Frenchelon
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Frenchelon is the nickname given to French signal intelligence system in reference to its Anglo-American counterpart ECHELON.[1]
History
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.
Operations
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
- Saint-Barthélemy
- Bouar
- Djibouti (Camp Lemonnier - closed, now occupied by Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa) : new center built recently between French Air Force Base and French Foreign Legion camp in Djibouti.
- Mayotte (Closed in 1998)
- Réunion
- Kourou
- and base aeronavale La Tontouta in New Caledonia
These stations, in addition to the DGSE headquarters on boulevard Mortier in Paris, intercept electronic communications, decipher 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 shouldn't be confused with the French Army's official listening system Emeraude,[2] which used to be mistakenly confused with Frenchelon[citation needed].
References
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- ↑ (French) Emeraude : Ensemble mobile d’écoute et de recherche automatique des émissions (Mobile set for listening and automatic searches of emissions)
Further reading
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External links
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