The Guardian: Cold War Files Suggest Mehdi Ben Barka Was a Spy

Rabat – New research into Soviet satellite archives has revealed that Mehdi Ben Barka, the famous Moroccan socialist leader, might have been a spy, the Guardian has reported.

According to the report, previously classified files have revealed that Ben Barka had ties with the Státní Bezpečnost (StB), the Czechoslovak security service.

Possibilities of a link between the two were first raised fifteen years ago, although not many paid attention to the reports at the time.

Suspicious intelligence services

This time, Dr Jan Koura, assistant professor at Charles University in Prague, gained access to the whole declassified files and was also able to cross-reference them with thousands of other recently released documents.

“Ben Barka is often depicted as a fighter against colonial interests and for the third world, but the documents reveal a very different picture: a man who was playing many sides, who knew a lot and knew too that information was very valuable in the cold war,” the Guardian quoted Dr Koura as saying.

“There is no doubt about [the Czech connection]. All the documents confirm it,” he added.

The late Moroccan dissident’s family has denied the controversial findings, saying that Ben Barka was not involved in espionage and did not have close ties to any state.

The files in question suggest that Ben Barka’s relationship with Czech intelligence began in 1960, with Prague’s spies hoping that the iconic Moroccan socialist leader would be able to provide intelligence about political developments in Morocco and the Arab region.

The StB’s documents reported that Ben Barka was a source of “valuable” information and put him as a major figure in the anti-imperialist movement, alongside people like Malcolm X, Che Guevara, and Nelson Mandela.

The documents also report that he was paid for his services by the intelligence agency in exchange for reports about Morocco.

In addition, the declassified information reports on tensions that Ben Barka had with the organization, over suspicions that he might have been involved with other cold war players.

According to these documents, the Moroccan independence leader also engaged in operations in Iraq and Cairo to obtain information on their politics and leaders.

They also report that while he maintained a positive relationship with the StB, Ben Barka’s association with other states made him the subject of suspicions from various global powers.

The declassified papers did not shed any new light on the activist’s motives, however.

Idealism and pragmatism

Reporting on the bombshell documents, the Guardian’s Jason Burke noted that defenders of Ben Barka have long rejected suggestions that the Moroccan socialist might have been a spy.

They maintain that while Ben Barka’s analyses might have been useful to the StB, they do not qualify him as a spy or agent, and that such a role would have been incompatible with his dedication to protect the global south from foreign interference.

Bachir Ben Barka, who lives in France, is quoted by the Guardian report as saying that any relations his father might have harbored with international actors was just a necessary part in the global struggle against imperialism and colonial exploitation.

He also pointed out that the documents obtained by Koura came from an intelligence service and could therefore have been edited to shine a negative light on his father’s Cold War connections and activities.

Koura, for his part, remains skeptical as to whether Ben Barka’s activism was purely motivated by his fight for third-worldist idealism. He says that he does not condemn the Moroccan activist, but that there was both “pragmatism and idealism.”

Ben Barka mysteriously disappeared in Paris in 1965. His fate remains the subject of speculation, as various intelligence services including the Moroccan secret services, CIA, Mossad, and French intelligence have all been blamed for his abduction and death.