Tempest in an Opium Pot by C

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Tempest in an Opium Pot by C NYTimcs NOV Tempest in an Opium Pot By C. L. SULZBERGER PAR1S—The world has been having FOREIGN AFFAIRS a field day with the real-life thriller story of plots. counterplots, drugs, tontraband and other James Bond and also another bunch of hard nuts divertissements apparently unfolding who had served as Gaullist bully boys as a consequence of the arrest in New during the general's early years of ,e-ac:' of a minor French espionage exile and who were called S official charged with dope smuggling. (Service of Civic Action). The verbal fallout from this event As Francophone Africa became in- has becnme absorbing reading matter dependent, de Gaulle's Fifth Republic elthouge much is without foundation. organized a special intelligence branch This it is not apparently in any sense under 3acques Foccart to keep the true that there is a dash between new states on the road to survival the American CI A. and its French and also close to France. S.A.C. sur- counterpart, S.D.E.C.E., nor that vivors joined that special secretariat. S.D.E C E. is being riven by internal When the Ben Barka case blew in pull., .i. 1966 both Foccart's and S.D.E.C.F.'s. Dope and e.apionage were • ertainly name became tarnished by scandal. involved in the arrest last April of a De Gaulle decided to rein in S.D.E.C.E. former S.D.E.C.E. agent named Roger and put it under the Defense Ministry, Delouette. Delottette was callieg for replacing its boss with Gen. Eugene art imported car loaded with 96 pounds Guibaud, a regular officer. • of heroin. He claimed to he acting Guibaud put S.D.E.C.E. into its proper tinder instructions from an S.D.E.C.E. place in a civilian regime that had official. - terminated the threat of civil war. The case ballooned in importance. He discharged unsavory thug elements. Dregs. of course, are a major pre- He was asked to stay on an extra occupation in the United States, and year and finally was replaced in 1970 chauvirmlic steam was worked up by Count Alexandre de Marenches. about the French poisoning American In French eyes. Marenches, a huge youngsters. man, is the typical pro-"Anglo-Saxon." For their part, the French have al- His wife Is British, his mother was ready been regaled with tales of how American. his father served as liaison S.D.E.C.E. agents were involved in the officer on General Pershing's staff. He murder of a Moroccan left-wing politi- speaks perfect English. Nevertheless. cian named Ben Barka, and of the so- there is every evidence that he is a called ''Topaz" case. "Topaz," en loyal French patriot of the same type American novel, was based on charges as his predecessor, and there Is no of en S.D.E.C.E. agent in Washington question of pro- or anti-Americanism that high French Government officials involved. vunv leaking information to Russia. Thus there is little truth in tales now S.D.E.C.E. is a postwar organization circulating here about "settling old of mixed antecedents. Thd.e...included scores" between pro-Soviet and pro- de Gaulle's Cmigrd intelligence organi- Americti-ii cliques or doing away with zation in wartime London, a similar nefarious double agents. Such rumors s,rueture in North Africa, parts of the have been spread by persons at one or old Petainist Second Bureau and Re- another time associated with S.D.E.C.E. sistence groups inside occupied France. who have got into a publicity cmitest, Frum itr start, shortly after the war, and the French opposition is trying to S DE.0 F.. has been preoccupied with crdbarrass the regime. crises. First came Indochina, then the Nevertheless, since the student up- cold war. Then there was the Algerian risings of 1968, after which relations partisan conflict and finally the strug- with America perceptibly improved, gle with the O.A.S. (secret Army or- Paris and Washington have had ex- ganization) conspiracy. cellent working relations even on the The Algerian guerrillas depended on secret service level. Furthermore, the foreign arms supplies, so S.D.E.C.E. French are just as concerned with the got into the brutal business of fight- drug problem as Americans are. ing gunrunners with dummy organiza- The present furor is a tempest in an tions such as the ruthless "Red Hand." opium pot. Once justice has taken ils Murder and kidnapping became one course, it will blow over. No deeper aspect of its operation. S.D.E.C.E. took political implications are involved de- in some toughs from criminal elements spite the best efforts of tale-epinnet .
