Rogue operations by members of intelligence agencies

Other Names:

Rogue covert security operations
Uunauthorised security operations

Incidence:

It was reported in 1995 that French secret agents wanted to inject Greenpeace anti-nuclear militants with a virus able to trigger diarrhea or yellow fever in 1985 to prevent them from sailing to the South Pacific. The project was aimed against the crew of the M. V. Greenpeace when it was docked in Curacao in the Dutch West Indies. The DGSE intelligence service had arranged with accomplices in the local administration for the Greenpeace crew to be ordered to undergo inoculations on the pretext of new health regulations. The project was turned down primarily because it was too radical a move coming after the DGSE's sinking of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand earlier that year. The agents finally bribed local officials to delay delivery of the ship's communications equipment, enabling the French to study the equipment and later hamper the ship's transmissions.

On 9 December 1999, the Sinn Fein president in Northern Ireland, Mr Gerry Adams, displayed to the media sophisticated surveillance equipment found secreted in the Ford Mondeo which he and the Sinn Fein chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, used when persuading the IRA to make its statement on decommissioning. The incident evoked bitter memories among republicans of the dirty tricks of the worst days of the Troubles. Downing Street's virtual admission that the bugging had been authorised served only to fuel the controversy. The central device, 2ft long with digital tracking capability, was discovered in the car on Tuesday during a regular Sinn Fein security check. It had been designed to the Mondeo's specifications, and was built into the skin of the car. Mr Adams said: "This is a hugely serious breach of faith. It is the securocrats' agenda once again coming to the surface. I have made representations to Downing Street and to the taoiseach's department. It is my view it can only be resolved at the very highest level. The people involved in all of this dirty tricks business are clearly against the peace process."

Broader Problems:

Corruption in intelligence agencies

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Rogue operations by members of intelligence agencies

About the Encyclopedia

About UIA