FOREIGN AFFAIRS: SPOOKS IN THE SWIMMING POOL?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400430024-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 4, 1999
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: February 11, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK TIMES
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FOIAb3b N
'Oreign Affai T Spooks in the Swlmmin
to~blame the C.I.A. when things cult to quash. As a matter of
go wrong. Because their very fact, that particular report-like
nature condemns them to ob- many others-was originated
scurity and anonymity, intelli- and disseminated by the Rus-
genre services attract rumors' sinns, It was first printed In
and are incapable of effectively the official Soviet newspaper
denying them. Thus, C.I.A. Izvestia, then embellished and
"spooks" are often imagined ' spread by the Polish press at.
lurking behind disasters ranging tachb in Paris, and eventually
t bl
li
h
d i
from earthquakes to unsuccess-
ful coups d'ttnt.
Soviet propaganda makes the
most of this situation. When-
ever a particularly ugly mess
occurs in almost any corner of.
the world, Moscow spreads word
that it is the C.I.A.'s fault. Since
few people would believe a
C.I.A. denial, our most secret
organization becomes a useful
target for those who wish to
smear the United States.
n z espcc a e
s
e
was pub
journals here. Some Frenchmen
still believe the C.I.A. sponsored
the abortive 1961 putsch.
Now again the French gossip
mart is delightedly spreading
the tale that the C.I.A. is In-
volved in France's current num-
ber one scandal, the Ben Barka
affair. Mehdi Ben Barka, a left-
wing Moroccan politician, was
kidnapped here last October and
almost surely murdered. Inves-
tigation has shown that agents
of S.D.E.C.E., France's equlva-
In 1961, when a group of lent of the C.I.A., were active
French generals In Algeria led In the crime.
an uprising against Pregldentt' The Belt .Bdi'kt liffaii' lla9
do Gaulle, word was soon spread embarrassed de Gaulle and poi-
that the C.I.A. was behind the"' soned French relations with
insurrection. Even the reputable 'Morocco. It has also advertised
Paris newspaper Le Mondet unsavory aspects of S.D.E.C.E.,
wrote;. "It appears well estab- ? an organization known in the
lashed ' that American -agents ,? argot. as the "swimming pool."
agency, which conducts French begged: "Ben Barka: Are the
espionage and counter-espionage U.S. intelligence services irria
operations, has been placed di- plicated?" Gaullists would ob.;,
rectly under the Defense Min- viously be happy to find a
later. foreign scapegoat for a polio;
Not Enough Scandal cally embarrassing affair. ' ,
N 2
O
1 Mi
t
P
r
This should have been scandal
enough for the scandal - loving
French public - abduction, tor-
ture, probable assassination; a
potpourri of French thugs and
n ov.
nu
e-a
ar
weekly - indirectly involved
"American agents," On Nov. .14
the Algiers correspondent of
Havana's Prensa Latina, claimed
there was
evidence of C.I:A:
?
professional spies. But it wasn't;. 'complicity." A few days .later
somebody had to bring in the the Nouvel Observateur, -re-
poor old C.I.A. ported (quite untruly) that da
Ben Barka was kidnapped Gaulle had attributed the Crime
from a famous Paris restaurant to the C.I.A. Oct. 29 and apparently died two Not the Work of C.I.A.
days later On Nov. 1 the initial
reports of his disappearance The C.I.A. has on occasion
were printed. One day later been involved In other ' messes
Communist propaganda went to but it had nothing to do with
work on the C.I.A. this affair, The American. Gov-
On Nov. 2 a Cuban Commu- . ernment could not possibly hope
nlst niinled Mario Kuchilan to gain by Ben Barka's :disap.
claimed on Tfavatih television) Pearitnets. Obviously trance's
"The long arm of C.I.A. has most secret organization, one
acted in Paris, using two falser ? of whose primary tasks is . to'
policemen and a Magia gang" to.:! weed out foreign agents, isn't
do away with Ben Barka. Nov. 3 run by the C.I.A. S.D.E.C;E.- it-
:'this hypothesis 'was 'developed- self was up to the ears 1n .the
by ' a Moroccan daily, Al, crime. The "swimming pool'-' has
more or less encouraged Maurice , S.D.E.C.E. officials have been Muharir, :been exposed as, an unsavory
,'Challe" who .headed the rebel- exposed as corrupt graf tore and.'' By Nov, 5 the story had been ? organization, But, it Isn't filled
lion,,.. associates, of criminals, As, a sufficiently. ? embroidered to , be; with.American spooks,
CPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000400430024-8