http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=925760&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312PARIS Jul 10, 2005 — A former head of France's spy agency claimed that the late President Francois Mitterrand approved the sinking of a Greenpeace ship in a New Zealand harbor 20 years ago, according to a French newspaper report. A man was killed and the case turned into an embarrassment for Paris.
Top officials in France were fired in the aftermath, but Mitterrand's exact role has been unclear.
In its Sunday-Monday edition, daily Le Monde published extracts of a 23-page, handwritten account by Adm. Pierre Lacoste, the former head of DGSE spy agency, in which he says that Mitterrand authorized the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland's port.