Word: zealanders
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first revelation appeared in early August in VSD, a weekly popular- interest magazine. It reported that "Sophie-Claire Turenge," the "Swiss honeymooner" arrested by New Zealand police after the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, was in fact a captain in the French intelligence service...
...completed in 17 days, revealed only a murky picture of French spies trying to learn about Greenpeace's plans for a floating protest against France's nuclear tests on the Pacific atoll of Mururoa this autumn. Although Tricot confirmed that there had been a French espionage mission in New Zealand, he absolved the government of responsibility for giving any direct order to sink the Greenpeace ship. Later, however, he admitted that he could have been "duped" by the officials he interrogated...
...personal chief of staff when the surveillance scheme was conceived; General Jeannou Lacaze, then overall armed forces Chief of Staff; and Hernu. By most accounts, Mitterrand was not informed of the spying mission until a week after the Rainbow Warrior had been sunk. By that time the New Zealand police had arrested two French secret-service agents, Major Alain Mafart and Captain Dominique Prieur, who had been posing as a honeymooning Swiss couple. Charged with murder, arson and passport offenses, the two face a preliminary hearing in New Zealand in November...
...shake-up within the secret services, the President aroused the displeasure of France's top military brass, who feel that their colleagues were sacrificed for political expediency. Yet Mitterrand had little choice, not only for his own government's future but for France's battered image. In New Zealand, Prime Minister David Lange responded sharply to Hernu's resignation. Said he: "France has handled the Rainbow Warrior affair in the most destructive way possible...
...lied and this is Watergate--or he was not aware, in which case he's a fool." For Mitterrand it was a no-win situation. Having tasted political blood, the opposition appeared intent on keeping up the pressure to force the government into making full disclosures about the New Zealand operation. For Le Monde and the other publications, questions remained. What did Hernu know, and who gave the order? Said the paper's executive editor, Daniel Vernet: "I'm not sure we'll ever know, but we'll try . . . to get the answers." Mitterrand's decisive action last week...