The Rainbow Warrior affair was viewed by the political establishment as a public relations disaster, likely to do long term political and indeed economic damage to the national interest. In this context, René Imbot accepted an invitation to appear on French television on 27 September 1985. In a memorably forceful presentation he stated his determination to "cut off the rotten branches" ("couper les branches pourries"), having identified "a truly malign conspiracy to destabilise the [intelligence] services" ("une véritable opération maligne de déstabilisation de nos services").