Four hundred and ten years later, the quality of mercy is still not strained. The ability to forgive is still a boon, both to the transgressor and the transgressed. There are, however, other issues. There are questions of justice and how we conduct ourselves as a society.
Twenty-two years ago, a team of French commandos planted two mines against the hull of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in the harbor at Auckland, New Zealand. The Rainbow Warrior was in the Pacific to protest French nuclear tests at Mururoa atoll. The mines detonated late in the evening, sinking the Rainbow Warrior at her berth and killing the crew photographer, Fernando Pereira.
It’s estimated that 13 French agents were involved in the operation; only two were caught and convicted. New Zealand released the convicts early and quashed the other arrest warrants under pressure from the French government.
Although the exposure of state-sponsored terrorist activities by France was a major embarrassment and ruined several careers, the man who led the team of bombers, Louis Pierre Dillais, came away relatively unscathed, due to family connections in the government. His career in the French military’s special services continued for another decade, until he was caught placing wiretaps in the office of one of his superiors.
Although it’s amusing to think of the hapless Mr. Dillais as a military version of Inspector Clouseau, this character’s bumbling caused at least one death and unmeasured injustice.
It is in the past. Although Mr. Dillais was never convicted of his crime, he has expressed to journalists remorse for Mr. Pereira’s death. If he repents his crimes, then the only human response would be to forgive him.
But does he truly repent his crimes? After he was cashiered from the French army, Mr. Dillais surfaced as a representative of the Belgian arms manufacturer FN Herstal. Mr. Dillais is now the president of Herstal’s US subsidiary, FNH USA. He lives and works in McLean, Virginia, just across the river from Washington, DC.
Mr. Dillais sells small arms and assault rifles to the Pentagon, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as various police departments across the country. According to publicly available records, Mr. Dillais and his company did $36 million worth of business with the federal government in 2006.
Videos for Mr. Dillais’s company show scuba divers rising from the water, firing automatic weapons. Demonstrations of how Mr. Dillais’s weapons can penetrate body armor are included. (see link below) Nice stuff, huh? On the face of it, it does not seem Mr. Dillais has become any more sensitive about the taking of human life, but who are we to judge another person’s heart?
On another hand – one where we should judge – why is our government buying weapons from admitted terrorists? Why indeed, with his history, is Mr. Dillais living in the United States at all?
Two fair questions, and in September of 2006, Greenpeace asked them. Greenpeace’s general counsel wrote to Julie Myers at the Department of Homeland Security, informing her of Mr. Dillais’s history and requested his deportation, or at least that the government stop buying guns from him. A few weeks later, Greenpeace received a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” letter. Nothing since has transpired.
Now Ms. Myers has been nominated to be head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She needs to be confirmed by the Senate for this position and her nomination has run into trouble – not because she ignores the presence of terrorists on U.S. soil, selling weapons to the government – but because she awarded first prize in an office-party costume contest to a person in blackface, dreadlocks and a prison uniform.
Greenpeace has alerted the Senators on the Homeland Security oversight committee about Mr. Dillais’s presence and Ms. Myers inaction. Will they ask Ms. Myers how the proposed head of immigration can tolerate a terrorist selling guns 15 miles from the U.S. Capitol?
Much as Ms. Myers apparent racism disqualifies her from high public office, so should her year of sleeping at the switch as terrorists rake in millions in taxpayer dollars.
Forgive. Never forget.
© Mark Floegel 2007
Never Forget
Four hundred and ten years later, the quality of mercy is still not strained. The ability to forgive is still a boon, both to the transgressor and the transgressed. There are, however, other issues. There are questions of justice and how we conduct ourselves as a society.
Twenty-two years ago, a team of French commandos planted two mines against the hull of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in the harbor at Auckland, New Zealand. The Rainbow Warrior was in the Pacific to protest French nuclear tests at Mururoa atoll. The mines detonated late in the evening, sinking the Rainbow Warrior at her berth and killing the crew photographer, Fernando Pereira.
It’s estimated that 13 French agents were involved in the operation; only two were caught and convicted. New Zealand released the convicts early and quashed the other arrest warrants under pressure from the French government.
Although the exposure of state-sponsored terrorist activities by France was a major embarrassment and ruined several careers, the man who led the team of bombers, Louis Pierre Dillais, came away relatively unscathed, due to family connections in the government. His career in the French military’s special services continued for another decade, until he was caught placing wiretaps in the office of one of his superiors.
Although it’s amusing to think of the hapless Mr. Dillais as a military version of Inspector Clouseau, this character’s bumbling caused at least one death and unmeasured injustice.
It is in the past. Although Mr. Dillais was never convicted of his crime, he has expressed to journalists remorse for Mr. Pereira’s death. If he repents his crimes, then the only human response would be to forgive him.
But does he truly repent his crimes? After he was cashiered from the French army, Mr. Dillais surfaced as a representative of the Belgian arms manufacturer FN Herstal. Mr. Dillais is now the president of Herstal’s US subsidiary, FNH USA. He lives and works in McLean, Virginia, just across the river from Washington, DC.
Mr. Dillais sells small arms and assault rifles to the Pentagon, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as various police departments across the country. According to publicly available records, Mr. Dillais and his company did $36 million worth of business with the federal government in 2006.
Videos for Mr. Dillais’s company show scuba divers rising from the water, firing automatic weapons. Demonstrations of how Mr. Dillais’s weapons can penetrate body armor are included. (see link below) Nice stuff, huh? On the face of it, it does not seem Mr. Dillais has become any more sensitive about the taking of human life, but who are we to judge another person’s heart?
On another hand – one where we should judge – why is our government buying weapons from admitted terrorists? Why indeed, with his history, is Mr. Dillais living in the United States at all?
Two fair questions, and in September of 2006, Greenpeace asked them. Greenpeace’s general counsel wrote to Julie Myers at the Department of Homeland Security, informing her of Mr. Dillais’s history and requested his deportation, or at least that the government stop buying guns from him. A few weeks later, Greenpeace received a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” letter. Nothing since has transpired.
Now Ms. Myers has been nominated to be head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She needs to be confirmed by the Senate for this position and her nomination has run into trouble – not because she ignores the presence of terrorists on U.S. soil, selling weapons to the government – but because she awarded first prize in an office-party costume contest to a person in blackface, dreadlocks and a prison uniform.
Greenpeace has alerted the Senators on the Homeland Security oversight committee about Mr. Dillais’s presence and Ms. Myers inaction. Will they ask Ms. Myers how the proposed head of immigration can tolerate a terrorist selling guns 15 miles from the U.S. Capitol?
Much as Ms. Myers apparent racism disqualifies her from high public office, so should her year of sleeping at the switch as terrorists rake in millions in taxpayer dollars.
Forgive. Never forget.
© Mark Floegel 2007