Recommended publications
  • The American Deep State, Deep Events, and Off-The-Books Financing
    The American Deep State, Deep Events, and Off-the- Books Financing By Prof Peter Dale Scott Region: USA Global Research, April 07, 2014 Theme: Intelligence, US NATO War Agenda The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 14, No. 3 I have been writing about deep politics since 1993, when I gave the example of how the United States after World War sent American mafia figures to fight communism in Italy, thereby creating a corrupted politics that was soon out of control – as bad as the influence the mafia once possessed in cities like Marseille, or Chicago.1 Since then I have written about deep events, by which I mean mysterious events, like the JFK assassination, the Watergate break-in, or 9/11, which repeatedly involve law-breaking or violence, and are embedded in fact in deep politics. Some of these may be low-level, as when data is filched from a personal computer, or mid-level, like the murder of Karen Silkwood. But what I have called structural deep events are large enough to affect the whole fabric of society, with “consequences that enlarge covert government, and are subsequently covered up by systematic falsifications in media and internal government records.” We still live in the official state of emergency imposed after the last great deep event – 9/11; and this has left us in a deconstitutionalized era of warrantless surveillance, warrantless detentions, and militarized homeland security.2 In the remainder of this essay, the deep events I refer to will all be structural deep events. I have come to believe that most structural deep events (or SDEs) are interrelated, and that the study of any one of them helps understand others.
    [Show full text]
  • I-Sources 01 1Er Novembre 2009 01 Sélection D’Articles Et De Documents Sur Le Renseignement & La Sécurité Internationale Publiée Par Le
    i-sources_01 1er novembre 2009 01 Sélection d’articles et de documents sur le renseignement & la sécurité internationale publiée par le ACTUALITÉ DU RENSEIGNEMENT TERRORISME blog / site PRIVATISATION DU RENSEIGNEMENT PROLIféRATION ET TRAFIC pdf ET DE LA SÉCURITÉ D’ARMES livre FORCES ET opéRATIONS SpéCIALES CRIMINALITÉ ET MAFIAS article video / podcast GUERRE DE L’INfoRMATION RISQUES INTERNATIONAUX CYBERMENACES CONFLITS ARMÉS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ACTUALITÉ DU RENSEIGNEMENT Intelligence failures and reforms – Seminar#599, July 2009 – Inde Rameshwar Nath Kao, founding father of RAW – B. Raman His name was Rameshwar Nath Kao -- Ramjee to his relatives, friends and colleagues and «Sir» to his junior colleagues. He was the founding father of the Research & Analysis Wing, India’s external intelligence agency, created on September 21, 1968, by bifurcating the Intelligence Bureau, which used to deal with internal as well as external intelligence. In 1982, Count Alexandre de Marenches, who headed the French external intelligence agency Service For External Documentation And Counter-Intelligence or SDECE as it was then known under President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, was asked by an interlocutor to name the five great intelligence chiefs of the 1970s. Mr Kao, whom he knew well and admired, was one of the five named by him. He praised the way Mr Kao had built up RAW into a professional intelligence organisation and made it play within three years of its creation a formidable role in changing the face of South Asia in 1971. He remarked: «What a fascinating mix of physical and mental elegance! What accomplishments! What friendships! And, yet so shy of talking about himself, his accomplishments and his friends.» Iftar Surprise by ISI Chief – B.
    [Show full text]
  • Revue Historique Des Armées, 247 | 2007 Bref Historique Des Services De Renseignement Et De Sécurité Français Contemp
    Revue historique des armées 247 | 2007 Le renseignement Bref historique des services de renseignement et de sécurité français contemporains Claude Faure Édition électronique URL : http://journals.openedition.org/rha/1843 ISBN : 978-2-8218-0506-4 ISSN : 1965-0779 Éditeur Service historique de la Défense Édition imprimée Date de publication : 15 juin 2007 Pagination : 70-81 ISSN : 0035-3299 Référence électronique Claude Faure, « Bref historique des services de renseignement et de sécurité français contemporains », Revue historique des armées [En ligne], 247 | 2007, mis en ligne le 01 août 2008, consulté le 19 avril 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/rha/1843 Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 19 avril 2019. © Revue historique des armées Bref historique des services de renseignement et de sécurité français contemp... 1 Bref historique des services de renseignement et de sécurité français contemporains Claude Faure 1 Héritiers d’organismes nés au cours de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les services de renseignement et de sécurité français sont marqués dès l’origine par les conflits, ceux entre les nations et ceux entre les hommes. Fin juin 1940, alors qu’une partie de la France est occupée par l’armée allemande, une structure clandestine de renseignement est mise sur pied au sein de l’armée française d’armistice, avec l’aval du ministre de la Défense nationale, le général Weygand. Placés sous la responsabilité du colonel Louis Rivet, chef du SR/SCR (service de renseignement/section de centralisation des renseignements) du 2e bureau, ces services s’organisent sous la couverture de l’Office national du retour à la terre, du ministère de l’Agriculture.
