FRENCH AGENTS EMBROILED IN AUCKLAND BOMBING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100450003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: August 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100450003-8
AF TICLE APPEARrD
ON PACE
WASHINGTON TIMES
12 August 1985
French agents embroiled iri
Auckland bombing
By Curtis Cate A seventh suspect has now been
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES named: a woman in her late twenties call.
PARIS - At least six persons working ing herself Frederique Beaulieu. A
French sea captain named jean-Marc
for the French equivalent of the CIA Vidal, a supporter of the "Greenpeace"
ap ear to have been involved in the July ecological movement who sailed to the
to blowing-up in New Zealand's Auck- South Pacific in 1983 to protest further
land harbor of the "Rainbow Warrior," a holding of nuclear bomb tests on the
trawler belonging to the anti nuclear French atoll of Mururoa, says that he was
group Greenpeace. twice approached by Miss Beaulieu, the
Two of them - claiming to be a Swiss second time in January of this year.
couple named Alain-Jacques and Sylvie-
Clair 'Ilirenge - are now in the custody Saying she was a "geographer" and
of the New Zealand police, charged with personally opposed to French nuclear
involvement in the crippling of the ship tests, she asked for introductions to mem-
and of being indirectly responsible for bers of the "Greenpeace" movement
the death of the crew's Portugese photog- active in the South Pacific. Her real
rapher, Fernando Pereira, who was killed intention, it is now believed, was to infil-
by the second of two underwater blasts trate the Greenpeace movement as a kind
which blew holes in the trawler's hull and of "mole:'
caused it to tilt over on its side. The fact that she first approached
Little is known about the real identity Jean-Marc Vidal more than a year ago
of Alain-Jacques TLrenge, supposedly suggests that she was acting under
aged 34 and claiming to be a Swiss busi- orders as part of a long-range plan. This
nessman on vacation. But his companion, fits in with a report that the "Rainbow
who had been described as a Warrior" bombing attack, far from being
schoolteacher, has now been identified an isolated incident, was in fact the 10th
by several French newspapers as holding attempt in a series of "accidental" explo-
the rank of captain in the French secret sions that have damaged Greenpeace
service. vessels in recent months.
Four other French undercover agents lb date, the most sensational revela-
who set sail from the New Caledonian lion is one appearing in the current edi-
port of Noumea in mid-June and tion of the weekly Le Point_ Th
anchored off the New Zealand coast a day anti-Rainbow Warrior operation, the
or two before the bombing, have been ma azine claims, was carried out under
identified as being Alain Velche, the skip- the direct orders of Gen. Roger Emin,_
per; Eric Audrenc, Jean Michel Ber- W Q s the "action service of the
thelot; and Dr. Xavier Maniguet. DGSE,Directiion Generale de la Securite
The first three have disappeared, ~'a4Chom1grpartor
along with their yacht, "Ouvea," which the CIA is called.
they hired in Noumea in June and fitted The question is just how high the chain
out with sophisticated radio gear for of responsibility goes in this affair. It is
long-distance satellite communications. regarded as inconceivable that an opera-
tion of this kind could have been autho-
Dr. Maniguet, who left the yacht dur- rized without the knowledge of Adm.
ing a stopover at the Australian port of Pierre LaCoste, current head of the
Norfolk on July 17, recently returned to DGSE. If Adm. LaCoste knew, it is
his home in the channel seaport of equally inconceivable that he should not
Dieppe. In a terse televised interview, he have informed his immediate superior,
claimed to have no knowledge whatso- Defense Minister Charles Hernu.
ever of the James Bond-style underwater The French defense minister has
bombing operation, and to escape further already manifested his embarrassment
journalistic harassment he, too, has by canceling a trip he was to have made
momentarily gone underground, leaving to India, supposedly on the grounds that
a tape-recording answering-machine to his presence is needed in Paris to put the
take incoming telephone queries. 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 an ultra-modern European
fighter plane.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100450003-8