French spies: now hiring

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Par Le Figaro pour le cercle :

France’s foreign intelligence agency is leading the secret service’s most ambitious recruitment plan ever. The DGSE, or General Directorate for External Security, is scouting engineering schools and universities to find 690 new recruits over six years, and in particular women.

This ambitious hiring plan was laid out in a white paper on defence and national security, ordered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The recruitment operation started in 2009 and will end in 2014. Anxious to select 420 high-flying engineers and technicians, DGSE recruiters have developed a strong network of academic partners and unashamedly eye the “grandes écoles” elites.

“In France, working in intelligence is no longer considered a shameful disease that must be hidden,” said Vincent Nibourel, a jurist by training who became director of human resources after knocking about in Afghanistan and Eastern Europe. “Our British neighbors have known for ages that knowledge is power. The best of Oxford or Cambridge race to the Intelligence Desk to get a job. We needed to catch up, especially since we were one of the few services that received no reinforcements after the Sept. 11 attacks.”

Only two or three "james bonderies"

Isabelle, a 30-year-old mother, embodies this new generation. A bright-looking engineer with an angelic face, this image specialist did not grow up with John le Carré, quite the contrary. “At 23, I was far from the world of spies and, before doing my first internship at the “Centrale,” I barely knew the acronym of the agency I worked with,” Isabelle said. “After seeing what the machines at my disposal could do, I applied for a job and became a team leader with five specialists under my orders.” During the day, Isabelle intercepts images and encrypted messages circulating around the globe. In the evening, she cradles her little baby. Only those closest to her know she’s at DGSE. Others think she works for a telephone operator.

Selected candidates undergo a battery of psychological tests and an oral exam to test their reactions to unexpected situations and unsettling questions. “The more intuitive candidates, who show common sense and inference, a sharp mind and intellectual flexibility, will stand out quickly,” said Laurent, responsible for career management. “In this business of camouflage, you have to know to unlearn so as to better relearn and give up your illusions without necessarily losing them. We’re looking for the good blank pages we will fill in. In any case, we never play on spies’ mythical image because the effect would be catastrophic when the newcomers discovered the truth. In a lifetime at the DGSE, you’ll do two or three “james bonderies.” As Canadians say, that’s the cherry on the sundae.”

Women wanted

Once male-dominated and military, the DGSE, created in 1982, now employs 4,700 people, including 70 percent of civilians. The proportion of women has jumped from 6 to 25 percent in 15 years, and this trend will continue. “By staying in the same position for five or six years, [women] provide stability and therefore more expertise. Moreover, they detect traps and tailing more easily... and they’re less confident about their superiority,” a manager said. “The DGSE now deploys women all around the world, except in the Gulf countries where they would be veiled, wouldn’t have the right to drive or shake hands.”

Julie, 27, an analyst – “operator” in the agency’s jargon – works in ballistic counter-proliferation. As a young female recruit, she pointed out the clear difference between fiction and reality. “Today I don’t feel like a spy, and even less like Mata Hari,” she said. “In films, we are portrayed as seductive, stealing secrets in bed or acting as foils. In truth, I spend hours behind a desk to prevent attacks.”

In addition to recruiting at graduation, the DGSE now advertises in the national press, the “Journal officiel,” which publishes new legislation and public-sector job offers, and the Association for the employment of executives (Apec). “Recruitment, which for too long has been endogenous and based solely on word-of-mouth, must open up to all cultures,” said Erard Corbin of Mangoux, head of the DGSE since October 2008. “Our service must diversify to the utmost, to reflect society.”

Learn HR skills and under cover techniques

The DGSE is looking for 270 potential extra-intelligence officers and experienced linguists who master Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Pashto and Urdu as well as North African and Syrian-Lebanese dialects. “Unlike technical projects that require years of investment, the need for rare languages varies depending on the current situation,” said Nibourel. “For example, during the hostage crisis in Jolo in 2000, we urgently had to find people speaking Tagalog. But we do not keep them for twenty-five years after that.”

Once inside the “Centrale,” future technicians and intelligence officers have 500 carefully crafted courses at their disposal, to practice and shape their skills. Last year, the strategists of the “Service” spent 44,000 days on training: recruitment, handling of “human sources,” under cover techniques, but also locksmith skills, make-up and how to change appearances very quickly.

24 hours a day, from Marrakech to Bangladesh

“These very practical new modules teach newcomers how to change in an airport bathroom, react naturally to controls when traveling under a false identity or use sophisticated transmission equipment,” said “Henry,” the colonel in charge of training. In some cases, real life simulations in France or in foreign territory plunge the DGSE “trainees” in prickly situations they have to defuse. “On the ground, the responsibility of our men is important because lives are at stake,” “Henry” said. “Lessening the pressure would be like letting an apprentice pilot an A380.”

Budding spies be forewarned: “Here, applicants are reminded that we practice under cover, and we’re on call 24 hours a day, from Marrakech to Bangladesh. Attacks rarely happen at 10 a.m. on Monday.”

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