Mehdi Ben Barka

Mehdi Ben Barka (in Arab: rear RTL المهديبنبركة) (born in January 1920 with Reduction, Morocco - missing the October 29th 1965 with Fontenay-the-Viscount) was a Moroccan politician , principal socialist opponent with the king Hassan II is leader of the movement third-mondiste and panafricanist. According to information available in 2006, it would have been tracked during its international displacements by the Israeli Mossad and the the CIA, which communicated this information with Rabat and Paris. The business Ben Barka, symbol of the Years of lead under the king Hassan II, has a long time cold the relations free-Morrocan women.

Biography

The principal opponent with the king Hassan II, leader of the camp third-mondiste

Of a family of small civils servant, he becomes mathematics professor. He founds, in September 1959, the National union of the popular forces (UNFP), principal party of left opposed to the royal mode. He chairs the Consultative Assembly installation after independence. The November 16th 1962, it already escapes an attack fomented by the services from the general Oufkir and the commander Dlimi. The July 16th 1963, after the king Hassan II issued the state of siege, Ben Barka takes refuge in Algérie, followed one year later by his wife and her children, who did not want “to be taken as hostages”. He denounces then the “war of aggression” of the Morocco against the Algérie when the “Guerre of sands” in autumn 1963 bursts and preaches solidarity with “the Algerian revolution”. The November 22nd 1963, it is condemned to death in absentia for plot and attempted murder against the king.

According to Hassan II, Mehdi Ben Barka shared the conviction of the sole party to the Morocco. This judgment can be only tendentious if one knows the density of the problematic relationship between the two men. Reports/ratios submitted on bottom of collaboration, mistrust, misunderstandings, meeting again, and revenge. As many terms to underline these reports/ratios is almost psychanalysables. Then why revenge? Quite simply because before the “misunderstanding” (and it is an euphemism) existed a collaboration. And to pass in addition to this collaboration was perceived like a treason, which can be expiée only by the supreme punishment. Also: Ben Barka occupied between 1957 and 1959 the president's functions of the National Assembly after having been a burning defender of the national cause (independence). It was under Mohammed V. If one knows the equation Hassan II /Mehdi Ben Barka in the series of the Moroccan equations, one could say that this one is most insoluble of all. Initially because fire Ben Barka was the mathematics professor of fire Hassan II. Then there was between the two men of the basic divergences on the manner of managing the Morocco. Finally the international activities of the militant Ben Barka made of him untiring and awkward defender of the causes which marked the world of the 20th century (causes Palestinian; bringing together of the China with the the USSR). One and the other had greedily nourished ideologically cold war. One was with the capacity since 1961 after having been a Crown prince terribly influencing near his father, the other was an eternal adverse, monarchist in last authority, but radically socialist. The genius of organization and mobilization of Ben Barka upset Hassan II. Its revolutionary options too. The militant third-mondiste judged his pupil of the royal college as an autocrat who was based on the army and the secret services to dismember any structured organization, and to prevent by rebound the normal course of the political competition. The various standpoint of Ben Barka (on the War of sands and on the Economic policy of the Monarch without forgetting the question of the presence of the American bases to the Morocco) was worth several judgments with death in absentia to him. All that deteriorated an already problematic relation. The refusal of several royal offers to take part in the government (with in an individual capacity) on behalf of the militant was more than one affront, a mistake. And whoever knowing the kingdom knows that the royalty is crowned, and any proposal emanating of the monarch is synonymous with ultimatum. Of affront in affront, with regard to the king, Ben Barka had become the public enemy number 1. On the contrary the king Hassan II which found interest to encourage the plethora of the political parties of kind to standardize the national movement sails however about it then, Ben Barka remained convinced that only the Socialisme could reform the country and to release it from the feudal influence. Its stature of internationalist made of him an opponent not like the others. It was thus necessary to cut a response with its measurement to him so that the least beginning of proof would not be highlighted. Its capture into full Paris, and tortures it applied intensely by agents of the Moroccan secret service attests practices of a whole time, and informs particularly about a policy of “iron” and excommunication. All that could be connected with face to face mortal. No need to reconsider here the endurances of an opponent, on the degree of responsibility for the monarch in the disappearance of Ben Barka the more so as the proven participation of the French services (official and semi-official), even of the the CIA and the Mossad in its removal which say some long on a plot to the international ramifications. But force is to note that the torture supplied with revenge was in the middle of the business Ben Barka. Attempted murders to the long way of torture until the incredible dissolution of its body in a tank of acid to the disaster place of Torture Dar El Mokri. Thus the opponents were treated during what the Moroccan press calls the Années of lead.

