The Secret of the Knights Templar

The Modern Merovingian Connection

De Gaulle's Rise to Power

In 1957 the spectre of a civil war loomed in France. "In Algeria, a network of semi-secret societies began to appear, the Comites de Salut Public (Committees of Public Safety). Modelled on the Committees of Public Safety during the French Revolution, the Algerian network undertook to weld French interests, the French Army and the French population of North Africa into a cohesive and unified force which would constitute a bulwark against Algerian independence and keep the colony permanently attached to France....They received support from a number of high-ranking military men, including Marshal Alphonse Juin, who is alleged to have been an important member of the Prieure de Sion."

"In April, 1958, the newly elected French government signalled a desire to resolve the Algerian crisis by granting independence to the colony." In reaction the Committees of Public Safety staged a coup d'Ätat in Algeria and Committees established in France helped to sweep de Gaulle into power. "For at least some of the French Committees...the primary objective seems to have been installing de Gaulle in the Presidency, and Algeria may have been wholly incidental, if not irrelevant. It is difficult to be certain about this, however, simply because the Committees themselves, especially in France, were so shadowy. They were obviously widespread, obviously very well organized - a true 'secret army', with many links with the regular army. But firm information about them is virtually impossible to obtain, and reliable documentation is virtually non-existent."

When de Gaulle began to negotiate with Algerian nationalist leaders for the country's independence, the Algerian Committees formed the "OAS, the Organization de l'Armee Secrete, or secret Army Organization, which pledged itself to avenge what it saw as de Gaulle's treason." In order to dissolve the mainland French Committees and leave the Algerian Committees isolated, "M. Plantard established the Central Paris Committee, which imposed itself as a kind of ad hoc authority over the other committees already in existence and proceeded in effect to hijack them. De Gaulle, in the meantime, was able to maintain a serene Olympian aloofness from the apparently 'grass-roots' movement which swept him to power - as well as from the potentially awkward process of having personally to dismantle the organizational apparatus of that movement before it could be turned against him." Andre Malraux, who "by 1947... had mobilized a private army, the RPF, or Ressemblement du Peuple Francais - to secure de Gaulle's position and thwart Communist attempts to seize power in France" was also claimed as a member of the Prieure de Sion. - Baigent and Leigh, Holy Blood and Holy Grail