Word: oufkir
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Mossad. Although Morocco later supported Arab confrontation states in the Middle East wars, it had excellent relations with Israel after it became independent in 1956. For example, Morocco arranged, through the French, to have Mossad train its own fledgling secret service. Mossad's chief Moroccan contact was Oufkir. At one point after the Moroccans had decided to get rid of Ben Barka, Oufkir asked Mossad to obtain some poison for him. The agency declined, but later agreed to help tail Ben Barka, who was then living in Geneva...
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...
Word that Ben Barka had been kidnaped was flashed to Rabat by Ahmed Dlimi, Oufkir's deputy for intelligence operations, who had surreptitiously entered France in order to supervise the first stage of "Operation Ben Barka." Oufkir immediately went to France; his cover story for leaving Rabat was that he intended to visit Switzerland, where his children were in school...
...second night after his capture, Ben Barka was confronted in a bedroom of the villa by Interior Minister Oufkir and by two other Moroccans. All three carried pistols. "Who gave you the authorization for what you are doing?" Ben Barka demanded angrily. Replied Oufkir: "We are here in the name of our master and for the sake of Morocco." For several minutes, the three Moroccans carried on a loud argument with their prisoner. Then one of them said: "Let's finish this comedy. You were sentenced to death in Morocco. Now you're going...
Violent Deaths. Thirteen people were eventually charged with crimes related to the Ben Barka case, but few actually stood trial. Oufkir and an intelligence agent code named "Chtouki" (real name: Mohammed Miloued) refused to return to France. They were convicted in absentia of illegal arrest and confinement and given life sentences. Dlimi did stand trial and was acquitted. Two of the French undercover agents got prison terms for "illegally detaining" him. 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...