Marie-Monique Robin

It recruited many former members of the OAS pro-"French Algeria" terrorist group and opened a subsidiary in Argentina near the end of the 1950s.

It had an important role in teaching ESMA Navy officers counter-insurgency techniques, including the systematic use of torture and ideological support.

In a related issue that Robin documented, Manuel Contreras, the head of Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) had told her that the Direction de surveillance du territoire (DST) French intelligence agency had given Chilean secret police the names of refugees in exile in France, and those who had returned to Chile from France (Operation Retorno).

The Chileans who returned were killed, but France prevented CONDOR assassination of Chilean exiles on its soil.

In an interview Robin said that her findings meant that the French government, and Giscard d'Estaing, then President of the Republic, were responsible for the deaths of people in Chile.

She said, "I was very shocked by the duplicity of the French diplomatic position which, on one hand, received with open arms the political refugees, and, on the other hand, collaborated with the dictatorships."

(The next year she published a book on the same topic.) Specifically, she documented that the French transferred to Argentina counter-insurgency tactics which they had developed and used during the Algerian War (1954–62), including extensive use of torture and disappearances.

She documented a 1959 agreement between Paris and Buenos Aires that created a "permanent French military mission" in Argentina, formed of French veterans of the Algerian War (1954–62).

The mission was located in the offices of the chief of staff of the Argentine Army.

Roger Trinquier was a French theorist of counter-insurgency who legitimized the use of torture.

His noted book on counter-insurgency, Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency, had a strong influence in South America and elsewhere, including in the School of the Americas.

Trinquier was a member of the Cité catholique fundamentalist group.

Marie-Monique Robin (born 15 June 1960, Poitou-Charentes) is a French TV journalist and documentary filmmaker.

She generally issues books and documentary films together on the topics she investigates, in order to make more people aware of the issues she studies.

Marie-Monique Robin was born in 1960 and grew up in the Deux-Sèvres, where her parents were farmers.

She studied political science at the University of Saarbrücken and graduated from university teaching journalism center of the University of Strasbourg.

After studying journalism in Strasbourg, she worked with France 3 for a time.

Robin went to Nicaragua and worked in South America as a freelance reporter.

She traveled to South America more than 80 times, including 30 times to Cuba.

She reported on the Colombian guerrillas, and later worked for CAPA news agency.

The security forces later used them during the Dirty War (1976-1983) and for Operation Condor.

Voleurs d'yeux (Eye Thieves), 1994, was the name of a book and a film based on it, related to her investigations of organ theft.

After her film was shown at the United Nations, the USIA spokesman said that it was a lie.

Her work has been recognized by numerous awards: the 1995 Albert Londres Prize for Voleurs d'yeux (1994), an exposé about organ theft; best political documentary award from the French Senate for Escadrons de la mort, l'école française (2003), her film about France's transfer of counter-insurgency techniques (including torture) to Argentina; and the Rachel Carson Prize for Le monde selon Monsanto (2008), her film on Monsanto and challenges to the environment from its products, including GMOs.

She was subjected to various pressures and personal attacks, but the following year in 1995, she was awarded the Albert-Londres prize for her film.

However, the concession was suspended while the jury studied allegations of falsehoods after French physicians discovered that one of the children whose corneas the film said has been stolen still had them.

After months of discussions, the commission decided to ratify the concession because they didn't find "bad faith".

Marie-Monique Robin subsequently left CAPA to work freelance.

She is doing a report on Cuba for Thalassa, a French television program.

Another project is exploring the rise in false allegations of pedophilia being made against teachers.

Robin made a 2003 film documentary titled Escadrons de la mort, l'école française (The Death Squads: The French School) that investigated the little-known ties between the French secret services and their Argentine and Chilean counterparts.

She received an award in 2003 for the "best political documentary of the year" by the French Senate, in recognition of this work.

Robin said in an August 2003 interview in L'Humanité:

"[the] French have systematized a military technique in urban environment which would be copied and pasted to Latin American dictatorships."

While J. Patrice McSherry noted that the United States had also taught Argentine and other Latin American military officers, and had a larger role in Operation Condor, he said that Robin "succeeds exceptionally well" in illuminating the lesser known French connection.

People in Argentina were outraged when they saw the 2003 film, which included three generals defending their actions during the Dirty War.

Due to public pressure, "President Néstor Kirchner ordered the military to bring charges against the three for justifying the crimes of the dictatorship."

They were Albano Hargindeguy, Reynaldo Bignone, and Ramón Díaz Bessone.

Her associated book on the death squads was published in 2004.

Robin expanded on her discussion of how the French military officials had taught Argentine counterparts counter-insurgency tactics, including the systematic use of torture as they had used it during the Algerian War.