French intelligence ran a months-long fake-radio coup against Wilaya 5.

Evidence

Under mounting French military pressure, a fresh set of rifts had been provoked in the higher echelons of the F.L.N., both between the Wilayas and the “exterior” of the G.P.R.A., and within the various Wilayas themselves. The years of 1958 and 1959 were, above all, a time when the Wilaya leaders were scourged by terrible apprehensions of treachery, or purported treachery. Genuine acts of betrayal had existed, certainly, but they had been used with extreme cunning by French intelligence operatives to demoralise the maquis through playing upon the innate suspiciousness of the Algerian. It has already been noted how teams of bleu double-agents controlled by Captain Christian Léger during the Battle of Algiers had subsequently succeeded in penetrating the Western Zone headquarters of Wilaya 3 (Kabylia), rounding it up in its entirety. Colonel Godard, the expert on counter-revolutionary warfare, followed up the confusion and distrust generated in the wake of this coup by adroitly “dropping” incriminating correspondence with French intelligence among other immaculate leaders in the Wilayas. The bait was snapped up greedily by Amirouche, the jeweller from the Beni-Yenni and the most ruthless of any Wilaya commander, entering into the “game” with unparalleled zest and instituting massive purges like a latter-day Vyshinsky. Under appalling inquisitions supervised by an F.L.N. captain nicknamed “La Torture” who had worked with the S.S. during the Second World War, admissions of treachery were extorted which led to vast chain-reactions of suspicion. Orders were given to arrest all recent Muslim deserters from the French forces, and any recruits who had come from Algiers since the beginning of the battle. A kind of madness seized Amirouche, who is said to have caused the execution of possibly as many as 3,000, women as well as men, in the course of his reign of terror. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 980 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The changeable fortunes of Wilaya 4 have already been recounted, from the time when, during the Battle of Algiers, it had presented a model command to the period when its infection by la bleuite (caught from Amirouche’s Wilaya 3) had almost brought it to its knees in a welter of debilitating purges. The one bright spot for the Wilaya 4 command then had been the adroit fooling of French intelligence by that redoubtable fighting commander, Major Azedine, who, when captured, had persuaded them of his intention to negotiate a surrender on behalf of the Wilaya leaders, and had then decamped, leaving his inquisitors humiliated — and extremely suspicious. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1175 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Abdelhafid Boussouf was born at Milia near Constantine—like Ben Tobbal, with whom he retained a close and enduring friendship—and at thirty-one was the youngest of the Wilaya commanders. He was also the most educated, having qualified before 1954 as a teacher and taken a correspondence course in psychology. A large man with a full face, close-cropped black hair and eyes concealed behind tinted glasses, Boussouf gave an unassuming impression. Yet he was held by his subordinates in considerable awe, had imposed a strong stamp of his own personality on Wilaya 5 and would henceforth assume a central role in the F.L.N. leadership. The Wilaya had been in a state of considerable disorder when he took over, and gradually he had introduced a scrupulously co-ordinated infrastructure, intelligence and signals system that more closely resembled that of the French army itself than of the other Wilayas. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 702 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: La bleuite purges crippled Wilaya 4 even as commanders fooled French intelligence — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1175; French intelligence triggered self-destructive purges within the F.L.N. Wilayas. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 980; Boussouf built Wilaya 5 into the F.L.N.’s most disciplined and militarized sector. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 702

Related

• French intelligence triggered self-destructive purges within the F.L.N. Wilayas. (similarity 0.92)
• La bleuite purges crippled Wilaya 4 even as commanders fooled French intelligence (similarity 0.87)
• Boussouf built Wilaya 5 into the F.L.N.’s most disciplined and militarized sector. (similarity 0.85)
• Wilaya 4 pioneered forms of revolutionary warfare that worried the French command (similarity 0.84)
• French intelligence planted forged documents that triggered murderous internal purges (similarity 0.84)
• Wilaya 4 purged its own students and intellectuals on pretexts of wrong revolutionary stance. (similarity 0.83)
• French disinformation exploiting Algerian internal mistrust triggered murderous self-purges (similarity 0.83)
• A single commander’s purge executed as many as three thousand Algerians (similarity 0.81)
• Interior Wilaya commanders wielded power greater than the exiled G.P.R.A. government. (similarity 0.80)
• The G.P.R.A. liquidated the Wilaya 4 leaders who negotiated with de Gaulle. (similarity 0.79)
• Wilaya commanders used purges to challenge G.P.R.A. political authority (similarity 0.79)
• Interior F.L.N. commanders sought a separate peace that bypassed the G.P.R.A. (similarity 0.79)
• Aurès rebels held a decisive intelligence and mobility edge over French columns (similarity 0.79)
• Interior fighters threatened to break from the G.P.R.A. and negotiate directly with de Gaulle. (similarity 0.79)
• French offensives shattered the F.L.N.’s interior command-and-control network by 1959 (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• French intelligence triggered self-destructive purges within the F.L.N. Wilayas. #exemplifies (0.80) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 980
• La bleuite purges crippled Wilaya 4 even as commanders fooled French intelligence #complicates (0.70) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1175
• Boussouf built Wilaya 5 into the F.L.N.’s most disciplined and militarized sector. #complicates (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 702