French intelligence triggered self-destructive purges within the F.L.N. Wilayas.

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

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: how counterintelligence uses a movement’s own paranoia as a self-destruct weapon—a brutal twist on conquering by division.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s stated goal on colonial resistance being fought from within and without. — connects to: French intelligence ran a months-long fake-radio coup against Wilaya 5.; French intelligence planted forged documents that triggered murderous internal purges; French disinformation exploiting Algerian internal mistrust triggered murderous self-purges — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 807 (+3 more)

Related

• French intelligence ran a months-long fake-radio coup against Wilaya 5. (similarity 0.92)
• French intelligence planted forged documents that triggered murderous internal purges (similarity 0.90)
• French disinformation exploiting Algerian internal mistrust triggered murderous self-purges (similarity 0.89)
• Wilaya 4 purged its own students and intellectuals on pretexts of wrong revolutionary stance. (similarity 0.87)
• La bleuite purges crippled Wilaya 4 even as commanders fooled French intelligence (similarity 0.84)
• A single commander’s purge executed as many as three thousand Algerians (similarity 0.83)
• Wilaya 4 pioneered forms of revolutionary warfare that worried the French command (similarity 0.82)
• Interior F.L.N. commanders sought a separate peace that bypassed the G.P.R.A. (similarity 0.81)
• The G.P.R.A. liquidated the Wilaya 4 leaders who negotiated with de Gaulle. (similarity 0.81)
• Wilaya commanders used purges to challenge G.P.R.A. political authority (similarity 0.80)
• Interior Wilaya commanders wielded power greater than the exiled G.P.R.A. government. (similarity 0.80)
• Counter-insurgency decapitated Algeria’s educated elite just as independence required them (similarity 0.79)
• Guerrilla warfare made French suppression of the insurgency fail (similarity 0.79)
• Rebel guerrilla tactics eroded the French army’s moral terror over its enemies (similarity 0.78)
• Interior fighters threatened to break from the G.P.R.A. and negotiate directly with de Gaulle. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• La bleuite purges crippled Wilaya 4 even as commanders fooled French intelligence #corroborates (0.90) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1175
• Wilaya 4 purged its own students and intellectuals on pretexts of wrong revolutionary stance. #expands (0.70) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 981
• Post-independence leadership rivalries turned lethal within the F.L.N. #complicates (0.50)