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French intelligence is known for its discretion and well done work. Its history started before the Second World War, known as Duexime Bureau (Second bureau). It perished after some troubles with the colaborants. It was replaced by DGSS (Direction General des Service Speciaux - Special Task Main Headquaters) in 1943. It was founded by General de Gaulle. J.Sustelle became the first director. After the liberation of Paris it was renamed into DGER (Direction General des Etudes et Recherches - Studies and Research Main Compartment). It employed over 15,000 people till 1945. 1945 onwards it was known as SDECE (Service de Documentation Exterieuxe et de Contre-Espionnage - Intelligence and counterintelligence Documentation Service). After some reorganizations it had done some actions in north Africa. Other most known are the assassination of Moroccan leader Ben Bark in 1965, presence in Russia and the arrestment of an agent in USA in 1971, accused of drug business under control of SDECE. They had one of the best resources about Near East. Its activity ended in 1981. The present DSGE (Direction General de la Securite Exterieure - Outer Security HQ) was founded after the election of J.Mitterand in 1981. Its unstable inner situation and the 1985 Rainbow Warrior incident led to the replacement of the chief and arrestment of accused agents.
DST (Direction de la Surveillance du Territore - Territory Control HQ) fulfills the counterintelligence role. Its structure is similar to those of MI-5. In the 80s DST had many arrestments of Russian agents. Only university graduates of wealthy families can join that group.
