French Direction generale de la securite exterieure

France’s external intelligence agency, which replaced the SDECE (the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage) on April 2, 1982. The DGSE gathers information related to spies, counterespionage, and counterterrorism. With headquarters in Paris, France, the DGSE has the following divisions, each with various responsibilities regarding external intelligence: Direction of Administration (responsible for administrative duties), Direction of Strategy, Direction of Intelligence, Technical Division (responsible for e-intelligence and e-devices); the Operation Division (responsible for clandestine operations such as the destruction or theft of important data, homicides, or abductions); and the Action Division.

See Also: Intelligence; Terrorism.