The French state secretly armed irregulars to bomb pro-O.A.S. cafés

Evidence

A clue to its identity might have been gained from a rash of anti-O.A.S. posters that had appeared overnight throughout Algiers, to the surprise of its inhabitants, and bearing the initials M.P.C. The Mouvement pour la Communauté had been launched earlier in the year to boost de Gaulle’s Algerian policy, receiving substantial funds from Morin’s Délégation-Générale for its activities. Though its function was essentially political, with the growing ascendance of the O.A.S. its secretary-general in Algiers, a former radio producer called Lucien Bitterlin, decided that something more than words was now called for. He began gathering around him a group of strong-arm men. Bitterlin claims he did not demur when a colonel in Military Security branch supplied him with weapons, explosives and permits to move about during the curfew, and asked him to “plastiquer several activist cafés in Algiers” — in itself an extraordinary revelation of the state of anarchy and lawlessness already prevailing in the cities of Algeria. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1496

Categorization

• QUESTION: How could a state fighting the F.L.N. to keep Algeria French supply bombs to blow up pied noir cafés? This contradiction of near-civil-war is worth chasing.
• XREF: Connects to the French Revolution theme — the state violently repressing sections of its own loyal population echoes Terror dynamics. — connects to: F.L.N. targeted killings aimed to sever European-Muslim contact and spread mutual suspicion — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 420; French agents staged their own side’s bombings to win the F.L.N.’s trust — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 806

Related

• French agents staged their own side’s bombings to win the F.L.N.’s trust (similarity 0.82)
• The F.L.N. physically extended its Algerian terror and fundraising methods to metropolitan France. (similarity 0.79)
• F.L.N. terrorism backfired against France more than against Algeria itself (similarity 0.78)
• The F.L.N. moved its terrorism into metropolitan France in summer 1958 (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• French agents staged their own side’s bombings to win the F.L.N.’s trust #expands (0.55) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 806
• F.L.N. targeted killings aimed to sever European-Muslim contact and spread mutual suspicion #complicates (0.45) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 420