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Publication in Le Figaro on the
Clearstream affair |
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France is overwhelmed by yet another political crisis, but this time in the center of it is a "maitre of espionage" – that's how the General Philippe Rondot is called by his former colleagues in the French intelligence community. Officer who was once on the edge of ending his career as a Romanian agent, turned to be a reliable man to all of his political chiefs, no matter from the left or from the right. That's what makes him so dangerous in the eyes of the politicians…
Philippe Rondot was born in Nancy (Lorraine region) in 1936. His father, General Pierre Rondot, was the graduate of prestigious Saint Cyr military school, who became a prominent expert of the Muslim world after finishing his military career. But before that, in the 1940s, during the period of the French mandate, the General Pierre Rondot had a key role in creating Syrian and Lebanese secret services. In the 1970s, Pierre Rondot was teaching geopolitics at the Lille Superior School of Journalism.
Philippe Rondot followed his father's steps. In 1961, he participated in the Algerian war, serving in the commando. That is when he made up his mind not to continue a military career. In 1965, Rondot-junior joins the SDECE (External Documentation and Counterespionage Service, the predecessor of the General Directorate for External Security - DGSE). Here he is very quickly recognized as an expert of the Arab world. Later on, in the first half of the 1970, he returns to the university to accomplish his doctorate in political sociology, and publishes a number of booklets on Syria, Jordan, and Iraq (Que-sais-je? collection, very popular in France and abroad). With regard of his academic success and linguistic skills (he speaks Arabic, Romanian, Russian, English, and German), Philippe Rondot is perceived as an atypical spy, more of an intellectual.
His personality is covered with a secrecy mist. His only picture that was ever published in the press is thirty years old. Although not much is known about his missions, there are several successes and failures that gained publicity. One of the latter had almost cost him his further career, when, in the 1970s, while serving in Bucharest, captain Rondot was suspected of being enrolled by Securitate, the Romanian security service. As it became known later, Rondot "disappeared" from his apartment for about 48 hours, what made his supervisor suspect him and contact Paris. But as it turned out, the young officer had lost the keys of his flat, and was bounded to stay in hotel.
Philippe Rondot quits DGSE in 1981 to join the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DST), despite the rivalry between the two bodies. Here he is in the frontline of the struggle against the Algerian and Middle Eastern terrorism. He played an important role in liberation of the French hostages in Beirut, in 1986, and that of the Valente family in Libya, in 1990. He was also one of the key figures in the operation for withdrawal of the Christian Lebanese General Michel Aoun to France in 1991. The same year General Rondot takes an active part in establishing of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM).
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Syria,
book by Philippe Rondot |
The arrest of Carlos in Khartoum (Sudan), in August 1994, after twenty years of chase, is considered to be the most important success in Rondot's intelligence career. Since then, though, his name has become heard of in a much less positive context, in connection with such affairs as the alleged detention of Jacques Chirac's bank accounts in Japan and Lebanon, or the Clearstream affair.
In November 1997, General Philippe Rondot becomes the counsellor for intelligence issues and special operations (Cros) within the apparatus of the socialist Defense Minister Alain Richard. His discreet office is situated within the ministerial headquarters, in Hotel de Brienne, Paris. Among other things, he was in charge of a secret investigation of illegal pre-election financing from the arms sales, allegedly involving the associates of the former Defense Minister Francois Leotard.
In November 2001, General Rondot paid a visit to the Pakistani and Afghan mountainous regions in order to assess the situation in person.
When the center-right Michele Alliot-Marie becomes Defense Minister in 2002, Rondot keeps his post to carry out similar missions. Therefore, it is not by chance that it was him to cope with the Clearstream affair, though there were other reasons as well.
French mass media call him "a shadow general", and his military comrades call him "Colonel Lawrence". Like Lawrence of Arabia, General Philippe Rondot dreams of a desert, likes motorcycling, and is fascinated by the Arab world. After a forty-year-long intelligence career, Rondot's name is associated with almost all French antiterrorist operations of that period.
However, having spoiled the relations with the DGSE chief over the French hostages in Iraq (where General Rondot went on Chirac's personal order, to assess the situation), and being effected by the decease of his wife and his father, General Rondot discreetly submits his resignation on December 31, 2005. He transfers his personal archives, carrying forty years of intelligence experience, to the historical service of Defense Ministry.
Almost nothing is known about his private life. According to the French sources, he is very solitary and discreet man, and his most confidant person is his niece, Stephane Queroy. He lives in Meudon (town near Paris), and has another residence in Nievre (Bourgogne region). He likes trips in the mountains, and never expresses any political views.
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