FRENCH AGENTS EMBROILED IN AUCKLAND BOMBING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201060008-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: August 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09 :CIA-RDP90-009658000201060008-8
Af~TICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE .,~._..,
WASHINGTON TIMES
12 August 1985
French agents embroiled in
Auckland bombing
By Curtis Cate
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
PARIS - At least six D~rsQUS worlimg
for the French equivalent of the CIA
appear to have been involved in the July
10 blowing-up in New Zealand's Auck-
land harbor of the "Rainbow Warrior," a
trawler belonging to the anti-nuclear
group Greenpeace.
TWo of -them -claiming to be a Swiss
couple named Alain-Jacques and Sylvie-
Clair 'Ilirenge -are now in the custody
of the New Zealand police, charged with
involvement in the crippling of the ship
and of being indirectly responsible for
the death of the crew's Portugese photog-
rapher, Fernando Pereira, who was killed
by the second of two underwater blasts
which blew holes in the trawler's hull and
caused it to tilt over on its side.
Little is known about the real identity
of Alain-Jacques 'Ilirenge, supposedly
aged 34 and claiming to be a Swiss busi-
nessman onvacation. But his companion,
who had been described as a
schoolteacher, has now been identified
by several French newspapers as holding
the rank of captain in the French secret
service.
Four other French undercover agents
who set sail from the New Caledonian
port of Noumea in mid-June and
anchored off the New Zealand coast a day
or two before the bombing, have been
identified as being Alain Velche, the skip-
per; Eric Audrenc, Jean-Michel Ber-
thelot; and Dr. Xavier Maniguet.
The first three have disappeared,
along with their yacht, "Ouvea;' which
they hired in Noumea in June and fitted
out with sophisticated radio gear for
long-distance satellite communications.
Dr. Maniguet, who left the yacht dur-
ing astopover at the Australian port of
Norfolk on July 17, recently returned to
his home in the channel seaport of
Dieppe. In a terse televised interview, he
claimed to have no knowledge whatso-
ever ofthe James Bond-style underwater
bombing operation, and to escape further
journalistic harassment he, too, has
momentarily gone underground, leaving
a tape-recording answering-machine to
take incoming telephone queries.
A seventh suspect has now been
named: a woman in her late twenties call-
ing herself Frederique Beaulieu. A
French sea captain named Jean-Marc
Vidal, a supporter of the "Greenpeace"
ecological movement who sailed to the
South Pacific in 1983 to protest further
holding of nuclear bomb tests on the
French atoll of Mururoa, says that he was
twice approached by Miss Beaulieu, the
second time in January of this year.
Saying she was a "geographer" and
personally opposed to French nuclear
tests, she asked for introductions to mem-
bers of the "Greenpeace" movement
active in the South Pacific. Her real
intention, it is now believed, was to infil-
tratethe Greenpeacemovement as akind
of "mole"
The fact that she first approached
Jean-Marc Vidal more than a year ago
suggests that she was acting under
orders as part of a long-range plan. This
fits in with a report that the "Rainbow
Warrior" bombing attack, far from being
an isolated incident, was in fact the 10th
attempt in a series of "accidental" explo-
sions that have damaged Greenpeace
vessels in recent months.
'Ib date, the most sensational revela-
tion is one appearing in the current edi-
tion of the weekly Le Point The_ ,
anti-Rainbow Warrior o eration the
map~azine claims, was Carrie out un er
tFie direct o_ rders of Gen. ~toger Emin,`
w~o_ .ri_eads the "action"service of the
DGSE (Direction Generale de la Securife
F.xt-~nPnr~,3s111~EY'enCkl ~Qi~terparEof
the CIA is called.
The question is just how high the chain
of responsibility goes in this affair. It is
regarded as inconceivable that an opera-
tion of this kind could have been autho-
rized without the knowledge of Adm.
Pierre LaCoste, current head of the
DGSE. If Adm. LaCoste knew, it is
equally inconceivable that he should not
have informed his immediate superior,
Defense Minister Charles Hernu.
The French defense minister has
already manifested his embarrassment
by canceling a trip he was to have made
to India, supposedly on the grounds that
his presence is needed in Paris to put the
finishing touch to France's response to an
offer being made by Britain, West Ger-
many, and Italy to cooperate on joint pro-
duction of anultra-modern European
fighter plane.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09 :CIA-RDP90-009658000201060008-8