U.S. scoffs at submarine claim

Press, 20 October 1986, Page 7

U.S. scoffs at submarine claim

American officials have scoffed at allegations by the peace campaigner, Mr Owen Wilkes, that the “mystery” submarine sighted in Cook Islands waters in February was American.

The allegations are not new. Mr Wilkes made them when the sightings of the submarine were reported.

But, he says, in the six months since the sightings he has thoroughly researched his theory that the submarine was American pretending to be Russian.

That research has included interviews in the Cook Islands and study of American Navy manuals.

His findings were published yesterday in an article in the “New Zealand Monthly Review” magazine. The submarine was first reported by passengers on an inter-island flight and then, on February 20, by two Tahitian fishermen, one a policeman. A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion in the islands searched for the submarine and was joined by a second Orion from New Zealand. A third aircraft was also sent.

Information about the sightings and the search was scarce and later contradictory. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, closed the debate on

March 14 by saying no further information would be released in the interests of national security. Only three days before he had said he might reveal the identity of the submarine at an appropriate time, in spite of being advised by the then Chief of Defence Staff, Sir Ewan Jamieson, not to.

Mr Wilkes said he backed up his claims with evidence. He admitted that in a court of law, however, his case would be “rather weak.” He cited American Navy manuals that noted “deception operations” by submarines to fool the public and swing public opinion. The Americans were staging just such an

operation in the Cooks in February, he said. The Cook Islanders were supposed to see the submarine, assume it was Russian, and start a Russian scare in New Zealand.

Mr Wilkes said yesterday that the behaviour of the submarine, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the New Zealand and Cook Islands Governments confirmed that the mystery submarine was American and that its correct identification had been embarrassing.

He had written the article to back up his demand to the Government — to be made today — that the full details of the Orion search and what

it found be made public. The Government should practise open government, he said.

Mr Mike Gould, director of the United States Information Service in Wellington, scoffed at Mr Wilkes’s allegations last evening.

The claims were patently incorrect, he said. They had been denied at the time by American officials, including the Commander-in-Chief for the Pacific, ’ Admiral Hayes. “They are absolute rubbish,” Mr Gould said. At the time of the sighting, the Soviet Embassy in Wellington denied that the submarine was from the Soviet Union.