In 96 missions carried out, “the terrorist problem has never been addressed”. This was the first assessment that a confidential report drew from the Sirli mission a year after its launch, in February 2016. However, intelligence on terrorism is precisely what this operation led by France in France was supposed to do in cooperation with Egypt. But here is how the regime of Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi misled her in favor of a crackdown on local traffickers.
In fact terrorists, they are pick-ups of traffickers, therefore civilian vehicles, that the Egyptian army allegedly bombarded using the information provided by the French. Has France become complicit in what would be extrajudicial executions? It is to denounce this state scandal that a source (which will remain anonymous) transmitted hundreds of confidential documents to “Complément d’Investigation” and to the investigative media Disclose. Among these documents, there was in particular this summary report of January 2017.
In the area monitored by the French, the terrorist threat “no longer exists” in 2017, according to a specialist in the region
The journalists analyzed the other documents received: of the hundreds of vehicles spotted by the device comprising a Light Surveillance and Reconnaissance Aircraft (ALSR), no terrorist was identified. According to the report, the surveillance zones of the French plane lie mainly along the Libyan border, increasingly focusing on the northern half of the desert.
The Egyptians never authorized the Sirli mission to fly over the Sinai. It is however there that the Egyptian army tracks down the groups rallied to the Islamic State organization, as the television channels abundantly show. In the area monitored by the French, on the contrary, the terrorist threat (supposed to come from eastern Libya) has been very low since 2017, say specialists in the region. One of them, Jalel Harchaoui, is surprised in this excerpt that “in the Parisian corridors, in the Cairo corridors, we consider that we can still invoke this risk, while it no longer exists”.
Is this what prompted the Egyptians to review their priorities?
“The partner’s order of priorities is: 1. Trafficking; 2. Illegal immigration; 3. Terrorism.”
Report from the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM)a confidential document sent to “Further investigation”
This is what a document drafted by one of General Christophe Gomart’s assistants notes, one month before his retirement. The journalists of “Complément d’Investigation” questioned the former head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM) on the follow-up given to this report. Does he remember bringing it up to high places?
General Gomart does not remember it, but he is surprised, because “The French order is exactly the opposite. Our major objective is the fight against terrorism; the fight, then, against human trafficking, and the fight against trafficking”. How would he have reacted if he had seen conflicting priorities among the Egyptians? In case of failure of a “dialogue” with his counterpart, he admits that he would have advocated “stop the mission”, and “think [qu’il aurait] been followed, without a doubt “. Following this filming, the document was sent to General Gomart, who did not comment.
Extract from “France-Egypt: revelations on a secret operation”, a document to be seen in “Complément d’études” on November 25, 2021.
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