Retrospectively, will have the immense popularity of Ben Barka to the Morocco, and it international its standpoint (Palestinian question; presence of the American bases to the Morocco, bringing together of the China with the ex- the USSR or Tricontinentale, the panafricanism and the development of the Africa…) he get a great political pragmatism as J. Waterbury underlines it: Ben Barka was not a left man of doctrinary and dogmatic although its methods were on the occasion progressists, his vocabulary typically Marxist and his political designs autoritarists. But it showed a remarkable pragmatism to reach its objectifs. the political context of the Années 1960 during which Ben Barka preached the Socialisme within the framework of the Monarchie could lead it, by conviction, to declare the economic reforms a national priority. The question of political pluralism would be a secondary dimension from this point of view.

The exile

Medhi Ben Barka is exiled then, becoming a “clerk-traveller of the revolution”, according to the expression of the historian Jean Lacouture. It leaves initially for Algiers, where it meets Che Guevara, Amílcar Cabral and Malcolm X. It from goes away then for Cairo, Rome, Geneva and Havana, trying to federate the revolutionary movements of the third world for the Conférence tricontinentale in front of being held in January 1966 with Havana and where, affirmed he in a press conference, “the two currents of the world revolution will be represented there: the current emerged with the Revolution of October and that of the national revolution liberator”. Chairing the preparatory commission, it defines in it the objectives, among which assistance with the liberation movements, the support for Cuba subjected to the American embargo, the liquidation of foreign military bases and the Apartheid in South Africa… For the historian Rene Galissot, “it is in this revolutionary dash of Tricontinentale that the fundamental cause of the removal and the assassination of Ben Barka is”.

Removal in front of the Lipp brewery, in Paris on October 29th, 1965

Charged with organizing the participation of the revolutionary movements of the third world in the Conference tricontinentale which was to meet in Havana in 1966, it is intercepted on its arrival with the airport of Paris, in front of 151 boulevard Saint-Germain, the October 29th 1965, by two police officers French the inspector principal Louis Souchon (chief of the group of the narcotics to the Vice quad) and his assistant Roger Voitot, who make it get into a car where a member is also held of the underworld Parisian, Julien Ny, and it will never be re-examined.

Financed by Antoine Lopez, chief of stopover of Air France which is also honourable correspondent of the Service of external documentation and against-espionage (SDECE) this “interpellation” will see entering in scene three other characters obscure: Georges Boucheseiche (former member of the French Gestapo under the Occupation, which rejoined the Gang of Traction Before to the release, it was also, in the Années 1960, a Barbouze anti OAS, then a credit militant of the civic Service of action), near to OJ Attia, and Jean Palisse and Pierrot Dubail, its henchmen.

At the time of the lawsuit Ben Barka, Lopez was strongly suspected of having acted on instructions of the general Oufkir, and the June 7th 1967, the verdict was thus pronounced: the two police officers were condemned to 8 years and 6 years of imprisonment, Antoine Lopez at 8 years also.

The general Oufkir and the four members of the underworld Parisian as for them, taken refuge to the Morocco, were condemned to perpetuity by contumacy, but the king Hassan II always refused to apply the judgments or to extradite condemned. Will the Oufkir general commit suicide (?) however a few years later after a coup d'etat missed against the king of Morocco (Gilles Perrault, Our friend the king ).

