Philippe Rondot

Philippe Rondot (born 5 October 1936) is a French retired general, formerly an important personality of the French intelligence. He worked for both the domestic intelligence DST and the foreign intelligence DGSE (traditionally rival services) and was councilor to several Defence ministers (either Right or Left-wing).

Career

Philippe Rondot was born in 1936 in a family of military officers (his father was a general and a veteran of a paratrooper commando).

After studies at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, he was awarded a PhD in political sociology. He joined the "special services" in 1965 as an officer of the "action" branch of the SDECE (ancestor of the present DGSE). In the late 1970s, he joined the DST. In 1994, he was active in the capture of terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (aka "Carlos the Jackal") in Sudan, by tracking down Sánchez inside Sudan and making Sheikh Hassan al-Turabi and the Sudanese government admit that they were harboring him. He also took part in hostage liberations in Libya and Iraq.

From 1997, he was in charge of coordinating intelligence at the Defence Ministry, until he retired on 31 December 2005. His title was "conseiller pour le renseignement et les opérations spéciales" ("councillor for intelligence and special operations") of the Defence minister, first Alain Richard and later Michèle Alliot-Marie.

Second Clearstream Affair

Further information: Clearstream § The_Second_Clearstream_Affair

The second Clearstream affair is an episode of the enquiry regarding the selling of Lafayette class frigates to Taiwan by Thomson, then directed by Alain Gomez.

After receiving a Clearstream listing from Jean-Louis Gergorin, Philippe Rondot directed an inquiry, following orders from the minister of Defence, and reporting to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin directly. This caused Rondot's house to be searched in March 2006, and himself to be audited, by judges Jean-Marie d'Huy and Henri Pons.