gelatik
03.03.02, 02:24
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency should declassify all files pertaining to
the kidnap and "disappearance" of Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka,
Human Rights Watch said today.
Moroccan security officials are believed to have masterminded Ben Barka's
abduction in Paris in 1965, and are believed to have killed him shortly
thereafter. His body was never found.
The failure to identify and punish the principal perpetrators, and the rumored
role of foreign intelligence agencies, continue to spark controversy in
Morocco.
In response to a 1976 request under the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA
acknowledged having 1,846 files pertaining to Ben Barka, but cited national
security reasons in refusing to release them. The vast majority of these have
remained secret ever since.
Interest in the CIA files was rekindled last year, when a retired Moroccan
secret policeman came forward to allege that, during the 1960s, CIA agents were
working in the police bureau that carried out the “disappearance” of Ben Barka.
The ex-agent, Ahmed Boukhari, repeated this allegation in a published a book in
France earlier this month. The U.S. has not commented on this matter.
The current request was submitted jointly by Human Rights Watch and the
Institut Ben Barka, a France-based organization dedicated to collecting and
preserving documents by and about Mehdi Ben Barka. The request was made under
the Freedom of Information Act, a U.S. law intended to ensure public access to
government records.