At the time of its press conference of the February 21st 1966, the general de Gaulle declares: “On the French side that did occur? Only of vulgar and subordinate. Nothing, absolutely nothing, indicates only against-espionage and the police force, as such and as a whole, knew the operation, a fortiori that they covered it. ” This famous assertion will be contradicted by the later discoveries: SDECE (ancestor of DGSE) was well with the current of projected removal. As of the removal of the leader third-mondiste, this clear assertion of De Gaulle is questioned: if the body of Ben Barka left France, can one really transfer a corpse (or an unconscious man) by plane from Paris to Rabat, without being made stop by the Police at the borders? In 2006, the ex-police chief Lucien Aime-White publishes phone-tappings of the time showing that the French services supervised already all the men having taken share with removal (see above).

The French instruction on the Moroccan responsibilities

Following the removal and the disappearance of the socialist leader and anti-impérialiste Mehdi Ben Barka, an investigation is started in France. Forty years afterwards, this one remains always “hanging”. After the unfruitful attempt of the general Oufkir of coup d'etat against Hassan II, Rabat always allotted to Oufkir the ultimate responsibility for the removal and the murder of Medhi Ben Barka. To date, the family of the assassinated leader continues to hold for true person in charge the king himself, which only the continuation of the French investigation could prove - or, on the contrary, to refute.

End 2005, for the third time, the French examining magistrate Patrick Ramaël goes to the Morocco in order to inquire on the spot, but is quickly confronted with the absence of co-operation on behalf of the Moroccan authorities, and that in spite of the end of the reign of Hassan II, replaced by his/her son Mohammed VI.

Beginning December 2006, the newspaper Morocco Hebdo reveals that Hosni Benslimane, owner of the Moroccan royal Gendarmerie, without answering the convocation of French judge Ramaël, account to answer Moroccan judge Jamal Serhane.

Reduction had not answered the second letter of request delivered in September 2006 to hear in particular and the Morocco the general Benslimane, captain at the time of the facts, or Miloud Tounsi, alias Chtouki, a reprocessed agent of the Moroccan services suspected of being one of the members of the commando having taken part in the removal of the opponent.

In May 2006, the French magistrate Patrick Ramaël heard Driss Basri, the be-minister of the Interior and former strong man of the mode of Hassan II, and searched in his Parisian residence.

It also wishes to carry out excavations with the PF3, or bagne of Tazmamart, old detention center secret with Rabat where the head of Mehdi Ben Barka could be. For lack of answer to this International letters rogatory (CRY), Patrick Ramaël convened, the November 21st 2006 with Paris, the general Benslimane, Tounsi and three other people. In vain.

Its determination worries nevertheless Rabat, which informed of it Nicolas Sarkozy at the time of her two visits in the kingdom. The more so as the French judge could launch a mandate of international stop to question these “witnesses”. In this context, the advertisement of a hearing, on a date not specified, general Benslimane, faithful among the faithful ones of monarchy alaouite, by Serhane judge seems especially intended to show that Moroccan justice does not remain the arms crosseds.

October 23rd, 2007, the judge Patrick Ramaël signed five international warrants for arrest aiming at Morrocans: the general Hosni Benslimane, chief of the Moroccan royal Gendarmerie; Abdelkader Kadiri, former owner of the Head office of the studies and documentation (DGED, military informations); Miloud Tounsi, alias Larbi Chtouki, one of the alleged members of the Moroccan commando who removed the Moroccan opponent; Boubker Hassouni, male nurse and agent of Cab 1, one of the units of the ultra Moroccan services secret; and Abdlekak Achaachi, also agent of Cab 1.

His/her companion Mohamed Lahrizi

This person of obscure repute, making however party of the close guard of Mehdi Ben Barka knew a fate even more tragic. The man wildly was not only assassinated but moreover, woman, amenable Switzerland and her little girl 8 year old were kidnapped and reported missing since the Sixties. Since, this file does not appear in the instructions of the judges of the hexagon.

