More Passion than Understanding

Major Alain Marfat as well as the French crew of the mysterious yatch who turned themselves in to the French police, were apparently part of a plan to penetrate Greenpeace in New Zealand. They had been instructed to 'reflect on ways of stopping any action by this movement'. Tricot is convinced that this did not amount to a direct order to blow up the ship. The report does not explain why all those chosen for this particular operation had had underwater combat training at some time. Some of the gaps in the report may be because no attempt was made to gather data from New Zealand (despite an invitation from them) or to contact Prieur and Mar fat who are awaiting trial in November. But even so, Tricot has been forced to admit that he may have arrived at conclusions based on insubstantial information provided by the government. Since the main aim of the report appears to have been to absolve the DGSE of direct responsibility for the incident, the report has nothing to say about who the likely culprits may be.