16 September 2003: Eleven screen shots of the TV program:
http://cryptome.org/frenchepix.htm
14 September 2003. See June 2000 report on of Frenchelon site:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,2079872,00.htmPhoto:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/specials/2000/06/echelon/16207.html
14 September 2003. Thanks to A.
Images from this show are requested. Send to jya@pipeline.com
On 13 September 2003, French state television sent via satellite to EBU (European Broadcasting Union) members, TV pictures of the so-called Frenchelon site at Dordogne, near Bordeaux. It actually shows an operator intercepting a phone call from the Middle East, and also includes interviews with DGSE officials and staff. See below the description of the TV item, as sent by France 3 TV:
LISTENING POST
Date Shot:
Location: DOMME Province/State: DORDOGNE
Country: FRANCE
Sound: NATURAL Language: FRENCH
Source: FRFT3
Restrictions:
Web Use Restricted: N
Dopesheet:
Intercepting telephone calls is one of the arms increasingly being used by secret services in the fight against terrorism.
A France 3 crew has been given unprecedented access to the French government listening centre - the DGSE - in Domme in the Dordogne.
Up to a million phone calls, made all over the world, are intercepted at the centre each day. From one single telephone number a whole network of contacts can be tracked down.
Shotlist:
- Recording of a phone call picked up in the Middle East- Unidentified DGSE worker (in French) "to start with the call was intercepted because we had information that the callers might be linked to an international terrorist organisation."
- Aerial views of the listening centre
- Receivers inside centre
- Journalist talking to unidentified DGSE worker asking her whether what she has on her computer screen is a real example of intelligence gathering
- Unidentified DGSE worker (in French): "Yes, this is based on a number given to us by counter terrorism experts working on a radical group based in Afghanistan. With the number we have been able to identify all these contacts, we have been able to track down a whole network."
- Journalist: "from one number you are able to..."
- Unidentified DGSE worker (in French): "it's like a spider's web..."
- Journalist: "it's a real example, which you are working on now."
- Unidentified DGSE worker (in French): "yes."
- Antenna outside
- Unidentified, Head of the DGSE (in French): "we have a very wide range...into South-East Asia for example."
- Journalist: "other centres of interest such as the Middle East and Africa are they covered by these antennae?"
- Unidentified, Head of the DGSE (in French): "Yes, completely."
- Antenna
Id Item: 138837
Tx_Time: 06:19 - 06:21 Tx_Date: 13-SEP-2003 Status: TRS
Origin: ZZEBU Origin City: GNVE
Transmission: EVNM