Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [241]
President Hu Jintao has emphasized China’s “peaceful rise,” meaning that China will become more powerful without threatening any other powers. At the same time, China’s economic growth, its increased international economic influence—which also translates into increased political power, suggests the more natural occurrence of friction between China and other powerful states. An aggressive intelligence effort would be a natural adjunct to this.
The possibility of tension with the United States over the future of Taiwan also puts a premium on knowledge of U.S. deployments, strategy, and tactics in the western Pacific. China regards Taiwan as a rebellious breakaway province. The United States treats Taiwan as something like an independent state, although full, formal diplomatic relations have not been established. However, the United States does have a formal obligation to defend Taiwan.
FRANCE
The main French intelligence organization is the Directoire Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE)-the General Directorate for External Security—which reports to the minister of defense. The DGSE, created in 1982, is the latest in a series of French intelligence organizations.
The four major directorates largely define the DGSE mission.
• Strategic: responsible for establishing intelligence requirements with policy makers, especially the Foreign Ministry, and also conducting intelligence studies
• Intelligence: responsible for intelligence collection, particularly HUMINT, and the dissemination of this intelligence
• Technical: collects SIGINT, largely through a number of ground sites
• Operations: responsible for clandestine operations
Thus, the DGSE has a much broader role than that of agencies in the United States or Britain, combining as it does analysis, operations, and several types of collection.
The Directoire de Surveillance Territoire (DST)—Directorate of Territorial Surveillance—is responsible for counterintelligence. The DST now includes the police surveillance agency, Renseignements Generaux (RG - General Intelligence), a move supported by President Nicholas Sarkozy when he was minister of the Interior.
The Directoire du Renseignement Militaire (DRM)—Directorate of Military Intelligence—was organized in 1992, combining a number of TECHINT entities. As its name indicates, the DRM is responsible for military intelligence and imagery analysis. France has an independent satellite imagery capability. According to some reports, DRM has branched out into political and strategic intelligence areas where DGSE has been responsible.
The Directoire de la Protection et de la Sécurité de la Defense (DPSD)—Directorate for Defense Protection and Security—handles military counterintelligence and maintains, in a uniquely French function, political surveillance of the military, with a view to its political reliability. This function goes back to the French Revolution, when “representatives on mission” served as political commissars, looking over the shoulders of French commanders. It also reflects the occasional intrusion—or threatened intrusion—of the military into French political life, although this has not happened since the Algerian revolt against French rule (1954-1962).
In addition to these major organizations, the official Web site for French intelligence notes several other offices in the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Economics and Finance that are dedicated to tracking terrorist-related activities.
France has independent IMINT and SIGINT capabilities, which led it to disagree with U.S. assertions about Iraqi troop movements in 1996. The Iraqi movements led the Clinton administration to send a warning to Iraq by means of a cruise missile attack. France has also played a central role in European efforts to build an independent imagery capability.
The Operations Division of the DGSE has had much greater latitude in its activities than do the clandestine services of the United States and Britain. This