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Silent witness to nuke fallout The Dominion Post, March 28 2006 Newly released intelligence documents reveal the United States was present at French nuclear testing on Mururoa and the CIA was monitoring New Zealand protests in the South Pacific. Michael Field reports. American forces were secret guests at French nuclear tests at Mururoa, and CIA spies were actively monitoring the South Pacific just months before the Rainbow Warrior bombing, declassified files reveal. Documents released in the United States show the Americans attended some nuclear testing as a cheap way to monitor effects from the blasts. The National Security Archive, an independent non-government US research institute, has published the documents - many of them heavily censored. They were acquired under the Freedom of Information Act. A US Central Intelligence Agency document dated May 1985 - two months before Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior was bombed by French agents - noted anti-nuclear sentiment in the Pacific was very high. "The nuclear-testing issue has now become a very emotional one and probably can no longer be dealt with on a purely scientific basis," the CIA said. "Despite the good safety record of the French operations, nuclear testing remains, and will likely remain, a rally point for anti-nuclear forces in the region. "The recent decision of New Zealand to ban nuclear-armed or nuclear power warships from its waters is only another example of this regional feeling, albeit of a much higher profile than the periodic skirmishes with France. "The two issues are not directly connected, and resolution of one will not resolve the other." The CIA blamed the anti-nuclear sentiment on "sensational press reports that Mururoa Atoll is breaking apart and leaking large amounts of radioactive debris to the environment". A sentence next to this statement is blanked out. "Although there always is the posibility of an accident, we believe the French nuclear test programe will continue to have an excellent safety record and a negligible effect on the South Pacific environment. The CIA noted that the South Pacific dforum nations were trying to set up - and were eventually successful - a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone. "Such a declaration would ban not only nuclear testing but also the stationing of nuclear weapons in the region, even in case of nuclear-armed warships - an issue of major concern to the United States." The archive said the documents showed the US intelligence community devoted "significant effort" to the collection and analysis of intelligence on the French nuclear weapons programme. The first French nuclear test was in Algeria in 1960. Four years later a CIA report said France was building a test site at Mururoa. It noted then the political objections. "Australia, New Zealand and Chile have already officially objected to the establishment of this test site'" France began atmospheric nuclear tests in French Polynesia in 1966. In 1973 a CIA bulletin, labelled top secret, said a new atmospheric testing season was about to get under way. "The impending tests have evoked vigorous protests from a number of countries in the South Pacific, and Paris had admitted that the outcry this year has been especially strong." Pacific concerns were referred to, leading in 1973 to the Labour government of Norm Kirk, with Australia, taking France to the International Court of Justice. "The French Government, however, has made it clear that it will proceed with the tests, that it will not be bound by any decisions of these organisations, and that it considers the protests to be hypocritical," the CIA said. Faced with French obstinacy, Mr Kirk ordered the frigate Otago to Mururoa as a "silent accusing witness". With mines minister Fraser Colman and three journalists aboard, it was to open the testing to global audience. An Austrlian Navy ship, Supply, refuelled Otago at sea. A small US protest yacht, Fri, was also there and was seized by the French. It was sailed by David Moodies, who, with others, went on to establish the environment organisation Greenpeace. The archive documents reveal the nuclear testing witnesses were far from alone. The US Navy's Cincpac headquarters in Hawaii published a top secret diary of 1973, limited to 65 copies, in which it said the Mururoa tests were a "regular summer event" with a long-range programme for reconnaissance. As Otago was getting ready to sail, the US Navy dispatched a tracking ship, Wheeling, and a helicopter carrier, Corpus Christi Bay. A squadron of Strategic Air Command (SAC) KC-135s, a military variant of the Boeing 707, was also readied. The US Navy was told the ships provded "an essential observation platform to acquire important data from a foreign atmospheric nuclear test". "While the presence of Wheeling in the test area will be known by the foreign power conducting the tests, the US Government will make no announcement of the ship's position or mission," the documents said. "For this reason, the mission of Wheeling must be considered as classified information, and not be discussed at any time while off ship . . . "At the ship's position, blast effects will be detected as a loud retort accompanied by a slight jolt and followed by a noticeable wind (maximum 18 knots). "Thermal output will be detected as a slight warming of the skin by topside personnel. No nuclear radiation will be experienced because of the ship's upwind position." Drones were launched from the ships to collect nuclear samples. "The combined program provided a valuable mean of expanding Amercian knowledge about the effects of nuclear weapons for relativcely moderate amounts of money, equipment and manpower." The documents make no mention of Otago and Fri. The task force commander noted that the 1973 US operation had involved two ships and helicopters in close proximity to Mururoa "but that the the unit's presence appeared to cause no adverse reactions by the French". A SAC document dealt with Operation Burning Light. "After the National Security Agency notified SAC of the approximate time that a nuclear test was scheduled to take place, a KC-135R would orbit in vicinity of the test range until the detonation." The documents, some of which have remained secret for 60 years, show that as early as 1946 the US feared the French would sell nuclear secrets and almost from D-Day, 1944, the Amercians worked to prevent France acquiring nuclear expertise. The documents noted intensive French efforts to obtain uranium around the world. France conducted 41 atmospheric nuclear tests over Mururoa and Fangataufa between 1966 and 1974. It followed up with 134 underground nuclear tests at the same sites between 1975 and 1991. Eight more tests took place in 1995 and 1996. |
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