During a round-table discussion at the French Senate January 29, 2010, on the topic of "Where are we at with Al Qaeda?", Alain Chouet -- former head of the Security Intelligence Service of the DGSE (Directorate-General for External Security: the French equivalent of the CIA or MI6) -- demystified the concept of "Al Qaeda" and denounced the inappropriate responses and other instrumentalizations by the West, without however deflating the dangers of Islamic extremism.

The video below has been subtitled into English and edited to include the best parts of Alain Chouet's passionate discourse containing no stonewalling or political doublespeak, placing itself light-years ahead of the official discourse about September 11th and "the nebulous Al Qaeda" that the mainstream media have been reporting for far too long.

Would you like to know what the French "spies" think of Al Qaeda? Hold-on tight, the masks are about to fall. Alain Chouet's stance, which no one would dare qualify as conspiratorial, is in no way different than the information the French Association ReOpen911 modestly (but tenaciously) reports via our site.

Ex-Head of the French DGSE: "Al Qaeda Dead Since 2002" (English Subtitles)
Uploaded by ReOpen911.

The Committee To Protect Journalists has a recent article on 9/11 censorship:

http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/europe/france10dec07na.html

New York, December 10, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about a criminal investigation launched by French authorities against Guillaume Dasquié, a reporter for the daily Le Monde, on accusations of publishing state secrets related to the 9/11 hijackings.

Officers from the Directorate of Territorial Security, a counterespionage agency, searched Dasquié’s Paris home on Wednesday. They detained him for 48 hours, during which time he was interrogated and pressured to reveal his sources, according to international news reports. Dasquié faces five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros (US$110,000) under Article 413-11 of France’s penal code if convicted.

“We are troubled by the criminal probe against Guillaume Dasquié and his detention for two days by French security services who pressured him to reveal his sources,” CPJ’s Executive Director Joel Simon said. “Dasquié should not be prosecuted for serving the public’s right to know.”

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/16/world/main2689205.shtml

France Knew Of Hijack Plot Before 9/11

PARIS, April 16, 2007(AP) France's foreign intelligence service learned as early as January 2001 that al Qaeda was preparing a hijacking plot likely to involve a U.S. airplane, former intelligence officials said Monday, confirming a report that also said the CIA received the warning.

Le Monde newspaper said it had obtained 328 pages of classified documents on Osama bin Laden's terror network that were drawn up by the French spy service, the DGSE, between July 2000 and October 2001. The documents included a Jan. 5, 2001, intelligence report warning that al Qaeda was at work on a hijacking plot.

Pierre-Antoine Lorenzi, the former chief of staff for the agency's director at the time, said he remembered the note and that it mentioned only the vague outlines of a hijacking plot — nothing that foreshadowed the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.