GREENPEACE AFFAIR: A QUICK FADE-OUT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490006-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490006-5
NEW YORK TIMES
ARTICLE APP A ED 27 October 1985
ON PAGE
Greenpeace Affair: A Quick Fade-Out
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
Special to The New York Times
PARIS, Oct. 26 - The day after
France's most recent nuclear test ex-
plosion on Mururoa Atoll in the South
Pacific, television viewers in Paris saw
images of a glassy lagoon that seemed
to ripple just slightly at the very instant
of the? underground blast.
The television showed Prime Minis-
ter Laurent Fabius inside a control
room-at Mururoa and Defense Minister
Paul Quiles in a helicopter circling
above the test site. There were images
of sleepy dogs and French soldiers
swirnuing in the bay, all of them show-
ing that the underground testing pro-
gram had little visible effect even at
the moment of the explosion. ,
The great attention paid to the test,
indeed the presence of Mr. Fabius at
the Beene, was undoubtedly a result of
what has come to be known here as the
Greenpeace affair - the intense politi-
cal scandal that followed the sinking by
French agents of a ship belonging to
the environmentalist group Green-
peace just before it was to lead a sea-
borne protest against the French nu-
clear tests in July.
But the presence of French television
at the test site is about the only aspect
of the Greenpeace affair to be evident
here-recently. The scandal, the worst
since the Socialist Government of
President Francois Mitterrand came
to power in 1981, has almost entirely
faded from the public arena, even
though many key questions about the
operation remain unanswered.
Explaining the Loss of Interest
tious remark, there has been some-
thing close to absolute silence about the
purported plot, and there has been no
public demand for further information.
To be sure, for several days there
were news reports of the war of nerves
between the French Navy and five
Greenpeace boats that spent several
days around Mururoa and on the sei-
zure of the last remaining boat, the
sailing ketch Vega, by the French Navy
just hours before the test explosion.
It is also possible that as a political
scandal Greenpeace may rise again,
perhaps next month, when two French
agents are to go on trial in New Zealand
for their role in the affair. But for now
the Greenpeace affair remains a kind
of unfinished work, a plot that thick-
ened and then produced no resolution.
Government's `Big Mistake'
"The big mistake the Government
made was to have said it would reveal
the full truth in the first place," a politi-
cal journalist here said. "Nobody was
asking for the truth. The French sup-
port the testing program and accept
that something was done to prevent
Greenpeace from interfering with it."
In this sense, there might well never
"Voltaire once said that it was im-
possible to get the French to be inter-
ested in anything for more than 10
days," said Jean-Marie Benoist, a
writer and political commentator; in
trying to explain the disappearance of
the Greenpeace affair.
"First, Greenpeace was killed by the
Gorbachev visit," he said, referring to
the Soviet leader's three-day stay in
Paris this month. "Then Gorbachev
was, killed by the hijacking of the
Achille Lauro, and nobody particularly
remembers Greenpeace anymore."
e extent to which Green peace has
lost a attention of the public is re-
ect teabsence of any reaction
694n. dramatic statement a month ago
en m t, the new head o
the French intelligence agency.
us General
Ton all three of Frances euev
neo i
sion networks, said e had uncovered a
plot to "dest ro '"the intelligence a en-
f et since that apparently porten-
have been a Greenpeace affair if the
precedent of Watergate did not exist.
The French press, inspired by the
Watergate example, forced the Gov-
ernment into a series of admissions by
publishing disclosures on the Green-
peace operation.
But the similarity with Watergate
ends there. The rightist opposition,
while clearly satisfied with the discom-
fort of the Socialist Government, never
pressed for a full disclosure of the
facts. A parliamentary commission of
inquiry, called for by Mr. Fabius,
never got off the ground because oppo-
sition leaders refused to take part in it.
General Imbot for his part has
'ded no details o who was the behinci
effort to "destroy" the inte gene
agenncy. He talked d rkly about cutting
off "rotten branches" in the service,
but there has been no disclosure of
what branches he has cut.
As long ago as Aug. 27, Prime Minis-
ter Fabius declared that the Govern-
ment was "determined that no element
remain in the shadows." He vowed that
France would take "legal action" if it
was proved that French citizens had
sunk the boat.
Yet the affair does remain in th
shadows. It is still not known. for - ex-
am le who gave the order to carry
t e sabotage. the onl eo le
brow t to justice so Tar are five i i -
tary or intelligence ce officers who have
been ndicteed for duRclosiN forma-
tion To -Me press that enabled the scan-
eve
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490006-5