Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [242]
France maintains a military presence in many of its colonies in western and central Africa. It is presumed that French intelligence officers have a presence there, often in advisory capacities to the local governments.
The DGSE is also active in economic espionage, including activities against U.S. firms. The targets appear to be companies that compete with major French firms, reflecting the semistatist nature of parts of the French economy. In a response to apparent French economic espionage, in 1993, the Hughes Aircraft firm announced it would not take part in the prestigious Paris Air Show.
In the late 1990s, according to press accounts, a U.S. nonofficial cover (NOC) agent in Paris was discovered. The agent’s area of concentration was economics. French press accounts in 2003 argued that one of the NOC agent’s paid sources, a French government official, became a double agent at the request of the DST. As DCI R. James Woolsey (1993-1995) noted in a 2000 article on the SIGINT key word search system known as ECHELON, the United States had two main economic intelligence concerns: foreign bribery intended to give firms unfair economic advantages and economic counterintelligence.
As the member states of the European Union (EU) work to foster a clearer and distinct European identity and role, the issue of intelligence cooperation becomes more complex. An EU foreign policy spokesperson has been designated, and nascent efforts have been made to build a European military capability that would be separate from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). judging from the U.S. experience, however, sharing intelligence with allies is a less straightforward proposition. Not all allies are equal. In 2004, the justice and interior ministers of EU nations rejected an Austrian proposal to create a European Intelligence Agency that would be an analytic and monitoring center focusing only on terrorism and proliferation.
France, like many other Western services, now puts increased emphasis on counterterrorism and WMD intelligence. One French official stated that these two issues represent half of all French intelligence activities. There have also been press reports suggesting that U.S.-French intelligence cooperation, particularly in the counterterrorism area, has increased over the past several years.
ISRAEL
Israeli intelligence proceeds from the premise that the state is, essentially, under siege. Israel has two major intelligence services: Mossad and Shin Bet. Mossad (Ha-Mossad Le-Modin Ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim—Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks) is responsible for HUMINT, covert action, foreign liaison, and counterterrorism, as well as for producing a series of intelligence reports. Shin Bet (Sherut ha-Bitachon ha-Klali—General Security Service) has both counterintelligence and internal security functions. A third component, Aman (Agafha-Modi’in—Military Intelligence), is distinct from the intelligence components of each of the services, producing a series of intelligence reports, including national estimates. The Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Knesset (Parliament) oversees Israeli intelligence. In 2004, the Justice Ministry and Mossad began work on a law that would define that agency’s purpose, goals, and powers for the first time. The law would also make clear Mossad’s subordination to the government, oversight mechanisms,