Olivier Mas, a former DGSE agent, has just published his second book – Thibaut Chevillard
- Aged 51, Olivier Mas – a nickname – worked for 15 years at the DGSE, three of which went to the “office of legends”.
- Retired since 2017, he devotes himself to his YouTube channel and to writing books.
- In his latest work, I was another and you didn’t know it, it tells how the services train, prepare and supervise the clandestine agents.
Olivier Mas worked for 15 years at the DGSE (general directorate for external security). After leaving “the box” in 2017, he launched a Youtube channel,
Talk to the spy, on which he talks about espionage and intelligence. After posting Spy profession in 2019, he returned to bookstores with a book devoted to secret agents. Olivier Mas was indeed one of them. Assigned for three years to the famous “offices of legends”, he carried out missions under a false identity on behalf of the French intelligence service. On the occasion of the release of I was another and you didn’t know it *, he answered questions from 20 minutes.
Let’s start from the beginning: what is a legend?
It is a completely invented story, built around a false identity and a false profession. The profile that we invent will allow us to approach a target that cannot be approached by presenting a diplomatic passport. In fact, the majority of officers dealing with the DGSE work in embassies, under cover in the diplomatic chancellery. But very often, they are declared to local services.
So sometimes we need a blanket to work. You can pretend to be a journalist in order to approach a dangerous area, or as a sales representative in order to make contact with a person. That’s the interest of a legend. It must be solid, marked, well learned, because the agent can very well be stopped and questioned by the local services.
You can create a legend in a week, but it won’t hold up. Building a good legend takes a year. You have to be comfortable in your character and, for that, the chosen legend must be close enough to who you really are. The key is also to develop friendships, to bond with people who call you with your fake name. By doing that, they help you feel comfortable, it happens in a natural way. It also makes it possible to create real memories with this identity.
Have you ever been afraid of being exposed during your three years in this service?
When you present your false papers at the border, your heart beats a little faster. There is a little apprehension because the customs officers are trained to spot people who are not comfortable. These are delicate times.
There were also people who had doubts about me, but that did not necessarily represent a threat. Often the doubts dissipated after a few weeks. I remember that once I was in a hotel in the Sahelian zone and I left the bedroom door open. Someone had taken the opportunity to enter. When I told this to a colleague who had suspicions about me, he said to himself that, in the end, I had nothing to hide. It does not necessarily have to do with much, trust!
What are the difficulties encountered by illegal immigrants?
When you are on a mission, you don’t want to keep in touch with your family. We have an encrypted system that allows messages to be sent, but which goes through an agent who reads our letters. So there is no privacy, we write banalities, it’s hard. You can’t do this for too long without getting tired, without getting damaged. At the DGSE, illegal immigrants’ missions last several months. There are obviously exceptions: in my book, I speak of a Russian agent who was on a clandestine mission for nine years in the United States before being arrested by the FBI.
We are bored, too. I have never been so bored as when I was underground. There are some very strong moments but, while it works, we sometimes wait a long time. It’s an aspect of things that you don’t show on TV shows.
How is the return to France of the clandestine agents going?
When we know that we are not going to reuse our legend, we make it die little by little. We no longer answer the phone, we cut off contacts… I already had a phone call from a person whom I appreciated very much during a mission. He could have become a friend, and I would have seen him again with pleasure. That day, I had not answered. It was a bit difficult.
There are also legendary agents who have more interesting lives than the real one. They return to their suburban pavilion and say to themselves that they preferred the missions in contact with mobsters in 4×4, the well-watered evenings, surrounded by pretty girls… I did not feel that. I had created a nice person, but a little dull. I preferred my real life and was happy to find it again.
Why did you want to tell that in a book today?
When I left the DGSE, I wanted to start a YouTube channel that talks about intelligence. But I always wanted to write books, like my father. I had this book in mind for 20 years. Very few people work under full legend within this intelligence service. It is a very closed environment and there was no book on the techniques of clandestinity. The book was reread by the DGSE and it did not pose a problem for them.
In the book, you mention other spies. How were you chosen them?
When I started working in the early 2000s in this little clandestine service of the DGSE, I read a lot of things. And I realized that with Rudolf Abel, a KGB agent, or with Robert Mazur, an American customs agent, we were the same. We have the same training, the same fears, the same difficulties… As for Jeanne Bohec, it’s everyone. She doesn’t have a big ego, even though she’s done amazing things!
Do you have other projects?
I want to write a spy novel around the pair formed by the attending officers and their source. They are two characters who are self-manipulating, who have respect and admiration for each other. I hope it can be transposed to cinema or television. Finally, I participated in a podcast on espionage which comes out May 20 on Majelan.
* I was another and you didn’t know it, by Olivier Mas, Editions de L’Observatoire, May 5, 2021, 256 pages, 19 euros.