WHO KIDNAPPED BEN BARKA?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100360069-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: December 3, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW STATESMAN
Approved For Release 2001 /0hbArlr Z 6)49R000100360069-0
December 3, 196115-
CPYRGHT
Who Kidnapped
Ben Barka?
CPYRGHIIIENRY BAGEHOT
time and apace for everything? Eve
for political kidnapping, it would seem. A
any rate the case of Mehdi Ben Barka i
making the headlines even in the sort of Parii
newspapers usually more concerned with
crimes pnssionnels or Serie noire gangsterdom.
The scenario and the bit-players may b
James Bondish, however, but the victim was
a man of real stature and the repercussion
may be international.
Mehdi Ben Barka was a veteran Moroccan
nationalist ..a former Speaker of the House o
Assembly and one of the founders of the left-
wing, non-communist Union Nationale des
Forces Populaires (UNFP). Internationally, he
was almost the only person respected and
liked both by Nasser and the Baath, by Ben
Bella and by Boumedienne. At the time of
his kidnapping he was concerned with initial
preparations for the Havana Three Continents
conference scheduled for January - a fact
which led certain commentators to suggest
(almost certainly erroneously) that the CIA
might have been involved In his removal from
the scene.
Twice condemned to death in absentia by
King Hassan's regime, Ben Barka was nego-
tiating with the government to ensure that a
general amnesty for UNFP leaders In
Morocco should be fpemally extended to him-
self. If this were done, Ben Barka was pre-
pared to return to Morocco and resume dis-
cussions with the Palace about the terms on
which, his,-party, the most dynamic political
force in (lie country, would enter the govern.
ment. His European base was in Geneva
where, it was later said, at least one attempt
had been made to kill him, just as most
people believed that an attempt had been
made in Morocco in 1962 in a staged ca
accident.
On Friday 29 October Ben Barka had just
arrived in Paris. He had a luncheon engage.
nient at the Brasserie Lipp, an old landmark
of Saint Germain life, opposite the Cafe Fiore
where tourists like to gawp at the old haunt
of Sartre and the Existentialists. Ben Barka's
engagement was known to several people,
including Georges Figon, who specialises in.
films about the underworld and has himself
served seven years' hard labour for armed
robbery. Figon has since disappeared. Others
at the rendezvous were the great French
cintarfe Georges Franju and a Journalist who
has subsequently been held for questioning.
On the corner of the boulevard, about 100
yards from the Brasserie, there stands the
latest, most glittering testimony to the creep-
ing coca-colonisation of Paris. Le Drugstore
do Saint Germain served as appropriate liter-
ary background for the kidnapping. Just as
Ben Barka, accompanied by Azemmourl, a
Moroccan reading for a doctorate at the Sor-
onne, passed the drugstore, two plain-clothes
rench policemen came up to him, showed
lim their cards and hustled him Into a car.
zemmourl was prevented from taking the
umber of the car by two other men, who
ubsequently got into another car which
ollowed the one in which Ben Barka was
ictd. Azemmouri seems to have believed that
ten Barka had genuinely been taken in for
ucstioning by the French police. Even Ben
arka may have thought the same, since he
toes not seem to have made any very violent
esistance - or he may have believed that he
vas being taken away simply to negotiate with
cpresentatives of the Moroccan regime. The
clay in alerting the French police authorities
tray have been responsible for Ben Barka's
eath.
One intriguing point was that the two
olicemen were, in fact, policemen, Louis
ouchon and Roger Voitot, both members of
he special anti-drug squad. It was in this
entering the government or else disappear to
made him a vital accomplice in another trun
operation on the lines of the Egyptian captur
of the spy Louk in Rome.
According to one version, Oufkir said h
(must talk to his 'patron'. This implied in
volvement of the King is borne out by th
King's refusal to dismiss his Minister of th
Interior. On the other hand, he may tithe:
.opez, an Air Maroc official at Orly airport,
,?ho seems to have worked at different times
oth for France's secret service (or rather for
inc of its many parallel sections) and for the
loroccan secret police, who are known to
ave special brigades watching potential
pposition leaders. Lopez seems to have
ecruited not only Souchon and Voitot but
Iso Jean Palisse and two of his henchmen.
alisse and his men were in a car which fol-
owed that of Lopez, Ben Barka and the two
policemen to the villa of Georges Douche-
eiche, a former lieutenant of the famous
mderworld king. Boucheseiche has extensive
Icrests in Morocco, including a night-club
f Sidney Greenstreet standards with amen-
ble hostesses. At his villa outside Paris he
egularly entertained prominent Moroccans
ttached to the Embassy in a secret service
Once Ben Barka was safely held in the
ilia, Lopez telephoned to Morocco to speak
ufkir. Oufkir's record of repression and the
rid of the strong man of his regime. At an
rate, what is known Is that Oufkir and the
commandant Dlimi, head of the Moroccan
security services, took a plane to Paris, and
there is considerable evidence that they were
picked up by Lopez and taken to Douche.
seiche's villa, together with another police
official attached to the Embassy in Paris.
Later all the Moroccans, together with Bou-
cheseiche, left France; and, despite an inter-
national warrant, Bouchesciche remains un-
traceable.
De Gaulle" initial reaction was one of
genuine fury that a minister of a friendly
country should organise a kidnapping in the
heart of Paris. He broke diplomatic protocol
by telling his Ambassador to deliver a per-
sonal message to Ben Barka's mother. The
suggestion of involvement by French police
officers and the reminder that one of the
French services had captured the OAS Colonel
Argoud in Germany have somewhat blunted
French investigations. Meanwhile, in Moroc-
se of torture against political opponents in co, the UNFP press has finally given up pub.
T c mass round-up of UNFP members in fishing, as their papers were inevitably 'seized.
my 1963, suggests that political kidnapping The current atmosphere of repression has
outd not be
repugnant to him. What is not effectually ended any hopes of UNFP co.
anted Ben Barka killed or merely to have have inaugurated a new period of violence.
m smuggled back. to. Morocco. where he Will King Hassan find a way to dissociate
uld be told to accept Palace terms . for himself front his over-zealots minister? ??'
Approved For Release. 2001107126 CI,A-RDP75-00149R0001,403i;0(j58 0