France Establishes Counter-Terrorism Task Force
French President Emmanuel Macron gathered government ministers and security officials to create a counter-terrorism task force that would coordinate responses to terror attacks
Dan Arkin
| 08/06/2017
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris (Photo: AP)
France has announced the creation of an umbrella task force which will coordinate the anti-terrorism efforts of all French intelligence services
French Defense Council announced the National Centre for Counter Terrorism on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Elysee Palace. The unit will be under the direct authority of President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron appointed Pierre de Bousquet de Florian to head the new interagency intelligence cooperation, known as the National Center for Counterterrorism. Bousquet de Florian once headed France's DST domestic intelligence service, which President Nicolas Sarkozy merged with another agency in 2008 to create the General Directorate for Internal Security.
Macron also named Bernard Emie as the new chief of the General Directorate for external services (DGSE, external intelligence service) and Laurent Nunez at the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI).
The unit will review intelligence gathered by agents in the interior, defense and justice ministries and is intended to centralize and facilitate exchanges of information between agencies.
“The goal is to get a global vision of the threat and make sure the different agencies actually work together,” a presidential aide said on Wednesday. Another said: “We want to be able to cover all the gray areas that terrorists are good at exploiting.”
The announcement comes a day after an Algerian student wounded a police officer with a hammer in front of tourists outside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron gathered government ministers and security officials to create a counter-terrorism task force that would coordinate responses to terror attacks
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris (Photo: AP)
France has announced the creation of an umbrella task force which will coordinate the anti-terrorism efforts of all French intelligence services
French Defense Council announced the National Centre for Counter Terrorism on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Elysee Palace. The unit will be under the direct authority of President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron appointed Pierre de Bousquet de Florian to head the new interagency intelligence cooperation, known as the National Center for Counterterrorism. Bousquet de Florian once headed France's DST domestic intelligence service, which President Nicolas Sarkozy merged with another agency in 2008 to create the General Directorate for Internal Security.
Macron also named Bernard Emie as the new chief of the General Directorate for external services (DGSE, external intelligence service) and Laurent Nunez at the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI).
The unit will review intelligence gathered by agents in the interior, defense and justice ministries and is intended to centralize and facilitate exchanges of information between agencies.
“The goal is to get a global vision of the threat and make sure the different agencies actually work together,” a presidential aide said on Wednesday. Another said: “We want to be able to cover all the gray areas that terrorists are good at exploiting.”
The announcement comes a day after an Algerian student wounded a police officer with a hammer in front of tourists outside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
