The Mammoth Book of Cover-Ups

On 10 July 1985 the Rainbow Warrior, flagship of the conservation organization Greenpeace, was moored in Auckland, New Zealand, from where it was to lead a flotilla of yachts to protest against French nuclear testing on the Muroroa Atoll. Just before midnight, two high-explosive devices attached to the hull of the Rainbow Warrior detonated. So forceful were the explosions that a hole eight feet (2.44m) across was opened below the waterline next to the engine room. The vessel sank within minutes. Of the 12 people on board, 11 managed to make the safety of the wharf, but the ship’s official photographer, 36-year-old Fernando Pereira, was drowned attempting to retrieve photographic equipment from his cabin.

The New Zealand police, who immediately treated the incident as a homicide enquiry, discovered an abandoned rubber Zodiac dinghy nearby. Within five days the police had arrested a French-speaking couple, initially identified as Alain Turenge and his wife Sophie Turenge. Subsequent inquiries revealed their true identities to be Major Alain Mafart, aged 35, and Captain Dominique Prieur, aged 36, French soldiers seconded to the French security service (Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure, the DGSE). A number of other French agents were involved in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior but managed to elude the NZ police.

Meanwhile, the Elysee in Paris denounced the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

as «criminal». President Mitterrand released a report on 27 August 1985 which completely exonerated the French secret services. This failed to satisfy the French media, who pressurized the Elysee Palace for the truth. After more official denials, Charles Hernu, the Defence Minister, resigned, and on 22 September Prime Minister Laurent Fabius admitted the DGSE had ordered the «neutralization» of the Rainbow Warrior in what had been termed, without conscious irony, «Operation Satanic».

On Monday 4 November 1985 Mafart and Prieur appeared in the Auckland District Court. They pleaded guilty to charges of arson and a reduced charge of manslaughter, and were sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment on the charge of manslaughter and seven years’ imprisonment on the charge of arson. Mitterrand responded by threatening to impose trade sanctions against New Zealand. Eventually, under UN brokerage, New Zealand accepted NZ$13 million compensation and Mafart and Prieur were released to France after serving fewer than four years of their sentences.

The commander of the operation, Louis-Pierre Dillais, later acknowledged his involvement to the New Zealand state broadcaster (TVNZ); despite this confessed connection to a terrorist offence he was allowed by the US government to settle in Virginia, working as an executive for arms dealer F. N. Herstal.

In 2005, the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior

sinking, it was admitted by French authorities what many had suspected all along: the late President Francois Mitterrand had personally approved Operation Satanic.

French DGSE spies sank Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in waters of ally New Zealand: ALERT LEVEL 10

Further Reading

Michael King, Death of the Rainbow Warrior,

1986

David Robie, Eyes of Fire, 2005

Sunday Times Insight Team, Rainbow Warrior: The French Attempt to Sink Greenpeace, 1986

Ronald Reagan

The Bush family, it has to be said, has a history of bad timing. On the morning of 9/11, George H. W. Bush was meeting with Osama bin Laden’s brother even as the jets crashed into the World Trade Center (see the Bush-Bin Laden Connection). On 30 March 1981 G. H. W. Bush’s son Neil had a dinner date planned with Scott Hinckley for the following evening.

What was odd about that? Well, on 30 March 1981 George Bush was Vice-President of the United States of America, and the President, Ronald Reagan, had just been shot by Scott Hinckley’s brother, John Hinckley Jr.

At 2.30 p.m. John Hinckley Jr stood on the sidewalk outside the Washington DC Hilton and popped off several.22 bullets at Reagan, one of which entered the President’s lung. Rushed to George Washington University Hospital, the President underwent surgery and survived. If Hinckley’s hand had been a little steadier, Reagan would have died.

Which is where the «Bushy knoll» conspiracy gets started up. With Reagan dead, George H. W. «Poppy» Bush would have been elevated to the Oval Office.