Word: zealanders
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
Despite the disclosures in Le Monde, however, direct proof of government involvement was missing. A major breakthrough came from Le Canard Enchaine. In its Sept. 11 issue the magazine speculated that another, heretofore unknown, team of French agents might have been sent to New Zealand to blow up the ship. A week later Le Monde Reporters Bernard le Gendre and Edwy Plenel revealed that two frogmen had placed mines on the Rainbow Warrior before escaping. Their orders, the paper said, had to have come from a high level within the government, since none of the military figures involved would credibly...
...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...