[citation needed] Rondot joined the "special services" in 1965 as an officer of the "action" branch of the SDECE (ancestor of the present DGSE).
In 1994, he was active in the capture of terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (aka "Carlos the Jackal") in Sudan.
His title was "conseiller pour le renseignement et les opérations spéciales" ("advisor for intelligence and special operations") of the Defence minister, first Alain Richard and later Michèle Alliot-Marie.
[1] The second Clearstream affair is an episode of the enquiry regarding the selling of La Fayette-class frigates to Taiwan by Thomson, then directed by Alain Gomez [fr].
This caused Rondot's house to be searched in March 2006, and himself to be audited, by judges Jean-Marie d'Huy and Henri Pons.