST into the Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur (DCRI) was a wish held by Nicolas Sarkozy when he was France's Minister of the Interior. The change was officially launched by the Council of Ministers on 20 June 2007, shortly after the election of Sarkozy as President. Minister of the Interior Michèle Alliot-Marie,[5] however, was reputedly reluctant regarding this fusion and ordered the General Director of the Police Nationale, Frédéric Péchenard, to undertake a study of the proposal.[6]

The creation of DCRI was announced on 13 September 2007 by Alliot-Marie. The founding texts of the DCRI were adopted 7 April 2008, to become effective 1 July 2008.

A fraction of the former functionaries of the Renseignement général (General Intelligence, RG) were brought in from the Sub-Direction of General Information (SDIG) from the Central Direction of Public Security, represented in the departments of metropolitan France and in its overseas territories by the departmental services of General Information, in the care of the departmental directorates of Public Security.[7]

Bernard Squarcini, director of DST, was named head of the DCRI in 2008.[8] He was assisted from the outset by two central adjunct directors, René Bailly, former functionary of the RG, and Patrick Calvar, former functionary of the DST. René Bailly then left the DCRI in the month of June 2009 to take leadership of the new direction of intelligence of the Paris police (DRPP), Patrick Calvar named director of intelligence of external security(DGSE) is replaced in his post at the beginning of 2010 by Frédéric Veaux, until then sub-director of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police.

One of the first media appearances of the new DCRI was the arrest of Julien Coupat in the context of the "Tarnac Affair".

In December 2008, the leadership of the DCRI made priority of surveilling an impending plot orchestrated by an Islamist in the region of Paris.

By a decree of 31 May 2012, Patrick Calvar, former adjunct operational director of the DCRI and director of intelligence at the DGSE since 2009, was named central director of interior intelligence, replacing Squarcini.[9][10][11]

Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure (DGSI)

Along with the change in majority politics in spring 2012, the executive and legislative powers sought to re-assess the role of the DCRI. In May 2013, a parliamentary report on the intelligence services was presented by the deputy PS Jean-Jacques Urvoas and his colleague UMP Patrice Verchère.[12] The report was critical of the DCRI's functioning and particularly the treatment of the Toulouse and Montauban shootings. On 17 June 2012 the Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls announced a reform pertinent to French domestic intelligence. This reform was officialised by the decree no. 2014-445 from 30 April 2014, which started vigorously on 12 May 2014. The DCRI became the Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure (DGSI), is no longer situated under the authority of the General Director of the Police Nationale but under that of the Minister of the Interior, with more authority. The DGSI preserved the connections of its operatives, who required contractors (engineers, programmers, linguists)[13][14][15] Patrick Calvar is set to continue his function.[16]

Controversy

In April 2013, the French Wikipedia article on the military radio station of Pierre-sur-Haute attracted attention after the DCRI attempted to have the article removed from the French Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation asked the intelligence agency what precise parts of the article were a problem in the eyes of the intelligence agency. The DCRI refused to give these details, and repeated its demand for total deletion of the article.

The Wikimedia Foundation refused to delete the article, and the DCRI pressured an administrator, threatening detention and prosecution,[17][18][19] of the French language Wikipedia and resident of France, into removing the article.[20]

According to a statement by the Wikimedia Foundation,

The DCRI summoned a Wikipedia volunteer in their offices on April 4th [2013]. This volunteer, which was one of those having access to the tools that allow the deletion of pages, was forced to delete the article while in the DCRI offices, on the understanding that he would have been held in custody and prosecuted if he did not comply. Under pressure, he had no other choice than to delete the article, despite explaining to the DCRI this is not how Wikipedia works. He warned the other sysops that trying to undelete the article would engage their responsibility before the law. This volunteer had no link with that article, having never edited it and not even knowing of its existence before entering the DCRI offices. He was chosen and summoned because he was easily identifiable, given his regular promotional actions of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in France.

