The Spy Officer; This Is How the French Defence Industry Giant 'THALES' Penetrated the United Nations Deals

An investigation by the French Mediapart website published on November 14, 2021, revealed that France's defense and electronics firm Thales has inducted a spy in one of the most strategic and sensitive offices of the United Nations.

An investigation by journalists Yann Philippin and Antton Rouget concluded that from 2016 to 2019, Philippe Schifferling, a reserve officer in the French army at the United Nations, worked covertly with the Thales Group, according to Mediapart documents.

The investigation also revealed that all actions taken by Schifferling for the benefit of the Thales group at the United Nations office were with the knowledge of prominent figures in the French state, in a scandal that tarnished the reputation of the government of French President Emmanuel Macron and its defense industry together.

 

France’s Spy

The French army loaned Major Philippe Schifferling after his retirement free of charge to provide his services to the United Nations, and his co-workers thought he was receiving his salary from his state, but in fact, the experienced officer was working for and getting paid by the French arms manufacturer Thales, according to documents reviewed by Mediapart.

The French Major was working in the Technology and Communications Department of the Security Council, which was responsible for planning the arms deals signed by the organization in order to support peacekeeping missions deployed in all conflict areas around the world.

Thales was sending remittances to Schifferling in order for him to spy on UN plans, to pressure its officials to acquire arms deals for Blue Beret Soldiers’ missions around the world.

According to the investigation, Schifferling was in direct contact with the heads of the French defense giant, who he used to inform on a weekly basis of the latest developments in the arms deals that were being conducted behind the scenes of the international organization.

Even the French agent was well known to the most senior officials in the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, who were tasked with securing a secret cover for his work, according to Mediapart.

The French officer also worked on writing reports about his colleagues in the UN office and sending them to the Thales administration. His reports were more in-depth in the details of their private lives than in their professional activities and the tasks assigned to them.

For example, in a message with Thales Schifferling described his new manager, Colonel Philip Lohm, as celibate here, in the glass tower in New York that houses the United Nations office, because he left his family in Europe.

Although the French firm Thales works in the field of designing and building electrical systems and providing services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets, a recent report described it as one of the largest arms manufacturers in Europe.

 

Draft Leaks

Mediapart says that Major Schifferling worked from September 2016 to September 2017 to influence international structures and decisions, in order to enable the French Thales Group to obtain major arms deals. He even intervened to modify and tailor several arms deals to its size.

In another message published by Mediapart, the intelligence agent stated that he pressed to change the wording of the draft request for proposals that had been launched by the United Nations Mission in Mali to protect the camp of its forces in Kidalki, he added technical conditions to be compatible with the radar system produced by the French military industry giant Thales, the Ground Alerter 10 (GA10).

The investigation added that Schifferling's work brought the Thales Group huge financial profits, where the client focused on keeping the group updated with all the details of secret arms deals to the United Nations, even that was in conjunction with the stages of cooking between the offices of the Security Council.

After two years of secret service in the halls of the Technology and Communications Department of the United Nations Security Council, the French Ministry of Defense refused to renew the legal cover for the mission of intelligence agent Schifferling.

Which forced Schifferling to return to the French capital, Paris. However, he managed to return again to the United Nations headquarters in New York, but this time as a direct UN employee. Consequently, he returned to work for Thales for a new period from 2017 to 2019.

According to Mediapart, Schifferling's mission, relations and coordination expanded during this period to lobbyists on NATO and the European Union.

In 2018, the French spy handed over to Thales Group a number of super-secret documents on a topic related to the extension of the mission of the United Nations Organization in Mali.

 

Expose the Mission

The Mediapart investigation revealed that Schifferling's mission should have been kept secret, but the French court's investigations that pursued the Military Industries Group on charges of bribery and illegal pressure exposed the mission of the French agent within the United Nations.

Whereas, with the French authorities activating the Sabine 2 law on strengthening the fight against commercial corruption, which has been in effect since June 2017, Thales has come under fierce attack.

In 2018, it was placed under the control of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA), an agency responsible for ensuring that companies and local authorities comply with the French Anti-Corruption Law (Sabine 2). However, the French legal system dealt with Thales very easily.

The exposure of the secret mission dates back precisely to the moment when Thales decided to get rid of Agent Schifferling, as he was unable to extend his mission to the United Nations again, he demanded that he be incorporated into the group, which was rejected by its management.

After that, Thales severed all ties with Schifferling, in return for a large financial bribe, Thales gave him to ensure his silence.

But this bribe was exposed by an employee in the export deal planning department, she reported it to the head of the French group's ethics office, Dominique Lamoureux.

Three months later, Lamoureux was retired, the employee in the export deals planning department was dismissed, under the pretext of insulting her department head, who was one of those involved in the bribe.

 

French Arms

It is noteworthy that France experienced the highest growth rate in arms exports, and arms sales increased by 72% between 2015 and 2019 compared to the previous period between 2010 and 2014.

Which is rather clear evidence of the success of the French spy's mission, who was supervising the arms deals that the United Nations was conducting to support its missions on the ground, which, during that period of time, belonged to the French firm Thales.

According to a 2019 report by CNBC on the world's top 10 defense contractors by sales, Thales ranked eighth with sales of $9.4 billion and as one of Europe's largest defense contractors.

The report explained that Thales produces a variety of weapons systems ranging from armored vehicles to missile defense to navigation equipment.

It is noteworthy that France plays a pivotal role in global arms exports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), since the Arab Spring protests in 2011 until today, France has been among the world's top 5 arms exporters.

Statistics also indicate that French arms exports quadrupled between 2012 and 2018.

A French government report had previously shown that the proportion of French arms sales to the Middle East doubled in 2017, Arab countries received 60% of all French arms sales.