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"Frenchelon" is the nickname given to the signal intelligence system operated by France. The name is a reference to its Anglo-American counterpart ECHELON. [1]
Its existence has never been officially acknowledged by French authorities, although numerous journalists, based on military information, have mentioned it, since the European Parliament investigated ECHELON and also its implications in counter-terrorism. The term was coined by Kenneth Cukier, an American journalist living in Paris, in a paper presented at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in 1999, and later in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal Europe edition. [2]
The system is allegedly operated by DGSE, whose Direction Technique (Technical Direction) is responsible for signal intelligence. The largest station is in Domme, near Sarlat in Périgord. Some of the other stations in France are: Alluets-Feucherolles (Alluets-le-Roi), Mutzig (Alsace), Mont Valérien, Plateau d'Albion, Agde, Solenzara (South Corsica), and Filley Barracks in Nice.
There are some other stations in overseas territories and former colonies:
These stations, in addition to the DGSE headquarters on boulevard Mortier in Paris, intercept and decipher electronic communications using software coded communications of diplomatic, military or industrial origin.
French newspapers recently indicated that DGSE had an interception program on submarine cables, similar to NSA ones. No official data indicates whether this could be a part of FRENCHELON.
It should not be confused with the French Army's official listening system Emeraude (Ensemble mobile écoute et recherche automatique des émissions ), [3] which used to be mistakenly confused with Frenchelon[ citation needed ].
ECHELON, originally a secret government code name, is a surveillance program operated by the five signatory states to the UKUSA Security Agreement: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, also known as the Five Eyes.
The General Directorate for External Security is France's foreign intelligence agency, equivalent to the British MI6 and the American CIA, established on 2 April 1982. The DGSE safeguards French national security through intelligence gathering and conducting paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad, as well as economic espionage. It is headquartered in the 20th arrondissement of Paris.
A radio listening station is a facility used for military reconnaissance, especially telecommunications reconnaissance by "intercepting" radio transmitter communications. In contrast to the original eavesdropping on an acoustic speech conversation, radio eavesdropping stations are used to eavesdrop on the information transmitted wirelessly using radio technology. For this purpose, highly sensitive radio receivers and suitable receiving antennas are used.
Ronnie Bird is a French singer.
Signals intelligence by alliances, nations and industries comprises signals intelligence (SIGINT) gathering activities by national and non-national entities; these entities are commonly responsible for communications security (COMSEC) as well.
Aubin is a commune in the Aveyron department in the Occitanie of southern France.
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Peter Szendy is a French philosopher and musicologist. He is the David Herlihy Professor of Humanities and Comparative Literature at Brown University.
Les Surfs were a Yé-yé-style pop group from Madagascar, that existed from 1963 until 1971.
C'est pas sorcier was a popular French live-action, science education television program that originally aired from September 19, 1993, to February 1, 2014. In total, 559 episodes were produced. This program was popular culture, with an audience share of over 30% in France. The episodes continued to be rebroadcast, until at least 2021. Dubbed or subtitled, the program is or has been broadcast in many countries, in Europe, in Asia, and in Africa.
Hollywood Girls : Une nouvelle vie en Californie, or simply Hollywood Girls, is a French soap opera created by Alexandre dos Santos, Jérémy Michalak, and Thibaut Vales for NRJ12. The series features an ensemble cast and follows a groups of French peoples who decided to start a new life in California, but their life is quickly disrupted by the diabolical Geny G and her husband, the Dr. David Moretti.
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Arnaud Tsedri, better known by the stage name Arnaud Tsamere, is a French comedian, actor, television presenter and sports journalist. Born in Bordeaux and raised in the Yvelines, he joined the Déclic Théâtre group after quitting his sales job. There, he acted in plays and participated in improvisation events. He wrote his first one-man show, Réflexions profondes sur pas mal de trucs, in 2002 with Arnaud Joyet, and his second, Chose Promise, in 2007 with Joyet and François Rollin. His third, Confidences sur pas mal de trucs plus ou moins confidentiels, has been performed since 2014. He has attended numerous comedy festivals and is currently a member of the Ligue Majeure d'Improvisation.
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Angèle Diabang Brener is a screenwriter, director and film producer from Senegal.
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The mutualization infrastructure is the name given in France to a computer database, managed by the DGSE, containing the following metadata: identities of communicating people, their location, the duration and frequencies of the communications, the volume of each communication, and the subject of the message for emails. This database would cover "all" Internet communications and telephony in France, which would be collected outside any legality. One reason given would be the fight against terrorism. According to the services of the French Prime Minister, the device would be legal under the 1991 law, and there would be no massive and permanent espionage of French citizens because each interception of communication would be subject to authorization of CNCIS.
Frenchelon (ou French Echelon) est le surnom donné au réseau d'écoute de la DGSE. Le véritable nom de ce système d'écoute n'est pas connu (contrairement à ce que nous expliquions, ce n'est pas Emeraude)