October 27, 1994-July 16, 1996: Government Mole Takes Over Algerian GIA, Causes Group to Splinter and Lose Popularity
**Djamel Zitouni.*[Source: Fides Journal]Djamel Zitouni takes over the Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA).
There are allegations that the Algerian government manipulated the GIA from its creation in 1991 (see*1991).
After going through several leaders, it appears that the GIA’s new leader Zitouni is in fact an agent of the Algerian intelligence agency. For instance, in 2005 the Guardian will report that Algerian intelligence “managed to place Djamel Zitouni, one of the Islamists it controlled, at the head of the GIA.”*[GUARDIAN, 9/8/2005]*And journalist Jonathan Randal will write in a 2005 book that according to Abdelkhader Tigha, a former Algerian security officer, “army intelligence controlled overall GIA leader Djamel Zitouni and used his men to massacre civilians to turn Algerian and French public opinion against the jihadis.”*[RANDAL, 2005, PP. 170-171]
*Indeed, prior to Zitouni taking over, the GIA tried to limit civilian casualties in their many attacks (see*December 1991-October 27, 1994).
But Zitouni launches many attacks on civilian targets. He also attacks other Islamist militant groups, such as the rival Islamic Salvation Army (AIS).
He also launches a series of attacks inside France.*[CROTTY, 2005, PP. 291-292]*Zitouni also kills many of the genuine Islamists within the GIA.*[NEW ZEALAND LISTENER, 2/14/2004]*
These controversial tactics cause the GIA to slowly lose popular support and the group also splits into many dissident factions. Some international militant leaders such as Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Qatada continue to support the GIA. He will finally be killed by a rival faction on July 16, 1996.*[CROTTY, 2005, PP. 291-292]
Entity Tags:*Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité,*Abdelkhader Tigha,*Groupe Islamique Armé,*Islamic Salvation Army,*Djamel ZitouniTimeline Tags:*Complete 911 TimelineCategory Tags:*Algeria
January 13,1995: Algerian Government Responds to Peace Overtures by Plotting False Flag Attacks in France
**The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) logo.*[Source: Public domain]The Italian government hosts a meeting in Rome of Algerian political parties, including the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), whose probable election win was halted by an army coup in 1992 (see*January 11, 1992).
Eight political parties representing 80 percent of the vote in the last multi-party election agree on a common platform brokered by the Catholic community of Sant’Egidio, Italy, known as the Sant’Egidio Platform. The militant Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA) is the only significant opposition force not to participate in the agreement. The parties agree to a national conference that would precede new multi-party elections. They call for an inquiry into the violence in Algeria, a return to constitutional rule, and the end of the army’s involvement in politics. The Independent notes the agreement “[does] much to bridge the enmity between religious and lay parties and, most significantly, pushe[s] the FIS for the first time into an unequivocal declaration of democratic values.” French President Francois Mitterrand soon proposes a European Union peace initiative to end the fighting in Algeria, but the Algerian government responds by recalling its ambassador to France.
*[INDEPENDENT, 2/5/1995]*The Washington Post notes that the agreement “demonstrate[s] a growing alliance between the Islamic militants [such as the GIA], waging a deadly underground war with government security forces, and the National Liberation Front,” Algeria’s ruling party,
as both are opposed to peace with the FIS and other opposition parties.*[WASHINGTON POST, 1/14/1995]*
The Guardian will later report that these peace overtures “left [Algeria’s] generals in an untenable position. In their desperation, and with the help of the DRS [Algeria’s intelligence agency], they hatched a plot to prevent French politicians from ever again withdrawing support for the military junta.” The GIA is heavily infilrated by Algerian government moles at this time and even the GIA’s top leader, Djamel Zitouni, is apparently working for Algerian intelligence (see*October 27, 1994-July 16, 1996). Some GIA moles are turned into agent provocateurs. GIA leader Ali Touchent, who the Guardian will say is one of the Algerian moles, begins planning attacks in France in order to turn French public opinion against the Algerian opposition and in favor of the ruling Algerian government (see*July-October 1995).
