Philippe Rondot

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Philippe Rondot (born October 5, 1936 in Nancy , † December 2017 ) was a French general and a pillar of the French intelligence service .

biography

Rondot was born the son of a general and a veteran of the paratrooper commandos and attended the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr , where he studied political sociology. In 1965 he joined the "special services", the military branch of the DGSE.

As one of the best French specialists for the Arab world, Rondot already worked at the predecessor of today's DGSE , the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre Éspionnage (SDECE) , where he was later ousted. From the Gaullist interior minister Charles Pasqua he worked for the French counterintelligence DST , and later for the DGSE, two traditionally rival secret services. He has various defense ministers, both on the right (e.g. François Léotard (1993–1995) and Charles Millon (1995–1997)) and on the left (e.g. Pierre Joxe (1991–1993) and Alain Richard (1997) –2002)) advise. Although Rondot is described by his former colleagues and co-workers as one of the few who is neither a follower of the right, nor the left or a superior, but only committed to the country, the press ascribes closeness to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin .

Together with others he participated in the discreet and bloodless arrest of the terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (commonly known under the pseudonym Carlos ) in Sudan in 1994 and the liberation of various hostages in Lebanon in 1986, the Valente family in Libya in 1990 and the kidnapped journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot in Iraq . His meeting with Abu Nidal , which ended a series of attacks in France, will not be forgotten . He is the author of various contributions to the Arab world, such as B. on Iraq 1995.

Philippe Rondot was responsible for coordinating the intelligence services in the cabinet of the Ministry of Defense until December 31, 2005. He was therefore given the title of " Advisor for Intelligence and Special Operations " from Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie .

Clearstream II affair

On the sidelines of the judicial investigation into the affair known as Clearstream II , the name Rondot appeared. Rondot was the management officer of Imad Lahoud , who was introduced to DGSE in 2003 as a "freelancer". Imad Lahoud worked until the summer of 2003 to uncover Osama bin Laden's dark financial sources . Then Rondot introduced Lahoud to the Vice President of EADS , Jean-Louis Gergorin . In March 2003, Lahoud met the investigative journalist Denis Robert , who wanted to interview him on the controversy surrounding the international clearing house in Luxembourg, Clearstream . Lahoud is said to have given Robert computer lists from Clearstream.

As part of this affair, house searches took place at the end of March 2006 in the Paris apartment and the second home of Rondot in Nièves . There is no evidence of his involvement in the affair.

According to the weekly Le Point of April 21, 2006, during the searches of April 2006 in the offices of Defense Minister Alliot-Marie, the police officers under the direction of Commissioner Christian Mirabel , the head of the national department of the financial police (similar to the German tax investigation ), encountered Defense secrets. Among them was a report by Rondot from the end of 2003. That report contained a list of the beneficiaries of dark accounts at Clearstream, which the report ultimately used as cover.

In a questioning by the two investigating judges, Rondot testified under oath that on January 9, 2004, during his tenure as foreign minister, de Villepin instructed the general to review the lists of alleged foreign accounts of Clearstream, which de Villepin does not deny. According to Rondot, the conversation always revolved around Sarkozy. De Villepin gave the impression that he was acting on behalf of and with the knowledge of President Chirac. “ Le Monde ” printed Rondot's statement on more than three newspaper pages and put almost the entire 28 A4-page statement from Rondot on the Internet. The satirical weekly newspaper " Le Canard enchaîné " quoted Rondot as saying that Chirac himself had a balance of around € 45 million with a Japanese bank.

swell

  • Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger v. May 4, 2006: "The Prime Minister finds himself in great need of explanations"
  • Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger v. May 11, 2006: "Government in Paris under increasing pressure"

Individual proof

  1. ↑ Le général Philippe Rondot, "maître espion", est mort

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rondot, Philippe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French secret agent
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Nancy
DATE OF DEATH December 2017