The Last Days of the Rainbow Warrior

That snooty woman with the heavy French accent who showed up out of the blue to start volunteering with Greenpeace in New Zealand in April, 1985? She was a spy from the French government’s intelligence and espionage service. “Frédérique Bonlieu” was part of an elaborate plot to infiltrate the group and plant bombs on the Rainbow Warrior to prevent the ship from undertaking missions in the South Pacific. The French government had been embarrassed by the environmental organization one too many times and they were prepared to strike back with deadly force.

Opération Satanique would, in some respects, succeed: The Rainbow Warrior would never lead a flotilla to protest French nuclear testing. Instead, it would become the center of one of the most sensational crimes and investigations in the history of New Zealand, with an outcome watched closely by a furious public—a scandal largely forgotten outside the country but still painful there. It’s a tale of heroism and tragedy, of bungled spycraft and sharp police work, of a mystery solved but justice diverted. Now, 40 years later, as Greenpeace’s very existence is threatened once again—this time by a shocking $660 million judgment in a North Dakota courtroom—it’s a blunt warning of the lengths to which foes of the environmental movement will go to crush dissent.