BEN BARKA CASE STILL A RIDDLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100350026-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: October 3, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

"Approved For Release 2001
/07/26 A- 00149R00010035
Polleo Yic.,s Than Zealous guished I f aide.
i
WASI-iIN(~:tON POST
rness to the police, I
However, out of their own n a
mouths, it is clear that the they were getting precious
French counterspy agency was little cooperation from Jac-
remarkably indifferent to ad?! quiermuchs help to agency each end other. weren't'
vance warnings about Beni The lawyers for Ben Barka's
Barka'e fate and French Police
were something less than.,
zealous in pursuing a case in-,
volving their own.
The ^py watchers the Sere- !
By Bernard D. Nossiter. cede Documentation Exteri?++'
Washington root Foreign Service ' ure et do Contra Espionage
SDECE), learned five months;
in the waiting room at Orly efore the ~~ kidnaping that'
is bugged. The baggage of im unorthodox means to grab;
en Barka were being planned. i
Portant people coming; month before the crime, the;
through the big Paris Airport' gency knew that a "special'
is secretly searched. France's)- eam" had been named to "ap-
counter-spy agency regularly roach" the victim.
sends New Year's greetings to' But SDEC'E's former Aboss,!
on. Paul Jacquier, testified'
i t s "honorable correspon- at these words didn't mean.
dents." nything very much. In his
, hese piquant tidbits from orld, he said, that sort of
the secret service nether- nguage could refer to an.un-
world have come to light dui- nventional research project.
a. t the Ben Barka trial, Jacquier, however, did let
which is still going on here.i mething Important slip out.
But after dozens of witnesses, y Nov. 2, three days after the
and four weeks of testimony azure, he said, "Everybody
in the gloomy Palais de; ' i my entourage knew that
Justice, the general questions. ufkir and Dlimi were in the:
of the affair still remain un-i fair."
answered. Now Mohammed Oufklr is
What did happen to Mehdi orrocco's Minister of Inte-.
Ben Barka? The leftist Mo- or, Ahmed Dlimi Is the chief
roccan political leader was. police and both were still
seized at mid-day on a' busy: Is, y much in France at that,
Paris street. last Oct. 21 by a no. For still Inexplicable rea-'
mixed ba of ? Jacquier did not pass on'
g gangsters, t he knew to the French
I rerch police and a French
counterspy "correspondent."j" P lice.
This is known and admitted.
Secoid?Hand Account
But the last Image of Ben
Barka before the Assize Court
an d Dlimi were given a cock-
t 1 party at the French Minis-.
t of the Interior and they
d ed that night with some of
is only a second-hand account.1 t e highest police officials in
He was pictured bound to a!. F ance.
furnace pipe in the cellar of!' F co Trial in Absentia
Antoine Lopez, the diminutive I By then, the police-did have
and slippery counter-spy agent, s no hint of a clue that Ouf-
who is one of the /six men on k and company were behind
trial. This testimony camet affair. The Interior Min.
from a newspaperman who;; i er Rober FreYsuggested
had It from a talkative gang-Frey, en
star, one Georges Figon. And I s t it nd one
out t his Oufldr aides at d dinin dier.
I~ igon cant testify. He was, ner.)
fa ally shot, by his own hand A. Polito question was put, a
b ue answer received;
the authorities say, last winter, ? h 'the Moroccans e , and!
No trace of Ben Barka has to took off!
been found. There has been no n t morning for Rabat, where
evidence so far to support y have prudently stayed
ppont the; e r since. The two are sched-i
prevailing belief that Moroc ul d to be tried to absentia
can officials murdered him. !. of r the cururent trial ?ineily!
The other major and unan-,. 'en e
swered question is this. Did
high French authorities co-
operate with their Rabat coun-
terparts to make Bea Barka
vanish? Again, there has been
no evidence to support such a
view.
. long parade of -leiaiing
Fr Inch police have appeared
in court to say they did no
w ng, to insist that they had
no grounds for atr2sting so
di anguished a man as Qufkir
an his , slightly less distin.
.the tortuous trial are not con
tent with this. They had hoped!
to get more light from Inte-
rior Minister prey as well as.
from Premier Georges Pom-'
pidou.
But the Judge, Jean Perez,
the . Pickwickian presiding-
magistrate, has ruled that'
they must be satisfied with
written replies to some edited
questionis. It is not likely that i -
Frey and Pompidu will give I
away anything to compromise
their government. _ .
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 CIA-RDP75-00149R000100350026-8
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