Later, the article was restored by other Wikipedia contributors.[21][22][23][24] The French Ministry of the Interior told Agence France-Presse that for the moment it did not wish to comment on the incident.[25]

Investigations

The DGSI was tasked with co-leading the terror investigation into the 2017 Notre Dame attack together with the National Centre for Counter Terrorism.[26][27][28]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieur - Our Missions. Retrieved 18 November 2023 Archive
  2. ↑ Réforme du renseignement : Manuel Valls choisit la continuité. Le Monde, 17 June 2013.
  3. ↑ "Director Nicolas Lerner". Ministère de l'intérieur et des outre-mer. 1 February 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  4. ↑ Aleksander Olech, French and Polish fight against terrorism, Poznan 2022, p. 67-69; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359135918_French_and_Polish_fight_against_terrorism
  5. ↑ ministère français de l'intérieur, ed. (13 September 2007). "Discours de la ministre française de l'intérieur du 17 septembre 2007". Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  6. ↑ NouvelObs, 23 août 2007.
  7. ↑ Polloni, Camille (27 July 2012). "Grosse déprime des ex-RG, "pestiférés" du renseignement français". Rue89. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  8. ↑ "Décret du 2 juillet 2008 portant nomination d'un directeur des services actifs de la police nationale - M. Squarcini (Bernard)".
  9. ↑ L'Express, ed. (30 May 2012). "Patrick Calvar, un homme de renseignement à la tête de la DCRI". Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  10. ↑ "Décret du 31 mai 2012 portant cessation de fonctions du directeur central du renseignement intérieur et portant nomination d'un préfet hors cadre - M. Squarcini (Bernard)".
  11. ↑ "Décret du 31 mai 2012 portant nomination du directeur central du renseignement intérieur - M. Calvar (Patrick)".
  12. ↑ "Évaluation du cadre juridique applicable aux services de renseignement". Assemblée nationale.
  13. ↑ "Décret 2014-445 from April 30 relative to the missions and to the organisation of the DGSI".
  14. ↑ AFP et Le Figaro, ed. (17 June 2013). "Valls réorganise le renseignement".
  15. ↑ Laurent Borredon (17 June 2013). Le Monde (ed.). "Réforme du renseignement : Manuel Valls choisit la continuité". Le Monde.fr.
  16. ↑ "Décret du 7 mai 2014 portant nomination du directeur général de la Sécurité intérieure - M. CALVAR (Patrick)".
  17. ↑ "Wikipedia:Administrators". English Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. April 5, 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  18. ↑ "Wikipédia:Administrateur". French Wikipedia (in French). Wikimedia Foundation. March 28, 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  19. ↑ "Journal des modifications de droits d'utilisateurs". French Wikipedia (in French). Wikimedia Foundation. October 18, 2007. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  20. ↑ Kleinz, Torsten (April 6, 2013). "Französischer Geheimdienst verlangt Löschung eines Wikipedia-Artikels". Heise Online (in German). Heise. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  21. ↑ "French homeland intelligence threatens a volunteer sysop to delete a Wikipedia Article". Wikimédia France. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  22. ↑ "La DCRI accusée d'avoir illégalement forcé la suppression d'un article de Wikipédia" Le Monde, 6 April 2013 (in French)
  23. ↑ "French Intelligence Agency Forces Removal of Wikipedia Entry". Slashdot. 6 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  24. ↑ "La DCRI menace un administrateur de Wikipédia pour supprimer un article" (in French). Wikimédia France. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  25. ↑ "La DCRI accusée d'avoir fait supprimer un article sur Wikipedia" (in French). Agence France-Presse. 6 April 2013.
  26. ↑ Emmanuel Jarry; Yves Clarisse. "Enquête antiterroriste sur l'agression de policiers à Paris". Reuters (in French). Service France. Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2017. Cette enquête a été confiée à la section antiterroriste de la Brigade criminelle et à la Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure (DGSI), a-t-on annoncé de même source.
  27. ↑ "France mulls security measures after attack near Notre Dame Cathedral". Newsweek. AP. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  28. ↑ Emmanuel Jarry; Yves Clarisse. "Enquête antiterroriste sur l'agression de policiers à Paris". Reuters (in French). Service France. Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2017. Cette enquête a été confiée à la section antiterroriste de la Brigade criminelle et à la Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure (DGSI), a-t-on annoncé de même source.
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