    [Show full text]
  • Janvier-Février-Mars 2019 Armée & Défense X 3
    Armée &DéfenseRéserve et Nation « COMBATTANT 2020 » Le nouvel équipement du soldat de l’armée de terre année - n°1/4 e FOCUS Directive budgétaire d’emploi des réserves de l’armée de terre pour 2019 SOUS LA LOUPE SNU : les premiers volontaires dès le mois de juin Janvier - Février Mars 2019 99 PATRIMOINE 1939 : que disaient les sondages de l’époque ? RÉSERVISTE SANS RÉSERVE Être tout à votre engagement Ladifférence Unéo tout en étant Simple Rapide efficacement protégé Trois formules au choix Une adhésion simplifiée en fonction de votre situation et en ligne 1 Sûr Accessible PRÉVOYANCE-RÉSERVISTE Des allocations et/ou capitaux Des cotisations Une protection à la hauteur des risques de votre activité. versés en cas d’arrêt de travail, dès 2,31 € / mois d’invalidité ou de décès (1) Le détail et les conditionslesdétailet Legarantiesdes (1) définissont règlementUnéo,mutuelledansle h. mutualité,mutualiste 18 soumise la dispositionsCodedeàaux inscrite 30durépertoire Unéo-Ciblage au IIhlivrevendredi, lundi duauSIRENE8 Du applicable de(2)février 152019. au sous le numéro 503 380 081 et dont le siège social est situé 48 rue Barbès – 92544Barbèsruesiège–Montrougesituésocial48 estnumérodontle Vincentsousleet 380 503081 Cedex.COMTN © ORSINI/MarineCrédits© photos- : Nationale/Défense SirpaGendarmerie©Olympe ©-Goubault/Armée - l’air/Arméesde - RÉFÉRENCÉE MINISTÈRE DES ARMÉES RÉFÉRENCÉE MINISTÈRE DES ARMÉES Découvrez la différence Unéo sur groupe-uneo.fr et au 0970 809 0002 Votre force mutuelle C’est aux civils [ Georges Clemenceau ] Armée de défendre
    [Show full text]
  • ALEXANDRE DE MARENCHES, MAÎTRE ESPION OU PROPHÈTE DE MALHEURS ? › Agathe Atkins
    ALEXANDRE DE MARENCHES, MAÎTRE ESPION OU PROPHÈTE DE MALHEURS ? › Agathe Atkins « Jeudi 15 juin 1972. L’après-midi, je vois Raphaël-Leygues, puis Marenches, avec qui je m’étais accroché. J’ai l’impression que cette vie de déjeuners à l’extérieur lui a fait prendre un certain nombre de kilos et qu’il risque plus de ce côté que de la part des services étrangers. » Jacques Foccart, La France pompidolienne. Journal de l’Élysée (1). a biographie de Jean-Christophe Notin sur Alexandre de Marenches (2), le légendaire patron du Service de docu- mentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage (Sdece, la future DGSE) de 1970 à 1981, est une contribution majeure à l’histoire des services secrets français. Au siège, Là la caserne des Tourelles, 141, boulevard Mortier ou plus familière- ment « La Piscine », on l’appelait « Dagobert », « Pervenche » et, pour les moins respectueux, « le Pachyderme ». Les journalistes l’ont long- temps surnommé « Porthos ». D’autres, adeptes d’un goût de la formule poussé, voyaient en lui « le Hoover français » car Marenches détient « un record inégalé et sans doute inégalable » : onze années de règne. Le paral- lèle s’arrête à la longueur du mandat parce qu’il n’avait pas la perversité OCTOBRE 2018 OCTOBRE 2018 171 études, reportages, réflexions de son homologue américain. De tous les responsables des services fran- çais, c’est le plus connu du grand public. Guidé par Christine Ockrent, il s’était raconté avec succès dans un livre de souvenirs, Dans le secret des princes (3), best-seller sorti cinq ans après sa démission à l’arrivée de la gauche à l’Élysée en 1981.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pahlavis and the Other Side of the Coins
    Comparative Civilizations Review Volume 84 Number 84 Spring 2021 Article 9 2021 The Pahlavis and the Other Side of the Coins Ardavan Khoshnood Lund University, Lund, Sweden, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, History Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, Political Science Commons, and the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Khoshnood, Ardavan (2021) "The Pahlavis and the Other Side of the Coins," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 84 : No. 84 , Article 9. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol84/iss84/9 This Letter to the Editor is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Comparative Civilizations Review by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Khoshnood: The Pahlavis and the Other Side of the Coins 112 Number 84, Spring 2021 Letter to the Editor The Pahlavis and the Other Side of the Coins Ardavan Khoshnood Lund University, Lund, Sweden [email protected] It was with great interest that I read “Political Power of Iranian Hierocracies” by János Jany published in Comparative Civilizations Review (83, 2020: 67-102). Writing about Iranian history is not an easy task because historical points of view have been highly politicized. Such is particularly the case when discussing the Pahlavi dynasty, particularly its founder, Reza Shah Pahlavi, and his successor, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi. It is therefore of major importance to be transparent and, when feasible, to present the varying views and schools of thought which may exist with respect to the Pahlavi dynasty (Khoshnood, 2019).
