18. Attack on Greenpeace: France’s Nuclear Bomb (Ep 1)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why were the French exploding nuclear bombs in the Pacific in the 70s and 80s? How did a spy manage to infiltrate Greenpeace? And what on earth are limpet mines? In the 1960s, the French started testing nuclear weapons in the South Pacific, causing untold ecological destruction and worrying the surrounding island nations. Greenpeace, hot off the back of their successful anti-whaling and anti-sealing campaigns, heard this news and decided that nuclear weapons were their next battleground. Armed with an old English naval ship and some controversial publicity tactics, Greenpeace took on the French to free the Pacific of nuclear weapons. Join David and Gordon as they dive into the gripping tale of the Rainbow Warrior - Greenpeace’s fearless flagship - sunk in a shocking act of French espionage in 1985. ------------------- Pre-order a signed edition of David's latest book, The Seventh Floor, via this link. ------------------- Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.nordvpn.com/restisclassified It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! Email: [email protected] Twitter: @triclassified Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Callum Hill Senior Producer: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.9	We were summoned to a meeting room, and they revealed to me and my two teammates the purpose of the mission.
0:42.4	All of a sudden, we are told the target and the nature of the mission was to sink the rainbow warrior, anti-nuclear activists, pacifists.
0:51.3	We were a little surprised.
0:53.1	There's always with secret agents this fear of being
0:55.7	manipulated, we always have to ask ourselves, is what I am being asked to do really justified?
1:02.6	We asked, but why Greenpeace targeting a pacifist movement and in such a violent way,
1:08.2	am I really serving my country? Am I serving the interests of France?
1:12.7	And then we were told Greenpeace.
1:14.5	Well, they're infiltrated by the KGB and behind Greenpeace was the Soviet Union.
1:20.1	So we accepted the mission.
1:22.1	Welcome to the rest is classified.
1:24.1	I'm David McCloskey and Black Gordon is testimony from Jean-Luc Chester of the French
1:31.4	Secret Service, the Direction General de la Securite exterior, making the French double major,
1:40.5	finally paying off here, talking about one of the most controversial sabotage operations
1:45.4	conducted by, I think, a Western Secret Service over the last half century.
1:49.5	Thanks, David, for that lovely bit of French, very impressive, but at the mine, I think, actually.
1:53.4	And I'm Gordon Carrera.
1:55.4	And today we're telling the story of the Rainbow Warrior, a ship docked in Auckland, New Zealand, which meets a
2:03.7	pretty terrible fate. In a episode of sabotage, which I think it's fair to say goes desperately
	...

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