Revelations of Ahmed Boukhari

According to the revelations of June - July 2001 of the old Moroccan agent Ahmed Boukhari, Medhi Ben Barka would have been exfiltré towards the Morocco, tortured, then its body dissolves in a tank of acid. However, he was not still heard by Justice on this file. The file remains mysterious and the French government holds certainly interesting parts on the subject. According to Ahmed Boukhari, the body of Ben Barka arrives indeed at the international airport of Reduction in the night of the October 31st. It is then taken along in a center of torture, Dar El-Mokri, where, on the indications of certain colonel Martin, chief of the antenna of the CIA to the Morocco and which had access directly to the king Hassan II, the body of the late Moroccan leader would have been dissolved in a tank filled with acid. It is made state of an existing film of the operation, whose copy would have been given by the commander Dlimi to the king Hassan II.

Colonel Martin would have learned this very particular use of the acid to make disappear the bodies in his preceding station under the mode from the Shah of Iran, after the inversion in 1953 of Mohammad Mossadegh.

Revelations of the Bourequat Brothers

The brothers Bourequat declared that French gangsters having taken part in the removal of Mehdi Ben Barka had taken refuge in Morocco. Initially tenants of establishment of night, they then locked up with the bagne of Tazmamart, then carried out and buried in secrecy. Excavations required by the judge Patrick Ramaël were refused by the Moroccan government.

Files of the SDECE and the CIA

In 1976, the government of the the United States recognized following requests formulated within the framework of the Freedom off Information Act that the CIA was in possession of: 1800 documents on Ben Barka, but they remain nonpublic. In 1982, following the victory of the left, the French files of SDECE (ancestor of DGSE) are open, but a great part disappeared. The secrecy-defense is raised on certain documents, but the family of Mehdi Ben Barka considers that these déclassifiés documents do not bring anything truly again, in particular with regard to complicities of the French services. In 2001, others are déclassifiés. The Minister for defense Michele Alliot-Marie accepted of déclassifier the 73 remainders on this business which remains turbid, without causing euphoria at the family Ben Barka.

Revelations of Lucien Aime-White

Of 1956 with 1959, Mehdi Ben Barka is president of the Consultative Assembly.

The ex-police chief Lucien Aime-White was number two of the “Mondaine”, the police commando squad, the office of the stups, then chief of the central office of repression of the banditism of 1977 with 1980. In April 2006, it publishes Indic and the Police chief and reveals that the totality of the agents implied in the removal of Medhi Ben Barka was listened by SDECE. In fact, Aime-White publishes in its book these phone-tappings:

Assistant of the police commando squad in 1966, I found in the trunk of the owner a bundle of transcriptions of a phone-tapping indexed “Orion 113” and posed by a service of the National security on the line of a hotel of appointment of the Avenue Niel with Paris (XVIIe). With the reading of these 40 layers, I was amazed to note that it was the point of rallying of all the band identified as being the kidnappers of Ben Barka. They appear all on these listenings, the chief of stopover of Air France to Orly and indic of Sdece (old DGSE, secret services, note), Antoine Lopez, like the gangsters Boucheseiche, Figon, Palisse… It shows through in filigree of these conversations, recorded all the month preceding disappearance by Ben Barka, that these individuals related to a Marocain general project the removal of a man who must arrive at Orly. It is thus clear that the central brigade of criminal research, which supervised this hotel used by prostitutes without having competence on Paris, was with the current of this project. At the time, these listenings also went back with the ministry for the Interior and the adviser of Matignon. I deduce from it that the service of the National security which connected this hotel knew what was woven, and if it did not intervene to thwart this removal, it is either by guilty negligence, or on ordre.

Listenings in question, indicates Lucien Aime-White, were not communicated to Zollinger judge, responsible for the investigation into the disappearance of Ben Barka. the Express train written thus that “these listenings prove, in any case, than the Minister of Interior Department - at least - knew that an ill deed prepared against Ben Barka. Moreover, the doubles of these listenings were automatically transmitted to the cabinet of the Prime Minister for the time, Georges Pompidou.”

An agent of the East?

According to the revelations of the magazine the Express train of the July 17th 2007, Mehdi Ben Barka would have informed the Czech services. Its code name, allotted by Zdenek Micke would have been Sheik .

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