    [Show full text]
  • The Fates of American Presidents Who Challenged the Deep State (1963-1980) アメリカの深層国家に抗した大統領の運 命(1963-1980)
    Volume 12 | Issue 43 | Number 4 | Article ID 4206 | Oct 20, 2014 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus The Fates of American Presidents Who Challenged the Deep State (1963-1980) アメリカの深層国家に抗した大統領の運 命(1963-1980) Peter Dale Scott In the last decade it has become more and subsurface part of the iceberg I more obvious that we have in America today shall call the Deep State, which what the journalists Dana Priest and William operates according to its own Arkin have called compass heading regardless of who is formally in power.3 two governments: the one its citizens were familiar with, I believe that a significant shift in the operated more or less in the open: relationship between public and deep state the other a parallel top secret power occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, government whose parts had culminating in the Reagan Revolution of 1980. mushroomed in less than a decade In this period five presidents sought to curtail into a gigantic, sprawling universe the powers of the deep state. And as we shall of its own, visible to only a see, the political careers of all five—Kennedy, carefully vetted cadre—and its Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter—were cut off entirety . visible only to God.1 in ways that were unusual. One president, Kennedy, was assassinated. Another, Nixon, was forced to resign. And in 2013, particularly after the military return to power in Egypt, more and more To some extent the interplay of these two forms authors referred to this second level asof power and political organization is found in 2 America’s “deep state.” Here for example is all societies.
    [Show full text]
  • Conflict Studies Research Centre
    06/23 Henry Plater-Zyberk Conflict Studies Research Centre Middle East Series 106/23 Iraq’s Security and Intelligence Structures: More Problems Gordon Bennett Key Points * Saddam Hussein’s powerful security and intelligence apparatus was almost entirely Sunni. * Iraq’s most formidable enemy has been Iran, a country with which Baghdad seems to have lost most of its intelligence battles. * Considering the new, dominant role played by the Shiites in the present Iraqi administration and the Iranian influence in that community, the new Iraqi special services are bound to face problems, many of them manufactured or fuelled by Teheran. * The most difficult task in Iraq is, and will remain, the running of an effective security network, to address the most urgent security threats inside Iraq and countering foreign based terrorists. * The presence of allied troops in Iraq makes it easier for foreign hostile intelligence services, especially those from Islamic states, to recruit locals. * The Iraqi special services will remain at the very best an awkward partner of the allied forces and may become openly hostile once the coalition forces leave the country. * The best the allies can hope for at the moment is to be able to influence the recruitment and training of Iraqi special services personnel, by emphasising and occasionally enforcing professionalism and patriotic teaching based on Iraqi nationalism and positive nation building, excluding hatred of any nation or group and emphasising the common points of the two dominant regions. Contents Introduction – “House With No Doors, 1 Windows Or Guards 1. New Special Services – More Problems 1 2. On the Ruins of Saddam Hussein’s Empire 3 3.
