THE FRENCH SECRET SERVICE AGENTS - WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Christine Cabon, alias Frederique Bonlieu Cabon joined the French army in 1977, and was later transferred to the intelligence gathering and evaluation wing of the Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE - French Secret Service). She infiltrated the Greenpeace New Zealand office in April 1985 to uncover plans for the Greenpeace Moruroa trip and gathered directions, maps, and information for the Ouvea crew and the Turenges. She left New Zealand on May 24 1985; at the time of the bombing she was in Israel. The same day the Auckland police asked the Israeli authorities to arrest her, she was warned off by the DGSE and was able to leave Israel before Israeli authorities arrested her. She has since disappeared.
The three Ouvea crew are believed to have smuggled explosives,
an inflatable and an outboard motor into New Zealand. It is
possible but unlikely that one of them actually placed the bombs.
Maniguet was a doctor specializing in treating diving accident
victims. He claimed only to have been a passenger on board the
Ouvea. He was living in Dieppe, Normandy (France) in 1985. He
later wrote a book, The Jaws Of Death (Shark As Predator, Man As
Prey), which included reference to his role in the Rainbow
Warrior bombing.
Velche was a combat frogman who joined the
French army in 1970 and was later seconded to the DGSE. He was
based at the Navy Frogmen Training Centre (CINC) at Aspretto in
Corsica, which was closed in 1986.
Bartelo was also a combat frogman. His whereabouts since the
bombing are unknown.
Member of the Ouvea crew, Andries was a combat frogman. He bought
,the inflatable and the outboard motor used in the bombing in
London. Andries joined the French army in 1975 and later became
a DGSE agent based at the Navy Frogmen Training Centre in
Corsica. Six years after the bombing, on November 23 1991,
Andries was arrested in Basel. He crossed into Switzerland on the
Brussels-Milan Eurocity train without a passport: he could show
the customs officers only a driver's licence and an army
document. The police routinely checked the Interpol system and
found there was still an international warrant outstanding for
his arrest. He was detained in prison in Basel while the Swiss
authorities awaited an extradition request from New Zealand.
On December 17 the New Zealand government informed the Swiss
authorities that they would not be seeking Andries' extradition.
Andries was subsequently released and immediately escorted to the
French border. At the moment of his arrest Andries was still in
the army but not a DGSE agent.
Mafart was a DGSE agent and deputy commander of the Navy Frogmen
Training Centre in Corsica. He supported the sabotage team and
was apprehended by New Zealand police when returning a rental
van. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10
years imprisonment on November 22 1985. Following a United
Nations sponsored mediation between New Zealand and France in
July 1986 Mafart was deported to the island of Hao in French
Polynesia to serve 3 years. In return France apologised to New
Zealand and paid New Zealand US$7 million.
On 14 December 1987 Mafart was returned to Paris, after
complaining of stomach pains. After treatment he was not returned
to the island. In 1988 he enrolled on a two-year course at the
Ecole de Guerre (War College) in Paris.
Mafart was promoted to colonel in December 1993. According to Le
Monde, Mafart was then serving near Paris on a base housing
several command staffs, including that of military intelligence.
His commanding officer during the Rainbow Warrior affair is now
an aide to Defence Minister Francois Leotard.
Prieur was a DGSE controller in the intelligence-gathering and
evaluation wing, acting as Christine Cabon's controller. She was
a specialist in European peace movements. After her arrest by New
Zealand police, she pleaded guilty with Mafart to reduced charges
of manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on
November 22, 1985. Because
of the UN ruling in the arbitration between New Zealand and
France (July 1986) she was deported to the island Hao (French
Polynesia) to serve 3 years instead. On May 6, 1988 she was
returned to France because she was pregnant (her husband was
allowed to join her on Hao). As with Mafart, she never returned
to Hao. She has since been promoted to the rank of Commandant.
A UN Arbitration panel found that France had breached its
obligation to New Zealand several times by removing the agents
from Hao and failing to return them, but it rejected an appeal
by New Zealand to have Mafart and Prieur returned because the
term they should have spent there had already lapsed.
Recently published book about her role in the boming.
Colonel Louis Pierre Dillais, alias Jean Louis Dormand
Dillais was the chief of mission of the DGSE operation to stop
the Rainbow Warrior on July 10, 1985. A senior officer at the
underwater combat centre at Aspretto in Corsica, Dillais
travelled under the code name of Jean Louis Dormand and
reportedly drove the inflatable boat for the two divers who
installed the bombs which sunk the Rainbow Warrior. After the
bombing, he sent the two divers to the South Island of New
Zealand to ski, and went himself as a tourist to Queenstown until
he flew to Australia on July 23.
In 1994, French Defence Minister Francois Leotard appointed
Dillais as chief of the private office of the Minister of
Defence. In this post, he is in charge of military intelligence.
Previously, Dillais worked for the general secretariat of the
'Defense National', attached to Prime Ministerial Services, in
charge of European-Atlantic affairs.
Critics within the DGSE say that Dillais failed to protect his
team because their names were revealed to the New Zealand police
and their careers subsequently ended. They say Dillais' own
career has been protected because his father-in-law is former
foreign affairs minister Jean Francois Poncet.
Alain Tonel, Jacques Camurier, Francois Verlet
Known by these names to the New Zealand police, these 3 men were
the so-called 'third team' of divers, either a back-up team of
frogmen or the saboteurs themselves. Verlet left for Tahiti on
July 10 and Tonel and Camurier crossed to the South Island on
July 11 with Dillais (Dormand) before leaving the country.
Colonel Jean-Calude Lesquer
Lesquer, a colonel in 1985, was head of the action unit charged
with the Rainbow Warrior bombing. Lesquer lost his post over the
Rainbow Warrior scandal but was promoted to Brigadier-General
because of his performance in the Gulf War. In February 1995 he
was promoted to Major-General, and assigned to COFRAS, a semi-
state body entrusted with following up major contracts between
French arms manufacturers and foreign governments.
One official said he would be posted to Saudi Arabia, one of the
French arms industry's main foreign clients. Lesquer served in
Saudi Arabia in 1991 as chief of staff of the French Daguet
division which fought alongside allied forces in the Gulf War.