by frog
As New Zealand commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing, new evidence is emerging that French President Francois Mitterrand personally gave the green light to the operation. This will come as no surprise to the New Zealand Government. Despite the heated official denials from the French Government from the moment the bombing took place, our law enforcement and intelligence agencies were soon able to gather ample evidence that the French were behind it.
However, this doesn’t mean that official evidence of Mitterrand’s involvement – from Pierre Lacoste, the former head of France’s foreign intelligence service – shouldn’t still shock us. As Geoffrey Palmer, who was Deputy PM at the time, said in the Herald:
It is very disappointing because one would not expect the president of a friendly nation to authorise an illegal act against a nation with whom you enjoy friendly relations and with whom you have fought in two world wars. That seems to me to be extraordinary.
It’d be nice to think we live in different times now, and that friendly governments wouldn’t fragrantly breach our sovereignty any more. However, the recent Israeli spy case suggests to me that such optimism would be misplaced.
Published in Justice & Democracy by frog on Mon, July 11th, 2005
Tags: environment
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
“It’d be nice to think we live in different times now, and that friendly governments wouldn’t fragrantly breach our sovereignty any more. However, the recent Israeli spy case suggests to me that such optimism would be misplaced. ”
I think we, the Green Party, need to read our history books a little more thoroughly, and realise that there is absolutely no grounds at all for optimism on this front, nor is there ever likely to be. No other country owes New Zealand any favours whatsoever, and if they can get any gain at all by doing the dirty on us, they may well do it in a heartbeat, without a qualm. The Aussies do it, and they’re meant to be our mates……… I know that it would be lovely if the world was really like this, but I’m afraid it’s not.
We need to stop thinking that everyone else is as nice and polite as we are, and learn , as Teddy Roosevelt once said ‘…to walk softly and carry a big stick’.
Peak Oil is just around the corner. When that starts to bite, the diplomatic niceties of the last 60 years will evaporate. (and yes, they have been there, at least in relative terms). Time for that big stick.
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Betrayal of our country over the Rainbow Warrior
There is an aspect of the Rainbow Warrior case which has never been heard before. This is my recollection of what I was told about the events and my personal opinion about what I was told in the context of current events. I cannot recall the specific dates so many years on.
During his tenure as deputy Prime Minister under David Lange, there was a secret dialog between Geoffrey Palmer and the French Government. My then partner Robyn Brooks was for a time, the shorthand typist for Palmer. One night she came home from work late and told me a quite extraordinary story.
Robyn said she was asked to type a letter for Palmer to the French Prime Minister. She was instructed to tell no one. Robyn was also instructed to make no copies and retain no record of the letter. The subject of the letter was the release of French agents. The letter itself was collected by a special courier from the French embassy whom I was told made a long distance flight to Paris to deliver the letter in person.
I recall at the time, that the French government had vetoed the import of NZ lamb into the EU. With the passage of this letter and the release of French agents the ban on NZ lamb by the EU was dropped.
Also in the wake of that, David Lange resigned and the NZ Government under Palmer soon afterwards announced the multi million dollar purchase by Airways Corporation of a new civil radar system from Tompson-CSF industries of France, beating out a superior bid from Beech-Rayethon from the United States.
As a taxpayer, I would like to know if Geoffrey Palmer and or the NZ Labour party ever receive a secret kickback or sales commission for these French radar systems ?
Was the sabotage of Lange’s Government by Minister’s within his own Cabinet part of an extraordinary deal with a hostile foreign power and if so wasn’t that an act of high treason ?
NZ taxpayers were made to pay back every last cent of the $13 million dollar damages payout by the French Government over the Rainbow Warrior and pay over the top for a new radar system when a cheaper option was available. Helen Clark says that she runs a Government that does not believe in secret kick backs and payouts.
Rayethon is the electronics arm of the giant US corporation. Beechcraft is the aircraft manufacturing arm. Beech-Rayethon were furious and so the company announced publicly that it intended to sue the NZ Government. I contacted a person at Air Center One. A New Zealand sales agent for Beech Rayethon and mentioned Palmer’s secret letter.
Some months later Beech Rayethon dropped legal action against the NZ Government over radar, but the RNZAF ordered a small fleet of Beech-Rayethon Super King Airs for it’s VIP fleet. Then many years later when Air New Zealand was bailed out by a new Labour Government, suddenly a huge order was placed for a fleet of Beech-Rayethon B1900D airliners.
It has all the appearance to me that Labour did a deal with the devil to help France release agents Prieur and Marfart and were caught out by the US company. It appears that Labour continue to be blackmailed by this US industry giant with close ties to the US millitary and have in effect become a poodle on a chain pulled by Uncle Sam.
It also appears to me from things which Robyn told me at the time, that perhaps Geoffrey palmer was acting behind David Lange’s back. It seems to me that a cabal of Labour Ministers at the time including Helen Clark and Mike Moore must have been in on this suspected betrayal of David Lange.
I think as an act of patriotism and in fairness to the New Zealand public, it is time this account became part of the public record. Please will you post my letter to your web page. I was spurred to write this after watching a documentary on TV recently about the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.
I think the people of New Zealand need to know that David Lange was a courageous man, but perhaps was surrounded by others who betrayed him at every step. Those people who appear to have betrayed Lange and the New Zealand people are now respected pillars of our community. I question if this is right and just ?
All that I ask of you is that you publish this in full on your website and not abridge it. I am merely reporting what was told to me by a former member of Geoffrey Palmer’s staff. Robyn Brooks will undoubtedly deny the claim. She is a product of the system which purports to serve the people, but in fact serves it’s political masters. As for the rest, it is my opinion, piecing together fragments of what I knew from the news and relating it to what I had been told.
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