    [Show full text]
  • An Architecture of Complexity: the Challenges of Radicalization of Islam and Islamization of Radicalism in Western Sahel
    African Journal of Terrorism and Insurgency Research (AJoTIR) ISSN: 2732-4990(Print) ISSN: 2732-5008(Online) Volume 1, Number 1, April 2020 Pp 33 -56 An Architecture of Complexity: The Challenges of Radicalization of Islam and Islamization of Radicalism in Western Sahel Prof Marcel Kitissou Cornell University E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Violent extremism and Jihadism in Western Sahel are the result of interlocking conflicts. Civil strife and regional (or global) conflict form a nexus. Conflict becomes intractable. And the inability of government to resolve normal social tensions, let alone the challenges caused by the effects of climate change, youth unemployment, poverty and food insecurity, make them open to intervention by outside players motivated more by geopolitical calculations than local concerns. Foreign players can be divided in two main categories. Firstly, Jihadists, by exploiting local situations, can make civil strife more deadly than their own actions. Secondly, global powers use Africa as a surrogate terrain for their global power play. As this paper argues, this architecture of complexity leads to the conclusion that there is no one terrorism in the Sahel but many and each requires a different approach. By the same token, the theoretical debate about whether we are witnessing a radicalization of Islam or an Islamization of Radicalism is irrelevant. This paper argues that there a continuum between the two extremes. Key words: Terrorism, Violent extremism, Jihadism, Foreign Intervention. 33 An Architecture of Complexity … Introduction There is an ongoing debate about whether Jihadism is the result of a radicalization of Islam or the result of an Islamization of radicalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Warlords, Drugs and the 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan
    Warlords, Drugs and the ‘War on Terror’ in Afghanistan: The Paradoxes Vishal Chandra Abstract The US-led ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan has led to the re-establishment of the warlords, and has failed to adequately address the issue of drug menace in an effective manner. As the Bonn process ended with the September 2005 elections, and the US forces are likely to partially withdraw this year, it is pertinent to evaluate the ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan and its implications for the post-election Afghanistan. This article seeks to argue that the contradictions inherent in the ongoing political process, primarily due to the paradoxes in the US’ ‘war on terror’, is largely responsible for perpetuating both warlordism and the drug menace in Afghanistan. The apparent failure of the Bonn process in terms of building institutions of governance has reinforced the regressive tendencies in the Afghan polity. This has far-reaching consequences, especially for the crucial reforms process. The answer to the Afghan malaise lies in prioritising the issues of governance and institution-building. Given the history of Afghan civil war, mere holding of elections and pledging of huge funds cannot be the rationale for the international community to re-abandon Afghanistan. These (Afghan mujahideen) are the moral equivalent of America’s founding fathers 1 Former US President Ronald Reagan referring to a group of Afghan mujahideen who visited White House in 1985. President Hamid Karzai commenced his presidential election campaign in July 2004 by deriding the private militias of the warlords2 as the biggest threat to Afghanistan, greater than the Taliban insurgency.3 On December 9, 2004, two days after his inauguration as an elected President, he declared jihad against drugs during a national counter-narcotics conference in Kabul, Strategic Analysis, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • The Looming Tower Chapter One: the Martyr (Sayyid
    The Looming Tower Chapter One: The Martyr (Sayyid Qutb) Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) -- the subject of this chapter -- arrived in America in 1948, three years after the end of World War II. Coming from Egypt, he set foot in a land that was basking in its war victory and relishing it’s economic wealth, a stark contrast to the poor, jobless and depressed country from just 7 years before. Although Qutb was born and raised in a destitute village in Upper Egypt, at the age of 42, he had already made a name for himself in the field of education in his homeland. He was the Minister of Education for the government, but his literary criticism of the Egyptian government forced him to exile to America. Making his home in New York, Qutb entered a city that was rich with sexual desire and racial tensions, only furthering his belief that the Western world was infused with immoral perversion. His aspiration was that Islam would dominate the world, and that the strict moral guidelines of the Quran would govern, above all else. Shortly after Qutb entered college in Washington, D.C., the leader of the Supreme Guide of the Society of the Muslim Brothers, Hasan al-Banna was assassinated in Egypt on February 12, 1949. Qutb was shocked by this event, and this would be the turning point for the eventual assimilation of Qutb and the Muslim Brothers. Qutb moved to Greeley, Colorado in the summer of 1949 to attend the Colorado State College of Education. At first, Greeley was a community that held all of the attributes that Qutb held dear, which were education, music, art, literature, and religion.
    [Show full text]
  • Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
    BreakingBreaking TheThe Silence: Silence: TruthTruth and and Lies Lies in in the the War War on on Terror Terror A Special Report by John Pilger September 11 2001 dominates almost “everything we watch, read, and hear. “We are fighting a war on terror,” say George Bush and Tony Blair, “a noble war against evil itself.” But what are the real aims of this war – and who are the most threaten- ing terrorists? Indeed, who is responsible for far greater acts of violence than those committed by the fanatics of al-Qaeda – crimes that have claimed many more lives than September 11, and always in poor, devastated, faraway places, from Latin America to South East Asia? ‘The answer to those questions are to be found in the United States, where those now in power speak openly of their con- quests and of endless war. Afghanistan . Iraq . these, they say, are just a beginning. Look out North Korea, Iran, even China. Breaking the Silence is about the rise, and rise, of rapacious imperial power, and a terrorism that never speaks its name, because it is “our” terrorism. John Pilger – Breaking The Silence Carlton 2003 ” 3 4 Afghanistan’sAfghanistan’s ‘New‘New EraEra ofof Hope’Hope’ It’s hard for us to understand in America, but fghanistan was the Bush administration’s “these (the Taliban) are people who attempted to first target in the war on terrorism. Its fate, control every mind and every soul in the country. A therefore, is a test case of the real nature of They . had a vast network of terrorist camps this war.
    [Show full text]