State sponsored terrorism

Just another example.

Twenty years ago, two French secret service frogmen attached mines to the hull of a ship owned by the environmentalist group Greenpeace as it lay anchored in a New Zealand harbor, and the explosions ripped large holes in it.

The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior before it could set off to protest French nuclear tests in the Pacific killed a Greenpeace photographer on board, provoking much embarrassment in Paris and the resignation of top officials.

Much has become known about the government's deliberate sabotage of the vessel thanks to the tenacious pursuit of the case by the French press. But Saturday, exactly 20 years after the operation, the newspaper Le Monde added another intriguing chapter by publishing what it called the account of the events written by the man in charge of the plan.

Adm. Pierre Lacoste, the former head of France's General Directorate for External Security, the French foreign intelligence agency, said in a 1986 report that he personally obtained approval to sink the ship from the late president François Mitterrand.

French press reports and books have previously said Mr. Mitterrand was informed of the operation in advance , but cited no sources. Le Monde has now published long verbatim excerpts from what it calls a 23-page handwritten report written by Admiral Lacoste that had remained secret until now and was never even circulated within the government.

The text provides a rare insight into the hatching of a secret operation, the plans for its deniability, the subsequent attempts to cover it up and, not least, the pleas of ignorance by high officials, including President Mitterrand himself.

  NY Times article