FRANCE BLAMES 2 AIDES IN SHIP RAID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490008-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: September 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
France Blames 2 Aides in Ship Raid
L By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
IM !Meld to The Now Yoft ram.
04ARIS, Sept. 25 - Prime Minister
Itaurent Fabius, trying for the first
to fix ultimate responsibility for
sinking of the antinuclear protest
ship Rainbow Warrior, blamed two for-
senior French Government offi-
tonight for having given the go-
for the operation.
.)rtr. Fabhs, speaking in a regularly
eduled monthly television inter-
, said political responsibility for
ho was dismisse Friday, also re
onsi ity for what Mr. Fabius
a _ "bad decision."
ew Ina Blgeooe Agency Head
was announced today that Gen.
Rep mot, the Chief Of Staff of the
's successor an head of htinirlli-
ce a enc Directorate
ty
Securi
mating his statement tonight, Mr.
us flatly contradicted repeated
denials, made in particular by Mr.
IN=, that a Defense Ministry order
given to sink the ship belonging to
the environmentalist group Green-
Asked Tuesday whether there
been such an order, Mr. Hernu re-
lied, That would have been stupid."
Fabius, discussing the conduct of
Hernu and Admiral Lacoste, said:
O's ffi'g~
'My connvicion is that in acting both of
were animated by the idea that
had of the interest of the country.
y conviction is that responsibility is
$jiatod at their level."
B
But the decision was bad, its exeCu-
was unfortunate and it entailed
serious circumstances and cone-
' he said.
In? a democracy like ours, the onus
is on the political authority, that is, the
~er, ' Mr. Fabius said, referring
Herne.
'I Was Never Informed'
he Prime Minister's move tonight
seen as part of a decision by the
rnment to try to end the politicial
threatening the credibility of his
Government by drawing a
Qipr line of responsibility. But com-
-
t>ttatots here said tonight that the; ort on recent-even ts," an allusion to
widespread suspicion, being opener- the Grerttpeacaffair.
tjld by opposition figures and some I^dday the FiencT`i police extended
newspapers, that Mr. Fabius as well as the detention of three army and intelli-
President Francois Mitterrand werei gence officers accused Tuesday of hav-
involved in planning the Greenpeace! ing disclosed secret information to the
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490008-3
17 11,1L < APPEA'LD NEW YORK TIMES
26 September 1985
operation would not end with the decla-
ration tonight.
In his 15-minute interview tonightMr. Fabius denied having any advance
knowledge of the operation that sank
the protest ship, killing a Greenpeace
photographer aboard.
"I was never informed by the Minis-
ter of Defense about the preparation of
this project," Mr. Fabius said. "When
the attack took place, the response to
my questions 'Were French services
involved?' was always 'No.' "
France to Offer Compessadon
He said France would offer compen-
sation to the wife and family of the
Greenpeace crew member killed in the
attack, Fernando Perreira. He said
nothing about an apology to New Zea-
land, which has sharply condemned the
French operation.
Mr. Fabius expressed puzzlement
over the apparent clumsiness of the
French agents who carried out the at-
tack. Two of them were arrested in
New Zealand two days after the sinking
of the ship. They are awaiting trial
there on charges of murder and arson.
"I ask myself questions," Mr.
Fabius said. "Is it possible that some-
one tried to sabotage the sabotage?"
The Rainbow Warrior was sunk by
two explosives attached magnetically
to its hull on July 10, shortly before it
was to lead a seaborne protest against
French nuclear weapons testing in the
South Pacific.
Worst Political Crisis
In recent weeks the operation has
turned into the worst political crisis
faced by the Socialist Government
since it came to power in 1981. Press re-
ports discredited repeated assertions
of senior officials such as Mr. Hernu
that the French intelligence agency did
not sink the ship.
On Sunday, Mr. Fabius acknowl-
edged for the first time that agents of
the intelligence agency, acting under orders, carried out the operation, butt
he did not specify who gave the order.
General Imbot, the newl a inted
head of the French intel ixencee a cy.
had supervised a reorganization of the
army, whose former com'mait er Tina
e y s o rite commanders as a
political appointee of theists.
a task, the Government said
SGday.-will be_w-rmn r __order" in the
ce service And
to "make a re-
press in the Greenpeace affair and said
a fourth person was being sought.
The four are alleged to have provided
the press with information that identi-
tied the teams of frogmen who carried
out the Greenpeace Operation in N
Zealand as members of the intelligence
agency.
Istatement after appointment
to head the intel
eral Imbot said today that the cu-
t on o to men accuse of the
closures was part of the "traditional
disci Y"le of the French armed
f rces?
In his remarks tonight Mr. Fabius
did not address several aspects of the
Greenpeace operation, including those
that have led some commentators to
ask whether he himself, as well as
President Mitterrand, did not have ad-
vance knowledge of the attack.
Press reports have in particular fo-
cused on the financing for the opera-
tion, which would have had to come ei-
ther from the office of the Prime Minis-
ter or of Mr. Mitterrand.
Report by Civil Servant
An investigation last month by a sen-
ior civil servant, Bernard Tricot, found
that Mr. Mitterrand's personal mili-
tary adviser, Gen. Jean Saulnier, had
approved of the operation, which was
at the time mistakenly presented as an
effort to gather information about
Greenpeace's protest plans.
Mr. Tricot also said special funds for
the Greenpeace operation, estimated
to have cost more than $300,000, were
allocated by the Government. The
French press has maintained that in
normal operations General Saulnier
would have to have approved those
funds.
Asked tonight where the funds for the
operation came from, Mr. Fabius re-
plied that the money represented an
"incidental expenditure" that would
have been activated by the Gi vern-
ment's secretary general, who puts the
Prime Minister's seal to the order.
"Laurent Fabius was in the know
and he has denied it," an opposition
Member of Parliament, Michel Noir.
said tonight. "The lies continue. With
great dishonesty, the Prime Minister
accused Charles Hernu and Admiral
Lacoste, passing completely over the
budgetary authorizations given by
Matignon." The Prime Minister's of-
fice is called Matignon.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490008-3