HASSAN MASIKY (Morocco Board News Service)
Washington / Morocco Board News– Several Algerian news outlets reported the appointment of retired General Athman Tartag (alias Bashir) to head Algeria’s Department of Homeland Security(known by its French initials DSI), the most significant branch of Algeria’s powerful and notoriously secretive Intelligence Agency DRS. General Tartag replaced General “Ahmed” (his real name Abdelkader Kherfi) who was fired by DRS’ strong man Major General Mohamed Mediene (aka Toufik).
While no reasons were given for this rare and unusually candid shake up, Algerian observers and Intelligence experts are speculating about the motivations and the timing of General Medienne decision to nominate the controversial General Tartag. A significant change at the DRS, the center of power in Algeria, will have ramifications around the region.
Two analysis of this enigmatic move are making the rounds of intelligence circles. The most credible rationalization links General Toufik’s decision to fire General Ahmed to the daring October 23 abduction of three European aid workers by rogue members of the DRS-controlled-Western-Sahara-Separatists-Polisario-Front from the heart of the maximum-security military zone in Tindouf. In fact, several Algerian and Moroccan media outlets reported, in the aftermath of the Tindouf terrorist operation, on several stormy and tense meetings between high-ranking DRS Officers and Western Sahara Separatists Polisario leaders during which General Toufik aids scorned General Ahmed and Polisario’s Chief for their negligence.
Algerian media with “access” to RDS sources described General Tewfik as “embarrassed” by the Tindouf incident. The apprehension on December 5 in Mauritania of two young Sahrawi for the kidnapping of the aid workers intensified discontent within DRS leadership hastening the departure of General Ahmed. DRS Officers were livid that that the two young Sahrawis were able to kidnap foreigners from Hassi Rabouni, the Polisario headquarters, and safely move their human cargo for hundreds of miles within Algerian territory undetected by Algeria’s military forces.
Other Algerian observers view the appointment of General Tartag rather as a strategic move by General Toufik to reinforce his ranks before next year election in Algeria. Algerians view the DRS as the hub of the decision making process in Algeria and regard General Toufik as a co-President with a veto power over decisions made by of the civilian President Bouteflika. Thus, a public dismissal of a high-ranking military official is a strategic shift within the DRS aimed to send a message to the civilian leadership and members of the Algerian Armed Forces (ALN) that the aging General Toufik is still in charge.
The timing and the choice of General Tartag convey General Toufik’s clear and loud message. The advents of “Islamists” governments in Tunisia, Libya, Morocco and eventually Egypt represent a threat to the DRS, an agency that spent the last twenty years fighting “extremist Islamist groups” in Algeria. In choosing Tartag, a leading figure of the 1990’s bloody repression by the DRS during Algeria’s civil war, the DRS Chief signals his displeasure with declarations by some Algerian politicians of a possible return of exiled leaders of the banned Islamic Salvation Front FIS Islamist party, the winner of the 1992 election.
Recent visits by figures of the Rashad Movement , Algerian opposition in exile, to Tunisia and Libya, the high profile media coverage of the FIS leader Abbassi Madani’s political activities in Qatar and the creation of a new satellite news channels controlled by Madani sons are events that the DRS strong man view as a threat to his organization.
Several Algerian dissidents and Military dissenters, such as Colonel Mohamed Samraoui, have accused General Tartag of being behind the Benaknoun and Eucalyptus massacres during which unknown assailants “savagely slaughtered” dozens of civilians. Tartag is the face of the “anti-Islamism eradication” strategy of Algeria’s “black decade”. Observers read General Toufik’s choice as an attempt by the DRS hard liners to undermine President Bouteflika timid reform agenda and undercut elements of the ALN who may try to emulate their counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt.
While Algerian observers disagree on the motivation behind General Toufik decision, they agree on injudiciousness of his choice.
