 Poster: A snowHead
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French spy Colonel Xavier Maniguet, 62 years old has died in a plane crash on the Glacier d'Etendard close to the ski resort of l'Alpe d'Huez. Maniguet was the skipper of the yatch Ouvéa which transported a team of elite spies from the DGSE to New Zealand where they bombed the Rainbow Warrior killing a Greenpeace photographer on the 10th of July 1985.
Maniguet had annoyed his spy masters after publishing his book: "The French Bomber: finally the truth about the Rainbow Warrior".
Maniguet's single engine aircraft had taken off from Méribel late in the morning with two other pilots on board for a training flight. At the start of the morning they had started landing and takeoffs (touch and goes) on the glacier. A controversial practise which annoys ski tourers and environmentalists.
Maniguet had dropped off one of the pilots to dig out a skid. On takeoff the plane dissapeared from view. Both occupants were killed in the crash. The police are investigating but believe the plane may have crashed due to high winds.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Maniguet
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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At least he wrote the book so we could find out what happened.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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tomstickland, A bit more integrity than his old superiors. Bombing a charity vessel in another countries port? Lovely how the world community never really took action on that one.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Xavier Maniguet est décédé le 22 mars 2009 après un accident d'avion sur le glacier de Saint Sorlin près de Saint Solins d'Arves après avoir décolé de l'altiport de Méribel[2].C'etait Karma !
From the French language Wikipedia. Couldn't agree more!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Scarpa wrote: |
| tomstickland, A bit more integrity than his old superiors. Bombing a charity vessel in another countries port? Lovely how the world community never really took action on that one. |
greenpeace is an official terrorist group in Norway. One mans Terrorist.......
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Dwarf Vader, Bloody hell... you'll be telling me that my Snowdonia branch of the Shining Path is frowned upon in rambling circles next 
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Dwarf Vader, I guess under today's definitions that would make France a terrorist country for it's attack on the Rainbow Warrior. It did make a big splash (excuse the pun) in New Zealand especially when two of the support team were arrested and found guilty. They each got sentenced to quite a few years but were returned to France after a couple of years through some political/trade deal. A lot of people in NZ still have very negative memories about it all. It was the best PR thing that ever happened to Greenpeace here.
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As it emerged that the bombing was a deliberate act of sabotage, there was little doubt in Greenpeace minds who was responsible. Two days after the bombing the French Embassy in Wellington issued a statement echoing the flat denials emanating from Paris. 'In no way is France involved,' it declared. 'The French Government doesn't deal with its opponents in such ways.' But within a few days police had arrested French secret service agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur as they tried to return their van to an Auckland hire company. While they were held in custody, the charter yacht Ouvea, carrying another team of agents implicated in the bombing, sailed to Norfolk Island and then disappeared a few days out to sea heading north for Tahiti. Her crew was reportedly picked up by the French nuclear submarine Rubis, which turned up in Tahiti on July 22 - the first time a French nuclear submarine had been known to enter the South Pacific.
The international outcry pressured the French Government into setting up its own inquiry. After less than three weeks the head of the inquiry, Bernard Tricot, a former Director-General of the Elysee Palace, announced, 'On the basis of the information available to me at this time, I do not believe there was any French responsibility.' The French agents caught in New Zealand were merely there to spy on Greenpeace, Tricot implied, not to bomb them.
Hostility towards the French Government grew after President Mitterrand threatened that any protesters at Moruroa that year would be arrested, and refused to meet with Greenpeace International director, David McTaggart. Rather than cool the growing international controversy, the transparently inadequate Tricot report served only to fuel the fires of indignation and further undermine the French Government's credibility, so that a second inquiry was ordered on 5 September, but it was already too late.
Following claims in the London Sunday Times that President Mitterrand had known of the bombing plan, and implicitly, therefore had authorised it, French Defence Minister Charles Hernu resigned and Admiral Pierre Lacoste, director of the DGSE, France's intelligence and covert action bureau, was sacked. Within days Prime Minister Fabius admitted French secret service agents had bombed the Rainbow Warrior under orders. It was, said New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, nothing more than 'a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism'.
Charged with murder and arson, on 4 November Mafart and Prieur, just two of a much larger team of saboteurs, pleaded guilty in the High Court at Auckland to lesser charges of manslaughter and wilful damage and were each sentenced to ten years' jail. Their guilty plea ensured that the facts of the police investigation would never be made public. In June 1986, in a political deal presided over by the United Nations Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, France agreed to pay compensation of NZ$13 million (US$6.5 million) to New Zealand and 'apologise', in return for which Mafart and Prieur would be detained at the French military base on Hao atoll for three years.
To cap it all, the two spies were both free by May 1988, after less than two years had elapsed, Mafart having been smuggled out
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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The French were like Inspector Clouseau 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Saw a mangled looking plane being towed down the mountain the other day......guess that was maybe it?
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