The GIA also plots against some of the FIS’s leaders living in Europe.*[GUARDIAN, 9/8/2005]
Entity Tags:*National Liberation Front,*Islamic Salvation Front,*Algerian army,*Groupe Islamique Armé,*Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité,*Francois Mitterrand,*Ali TouchentTimeline Tags:*Complete 911 TimelineCategory Tags:*Algeria
July-October 1995: Wave of Attacks in France Blamed on Algerian Islamist Militants Were Likely Masterminded by Algerian Government
**A Paris subway car bombed in 1995.*[Source: Associated Press]Ten French citizens die and more than two hundred are injured in a series of attacks in France from July to October 1995. Most of the attacks are caused by the explosion of rudimentary bombs in the Paris subway. The deaths are blamed on the Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA) Algerian militant group. Some members of the banned Algerian opposition Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) living in exile in France are killed as well. For instance, high-level FIS leader Abdelbaki Sahraoui is assassinated on July 11, 1995. The GIA takes credit for these acts. The attacks mobilize French public opinion against the Islamic opposition in Algerian and causes the French government to abandon its support for recent Algerian peace plans put forth by a united opposition front (see*January 13,1995).*[BBC, 10/30/2002;RANDAL, 2005, PP. 171, 316-317;*GUARDIAN, 9/8/2005]*However, in September 1995, French Interior Minister Jean-Louis Debré says, “It cannot be excluded that Algerian intelligence may have been implicated” in the first bombing, which hit the Saint-Michel subway stop in Paris on July 25 and killed eight.*[BBC, 10/31/2002;*RANDAL, 2005, PP. 316-317]*And as time goes on, Algerian officials defect and blame Algerian intelligence for sponsoring all the attacks. Ali Touchent is said to be the GIA leader organizing the attacks (see*January 13,1995). But Mohammed Samraoui, former deputy chief of the Algerian army’s counterintelligence unit, will later claim that Touchent was an Algerian intelligence “agent tasked with infiltrating Islamist ranks abroad and the French knew it.” But he adds the French “probably did not suspect their Algerian counterparts were prepared to go so far.”*[RANDAL, 2005, PP. 316-317]*A long-time Algerian secret agent known only by the codename Yussuf-Joseph who defected to Britain will later claim that the bombings in France were supported by Algerian intelligence in order to turn French public opinion against the Islamic opposition in Algeria. He says that intelligence agents went sent to France by General Smain Lamari, head of the Algerian counterintelligence department, to directly organize at least two of the French bombings. The operational leader was actually Colonel Souames Mahmoud, head of the intelligence at the Algerian Embassy in Paris.*[OBSERVER, 11/9/1997]*In 2002, a French television station will air a 90-minute documentary tying the bombings to Algerian intelligence. In the wake of the broadcast, Alain Marsaud, French counterintelligence coordinator in the 1980s, will say, “State terrorism uses screen organizations. In this case, [the GIA was] a screen organization in the hands of the Algerian security services… it was a screen to hold France hostage.”*[NEW ZEALAND LISTENER, 2/14/2004]Entity Tags:*Ali Touchent,*Islamic Salvation Front,*Alain Marsaud,*Mohammed Samraoui,Abdelbaki Sahraoui,*Souames Mahmoud,*Yussuf-Joseph,*Smain Lamari,*Jean-Louis DebréTimeline Tags:*Complete 911 TimelineCategory Tags:*Algeria
March 26-May 21, 1996: French Monks in Algeria Kidnapped and Killed by Algerian Intelligence Working with Compromised Islamic Militants
**A photo montage of the seven murdered monks from Tibhirine.*[Source: Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance]*(click image to enlarge)On March 26, 1996, a group of armed men break into a Trappist monastery in the remote mountain region of Tibhirine, Algeria, and kidnap seven of the nine monks living there. They are held hostage for two months and then Djamel Zitouni, head of the Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA), announces that they were all killed on May 21, 1996. The French government and the Roman Catholic church state the GIA is to blame. But years later, Abdelkhader Tigha, former head of Algeria’s military security, will claim the kidnapping was planned by Algerian officials to get the monks out of a highly contested area. He says government agents kidnapped the monks and then handed them to a double agent in the GIA. But the plan went awry and the militants assigned to carry it out killed the monks. Furthermore, it will later be alleged that Zitouni was a mole for Algerian intelligence (see*October 27, 1994-July 16, 1996).*[INDEPENDENT, 12/24/2002;*UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, 8/20/2004]*In 2004, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will reopen the controversy when he says of the monks’ deaths, “Not all truth is good to say when [the issue is still] hot.”*[UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, 8/20/2004]*He will also say, “Don’t forget that the army saved Algeria. Whatever the deviations there may have been, and there were some, just because you have some rotten tomatoes you do not throw all of them away.”*[DAILY TELEGRAPH, 4/7/2004]
Entity Tags:*Abdelkhader Tigha,*Abdelaziz Bouteflika,*Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité,*Ali Touchent,*Groupe Islamique Armé,*Djamel ZitouniTimeline Tags:*Complete 911 TimelineCategory Tags:*Algeria
September 27, 2002: French Court Ruling Backs Allegations of Widespread False Flag Attacks in Algeria
**Habib Souaidia.*[Source: Public domain]
Algerian general Khaled Nezzar loses a libel suit in France against Habib Souaidia, a former lieutenant in the Algerian army.
Souaidia claimed in a 2001 book that in the 1990s the Algerian army frequently massacred Algerian civilians and then blamed Islamic militants for the killings.
The French court rules that the contents of Souaidia’s book are “legitimate.” The court declares that it could not judge Algeria’s history but Souaidia had acted in good faith in making his allegations.*[AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, 9/27/2002;*INTER PRESS SERVICE, 9/30/2002]Souaidia served in the Algerian army until 1996 and took part in operations against Islamic militants. Nezzar is considered the real power in Algeria, still ruling behind a facade of civilian rule ever since the early 1990s.
Several former Algerian officers living in exile testified in court and corroborated Souaidia’s statements. For instance:**Souaidia told the French court, “In the beginning we spoke about restoring order in the country. But very soon the generals made of us an army of wild murderers.… We had permission to kill whoever we wanted to for nothing at all.”
He pointed to Nezzar in the courtroom and said that “at the same time they were counting the millions of dollars they had stolen from the people.”*
*Former colonel Mohammed Samraoui testified that “the Algerian army used all means to attack the Islamic rebellion: blackmail, corruption, threats, killings…we used terrorist methods to attack terrorism even before it had appeared.”**
Former officer Ahmed Chouchene said that soldiers were told they could kill civilians as much as they liked as long as they could “produce a false explanation for the killings.” They were taught that “their role was not to apply law, but to circumvent it.”*[INTER PRESS SERVICE, 9/30/2002]
Entity Tags:*Algerian army,*Ahmed Chouchene,*Habib Souaidia,*Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité,*Mohammed Samraoui,*Groupe Islamique Armé,*Islamic Salvation Front,*Khaled NezzarTimeline Tags:*Complete 911 TimelineCategory Tags:*Algeria