Report Says Mitterrand Approved Sinking of Greenpeace Ship (Leftists Attacking Their Own...?)

New York Times ^ | 7/09/2005 | staff

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

PARIS, July 9 - 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.

[Bob]

At least Mitterand was a member of the French Resistance during WWII.

I don't know Mitterand's background but it seems to me that, after the war ended, the French had all been members of the Resistance. :=)

[Howlin]

Well, let's go with that: You could say that this is "just desserts," eh? :-)

[Atlantic Friend]

Pres. Reagan would have said more than a little, as it seems !

[Eric in the Ozarks]

'smatter of fact, this was the Gipper's exact comment back in the 1980s when Sandanistas fired a rocket as a planeload of reporters leaving Nicaragua...