Word: hassan
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Wrestling for the barren but phosphate-rich former Spanish colony (103,000 sq. mi., pop. 73,000) began in the wake of last November's "Green March"-350,000 unarmed, Koran-carrying Moroccans dispatched by King Hassan II to lay claim to the territory. Though the marchers halted short of Spanish battle lines, Hassan secured from Madrid an agreement partitioning the colony between Morocco and Mauritania. Algeria quickly denounced the deal and warned darkly of "protracted guerrilla...
Stung Again. The possibility of all-out war stirred fears throughout the Arab world. Egypt's Anwar Sadat, Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba and Iraq's Ahmed Hassan Bakr telephoned Hassan and Algerian President Houari Boumedienne to urge a ceasefire. Syria's Hafez Assad dispatched Vice Premier Mohammed Haidar and Chief of Staff General Hikmat Chehabi to Algiers and Rabat to try to defuse what Damascus radio called "the explosive situation...
...native of Rabat and the son of a grocer, Mehdi Ben Barka had been active in politics from the age of 14, when he joined a Moroccan independence movement. For a time he was a tutor to Hassan, then the country's Crown Prince. After Morocco gained its independence, Ben Barka's friendship with Hassan turned sour as he moved leftward in his politics and eventually headed Morocco's political opposition. In 1963, he was elected president of the National Consultative Assembly. Ben Barka later fled into exile in Algeria, and was condemned to death in absentia...
Even though Ben Barka moved from Algeria to Geneva, he was still considered a threat by Hassan. "This man disturbs me," the King frequently said of Ben Barka. As chief of national security, Interior Minister Oufkir launched "Operation Ben Barka"-at first to keep track of the leftist dissident, but then to murder him. Working with French intelligence agents, Oufkir was able to lure Ben Barka from Geneva to Paris on a plausible but phony pretext: that Director Georges Franju (Head Against the Walls, Red Nights) wanted to make a film documentary about decolonization. Ben Barka was to meet Franju...
...Other people involved in the murder try to live in the shadows. Since Ben Barka's death, at least 37 people connected with the case have disappeared; some are known to have died violently. Oufkir reportedly committed suicide after the failure of an assassination plot against King Hassan in 1972. Two French operatives were murdered; a third, according to official reports, committed suicide as police moved in to pick him up for questioning. Villa Owner Boucheseiche, meanwhile, disappeared shortly after the murder and has never been seen again. "Too many people knew too much," one French participant told TIME...