# French intelligence (DGSE) > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "French intelligence (DGSE)," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dgse/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The French foreign intelligence service; characterized as exceptionally talented, exceptionally aggressive, and routinely lethal in the conduct of its operations* - **Country:** France - **Relationship to U.S.:** NATO and European Union ally; close cooperation; not a [Five Eyes](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/five-eyes) partner - **Reputation:** 'Very talented' and 'murderous' - **Documented targets of lethal force:** Greenpeace activists, al-Qaeda fighters in the Sahel The **French foreign intelligence service** is the [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)'s primary French counterpart. It is regarded as one of the most professionally capable services in the world and as one of the most aggressive, with a documented willingness to kill in the conduct of its operations. *"They're very talented. They're murderous too."*[1][2] The service is not a [Five Eyes](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/five-eyes) partner; cooperation with the United States is bounded by France's NATO and European Union membership and is significantly less open than the Five Eyes relationship. *"We're good friends, but we don't give them everything like we do with the Five Eyes."*[3] ## The early-1990s incident and the De Gaulle transit ban In the early 1990s a junior first-tour American [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) case officer in France was caught conducting an unauthorized operation — *"going, pushing a little too far."* The French expelled the junior officer, the CIA chief of station, and a substantial number of additional U.S. personnel. The rupture between the two services lasted three to four years.[4] In a subsequent incident, a CIA officer transiting Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport en route to an Africa posting — at that time the standard route into West Africa — was subjected to physical search by French security despite presenting a diplomatic passport. The officer was carrying a secure CIA laptop. He refused to unlock it, invoking his diplomatic status and the laptop's status as U.S. Department of State property. French security removed the laptop to a back room: > They had a railroad spike fastened to a table, and they just slammed it down on the railroad spike — went all the way through the laptop. And then they pulled it off and gave him his laptop back.[5] Following the railroad-spike incident, the CIA issued standing orders that no agency personnel were permitted even to transit Charles de Gaulle Airport. *"They're just jerks about it."*[6] ## Recruitment attempt on John Kiriakou in Pakistan During [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s tour in Pakistan, his station chief asked him to meet a French intelligence officer for the standard inter-service exchange of information that Kiriakou conducted with foreign services on most days. The French officer immediately set off Kiriakou's tradecraft alarms by insisting on an unusual meeting venue — a residential street corner, rather than a restaurant or coffee bar: > He comes peeling down the street, makes a quick right, reaches over and opens my door, and he's like, "Get in." And I said, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I don't work for you, and you're not using tradecraft on me. I parked right over here. I'll meet you at the Pearl Hotel restaurant coffee bar — not going to fucking let you do a [pickup] on me. You're not recruiting me."[7][8] The meeting proceeded at the Pearl Hotel as a routine coffee. Kiriakou never met that officer again.[8] ## Operational lethality ### Greenpeace The French service is known to kill members of Greenpeace who attempt to board, occupy, or deface French vessels. *"If you're a member of, for example, of Greenpeace, they're going to blow your brains out if you try to take over a ship or throw paint on a ship or whatever. They kill a lot of Greenpeace activists."*[9] ### The Sahel French intelligence maintains an aggressive operational presence in the Sahel — the band of West African and Central African states that were formerly French colonies. *"That's one of the reasons why we don't have more of a presence in the Sahel right now in Africa — because it's all French. They were all French colonies, and the French are there just killing all kinds of al-Qaeda people."*[9] ## "You and the French love killing people" At a UK speaking tour delivered at the beginning of 2026, Kiriakou shared a stage in five separate engagements with a retired MI6 officer. The MI6 officer volunteered, unprompted, his service's assessment of post-9/11 American intelligence behavior: > We really loved working with you guys until 9/11. You all became serial killers after 9/11. Kiriakou's response: *"Yeah, unfortunately that's true. A lot of guys just went out to just kill as many al-Qaeda people as they could find. Nobody was charged with a crime."* The MI6 officer continued: > Yeah, you and the French. My god, the French love killing people. Kiriakou's reply: *"That was kind of my understanding as well."*[10][11][12] ## Press control in France Kiriakou, who lives in France, says press control there is even worse than in the UK: the French government, he says — though he is not certain whether the DGSE specifically is responsible — has *"managed to really have a stranglehold over the media,"* to the point that no French coverage diverges even slightly from the official line.[13] ## The reputation it had inside the CIA Kiriakou describes a settled institutional reputation rather than a specific operation. *"When I was at the CIA, the French DGSE — the French intelligence service — had a reputation whereby they would take care of people that they considered to be a problem very quickly and very quietly."*[14] The two examples he gives are drawn from opposite ends of their range. *"So if you were an al-Qaeda figure in the Sahel, you were going to get a bullet in your brain, and the French weren't going to make threats about it in advance — they were just going to go in and kill you. If you were an anti-French environmental activist in the South Pacific, they're going to blow up your boat and they're going to kill everybody on it."*[14][15] He uses the point as an argument against a claim [made elsewhere](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/candace-owens) that the French government had threatened an American commentator: *"they don't need to make a preface, they don't need to call and threaten you and warn you. If the French want you dead, you're going to be dead. And that's why I don't think she was threatened by the French government. They don't make threats."*[15] ## See also - [Five Eyes](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/five-eyes) - MI6 - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 1:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=98s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 2. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 2:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=158s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 3. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 7:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=435s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 4. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 00:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=1s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 5. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 01:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=65s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 6. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 01:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=98s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 7. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 02:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=128s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 8. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 02:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=158s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 9. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 03:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=189s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 10. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 03:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=219s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 11. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 04:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=250s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 12. CIA Spy: French Intelligence Was Basically Serial Killers (2026-01-16), at 04:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxndFp3NmTM&t=282s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-16-julian-dorey-french-intelligence/ 13. Does the CIA Control American Presidents and Media? (2026-01-01), at 05:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0dum00g0fs&t=349s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-01-fair-observer/ 14. Charlie Kirk's Story Cracks — Hegseth (2025-12-09), at 15:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2Sh1zpgfU&t=915s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-09-dialogue-works-charlie-kirk-s-story-cracks-hegseth/ 15. Charlie Kirk's Story Cracks — Hegseth (2025-12-09), at 15:48. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2Sh1zpgfU&t=948s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-09-dialogue-works-charlie-kirk-s-story-cracks-hegseth/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/dgse/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt