THE BEN BARKA FIASCO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100350010-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 10
• Content Type: NSPR

CPYRGHT h n F
_
dPYRGHT Ap pro ittAerosbRe Wa 200111/01./26 : C
o, di France and Morocco have strong .
ceelines and both have declared that they
i.arit the whole truth revealed about the
disappearance ? and probable murder ? of
Istehdi Ben Barka. De Gaulle himself has
stated that it is a question of French honour:
the vanished Moroccan leader was a guest
of the Republic who, was kidnapped in Paris
twit% Morocco's honour is equally at stake, ?
since King Hassan considers it intolerable
that his country has been slandered and one
if his chief ministers, General Oufkir, un- .
ustly accused. it was therefore reasonable
o assume, in view of the determination
:spressed by these two autocratic govern- -
mans, that the trial of Ben Barka's alleged
tbductors would eventually throw lighton
he guilty, no matter how highly placed they
may be. In Dc Gaulle's case there was, one
might think, an additional reason for get-
ling to the bottom of .the affair. The cir-
cumstances surrounding the kidnapping re-
called some of the worst public scandals .
of the Fourth Republic ? the kind of thing ?
which the majestic probity of the Gaullist
regime was supposed to have banished for
ever.
Six weeks ago the trial at last began: it
turned out to be a macabre pantomime. In
the dock were six accused who could have
had no motive for committing the crime
(five of them did not even know Ben Barka),
but who faced the risk of heavy prison sen-
tences rather than try to exonerate them-
selves by revealing the names of those who
had hired them. With the exccption of
Phillippe Bernier, who pleaded not guilty, all
the others admitted that in different degrees
they were mixed up in the sinister affair, but
none Would explain how or why. Rarely
have such accused been seen in ,the Paris
criminal court.
The witnesses were no more forthcoming
than. the accused. The high police officials. ?
invoked 'professional secrecy' in withholding -
the names of their informants, and 'govern- ?
ment security' in explaining the reasons for.
their rather tardy and ineffective interven-
tion. The diplomats would, say nothing about -
the Franco-Moroccan transactions following
Ben Barka's disappearance, because of
'diplomatic secrecy'. .Several journalists
called to give evidence also chose not to
reveal their sources of information in the
name of 'professional secrecy'. Even a .
tradesman, summoned to testify on a point
of detail, declared that he would say noth-
ing since 'personal secrecy' was involved....
Judge Perez. who presided, raised his hands
heavenwards and exclaimed: 'I am disgusted
n,vi.r know the truth.' Coming
minteotateIy temaidt.d his .a.aaaet.eas
vant by promoting him to the rank of
lieutenant-colonel, accorded Dlimi's fathcz
an audience to show his gratitude and it--
structed his Minister of Information t)
defend him before the French bench. Th s
time the moment of truth seemed to be
drawing near, for Dlimi is no supernun -
erary: it is established that he was at tl?e
scene of 'the crime on 30 October 1965, ail
it is believed that he knows _everything abo4t
Ben Barka's fate. For 24 hours all Par s
held its breath: what would Mini say?
Well, he will say nrehing at least for
some time to come. Fos after all his hero c
gestures Dlimi has decided to fight a proc:-
dural battle rather than talk. He has apish( d
to the appeal court because the warrant for
his arrest was not served at his domicile ar d
because the Franco-Moroccan convents n
lays -down that 'both parties undertake o
prosecute their own nationals, even fenr
offences committed on the territory of. tl e
other state'. It is hardly likely that ti e
French criminal court has much confiden :c
in the way Moroccan justice might deal wi Ii
a subject so highly regarded by his King; ;o
sooner or later Dlimi will appear before tie
Paris court. But it is generally believed that
his trialwill not take place in the near future
and that a lot of .-water will run under t ic
-Seine bridges before a new bid is made to
uncover the truth of the Ben Barka affair,
However, despite the delays, it would 'De
wrong to think that the six-week trial of t
minor characters has been pointless. Plough-
ing through the discreet and elmfussd
evidence of the secret agents and police
officers, one nevertheless finds certain clt es
as to what happened before and during tic
kidnapping of Ben Barka. Thus in May 1955
the French counter-espionage service knew
that the Moroccans were preparing to 'get
hold of Ben Barka by unorthodox mear s'.
The' aim of this operation, it appears, 51 as
not very clear to the James Bonds of
SDECE (Service de Documentation et de
Contre-espionage), for they believed tl at
Oufkir- and Dlimi wanted to entice the
opposition leader to Rabat in order to eff:ct
a reconciliation with him. A very shaky
theory, as relations between the royal pah.ce
and Ben Barka's friends in Morocco lad
sharply deteriorated since May 1965 and re-
conciliation was more .unlikely than es er.
But let us admit that SDECE -was baily
informed and that its inaction, is explaine
by its ignorance of Moroccan politics.
The other French police forces (for tiler
arc several) were no more vigilant in pro
tecting - Ben Barka because their., offic als
from a judge, this declaration oi despair
could also he regarded as somewhat unusual.
The verdict was to have been delivered
last Wednesday, and on the following day
the court was due to try in absentia the two
accused Moroccans, General Oufkir and
Ahmed Dlimi, director of Morocco's Special
Branch. But at the very last moment came.
a coup de titre: Ahmed Dlimi, after
'writing a moving letter to his King, decided
to give himself up to dear his country of
'unjustified clApprtaietitf CITIAMMEPSec2c00
against the 'outrage'. So he shaved off his
moustache and travelled to Paris under a '
.1 ren iti'rpip touched.
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COLIN MACINNES
UL.I 11.1d
the Ministry of the Interior who gave the
56044 6ght' for the two policemen. Suchen
anerVenot, to question Ben Barka and take
him to a villa near Paris belonging to
Boucheseiche, a gangster ',ell known in
Casablanca. lip to this poi: the account of
the kidnapping seems quite clear. Things
only begin to grow obscure after the hand-
ing over of Ben Barka by the police to a
'group of gangsters (or 'vagrants' as they are
politely called), who presumably were to
take him to Morocco. Ben Barka was no
drawing-room politician: he NV:1S tough, un-
yielding, ;, man who had lived underground
for years. ; :e was probably armed and, one
can imagine, seeing. the trio of 'vagrants',
had no illusions about the danger he faced.
. So something unforeseen must have hap-
?pened in Boucheseiche's villa with the result
that the gangsters began to call Rabat
frantically for fresh instructions. Oufkir
? and Dlimi arrived personally the following
day, and instead of going to an hotel, if
only for the sake of appearances, they went
to the villa -- to decide how to get rid of
Ben Barka's body? How does it happen that
no police followed the Moroccan Interior
Minister when he arrived in Paris and went
immediately to a' council of war with the
'vagrants'? How is it possible that meetings
.'of this kind can take place with impunity on
territory where, as Le Monde commented
'ironically, 'in theory French sovereignty
obtains'? And, finally, how is it possible
for Ben Barka's body to vanish without trace
when all the various police forces had been
alerted to the kidnapping of the Moroccan
opposition leader?
We have no accurate answers to these
riddles, but on one point we can be certain:
'such extraordinary 'irregularities' could not
.
'have occurred unless important nten, and
not just ordinary subordinatensa had been
'involved in the, affair. But tiycgimes
do not like to admit that 'importTillit?servants
of the state' can, throngh incoritaia;-epee .or
corruption, get mixed up in such diattiFbing
criminal enterprises. Paris and Rabat were
unable to reach agreement either on the
.suppression of this painful case or on an
explanation that would be plausible while
not too damaging to one or the other,
Justice has been paralysed by this, lack of
co-operation on the part of, the men in
power, which led first to . the tragi-comic
nature of the trial and then to its adjourn-
ment.
Is Judae Perez right when he declares that
we will never know the truth? Many French-
men believe that he is, that the Ben Barka
. case is like a detective novel without the
last chapter ? the chapter which solves the
crime and reveals the identity of the guilty.
But this sense of despair is accompanied by
bitter indignation that a regime which re-
.
-pals 'national prestige' as Bic: alpaa and
omega of its policy can hush up an iU;air so
prejudicial to France's good name. As for
'King Hassan, whatever he says or does, lie
will never be able to wipe out the stain of
this dreadful business from his country's
reputation: even if his Minister of the
Interior, General Oufkir, did not persona4
commit the crime, in the eyes of the world
he inspired it, and an Barka's blood is ea
his hands. No procedural nianoeuv'"s'wil
?nr_cyjwIt people from tfi
helieving that ,ere
500sWeri hing rotten in the -kingdom el
Morocco.
Paris
October 29. 1966
iasi Fqr Release,2001/07/2E0 CIA-RDP75-00149R00010-050010-5
1/11;:caS SCOL
LITF'4.L TO FRENCH COURT
CPYRGHT
Ben Barka Kidnap Trial Delay
BEIRUT.-- Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed Dlimi, deputy head of the Moroccan
security police, who caused a sensation last week in the Ben Barka case by
surrendering to French police. has made a second appeal to the French Supreme
Court to rule that ho cannot be tried in France, it was learned in Paris on
October 25: according to reports published hereo
The officials surrender on October 19 came in the sixth week
af the Paris trial of 13 men (seven of them in absentia) who are alleged to
have boon involved in the disappearance of Mehdi Ben Barka, the Moroccan
opposition leader, from 4 Paris street on October 29 last year. Colonel Dliti
had been one of the accused being .tried in absentia, along with Bri&aaioa--
General Mohammed Oufkir, Morocco!s Minister of the Interior.
Trial proceedings were suspended and a new trial ordered because of
complicated French judicial proceedings. It may not begin for many months.
Colonel Dlimi and General?Oufkir had both claimed earlier in ;Lae
proceedings that they could not bp judged In France, under the terms of a
Franco-Moroccan judicial agreement.
Lawyers representing Colonel Dlimi said in Paris on October 25
that a second appeal had been made on his behalf because it was Marod the first
might be rejected on the grounds that it was made before he was token into
custody. Since his surrender in Paris the Moroccan official has boon kept in
custody In prison. According to French judicial sources his lawyers have '
questioned the legality of his detention under the terms of the Pranco-Moroecan-
judicial agreement. -
CPYRGHT
SEMINAR ATTACKS IMPERIALISM
CAIRO -- An Egyptian editor has expressed the hope that the Soviet-
Chinese dispute will be settled and will not be allowed to imperil African
unity. Mr.' Lotfi Al4Choli, editor of the Cairo monthly magazine Al-Talia
(Vairsuard) was addresSing the. opening .session on October 24 of a seminar on
"22-rica: National and Social Revolution", organised by his magazine and the
"i'roblems of Peace and Socialism" magazine of Prague. . ?
The seMinar is being attended by 31 political parties and organisations
from 30 African countries, who will be- meeting here until October 29.,
Mr. Kholi said that the phenomena facing Africa today was how to seek
a now strategy and tactics in order to carry out national liberationand
social revolution at the same time. This could not be achieved through -
following slogans and generalities or freezing revolutionary theory in rigid
ideological forms, he added. ?
Tho speaker hailed the "glorious -resistance" of the Vietnamese people
and called for immediate withdrawal of foreign troops, followed by. self-
determination.
Ho said imperialists were supporting armed racists in South Africa,
adesia and Israel in their "conspiracies to sabotage African revolutionaries
Mr. Youssof Sebai, secretary-general of the U.A.R.'committoo for
l'uoplest Solidarity, called on the developing countries to stand
tothor in order to impose the best -conditions rogard?hg economic and
t.:1.:ozi on developed countries.
?
following day Mr. Khali presented a 47-page research paper entitled
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