Algeria: The CIA Director's enigmatic phone call to the Algerian Army Chief of Staff
The phone call between William Joseph Burns, the head of the all-powerful CIA, and General Saïd Chengriha, Chief of Staff of the Algerian army, was announced in a terse press release posted on the website of the Ministry of National Defence and picked up by all the Algerian media.
At first sight, we are entitled to wonder about the reason(s) for a call from the head of an intelligence service (and what a service it is!) to a military commander. There is indeed an intelligence service in Algeria. The Direction Générale de la Documentation et de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGDSE), whose boss is Major General Djebbar Mehenna, is the most likely to be approached by the CIA.
The least we can say is that Mr William Joseph Burns had a message of great importance to convey to Algeria's senior officials. Well versed in the arcana of Algerian power and knowing that the real boss is none other than the army's Chief of Staff, he made his own the motto that says "it's better to speak directly to the good Lord than to his saints". Otherwise, there is no other explanation for this strange communication between two men who do not know each other and who are not in the same field.
As to what the content of the communication might be, there are several hypotheses to bear in mind.
Firstly, it is worth recalling the visit on Sunday of the US Deputy Under-Secretary of State, Joshua Harris, to Algiers on 3 September, where he was received by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the absence of the Minister who was on a tour of Algeria. At the centre of discussions between the two parties was the Western Sahara issue. An issue that the Americans would like to settle as quickly as possible.
This hypothesis is plausible insofar as it is not lost on informed observers that the current Director of the CIA is a diplomat experienced in the most complex affairs, which he manages to resolve peacefully. It is not out of the question that he could make a contribution to resolving an affair that has gone on for far too long and which, as many diplomats have noted, is being perpetuated by the Algerian regime with the sole aim of distracting public opinion in his country from its poor management of economic and social affairs, plunging Algeria, despite the immense wealth of its subsoil, into incomprehensible poverty. The impoverishment has affected large sections of even the middle class.
Another hypothesis to explain the telephone call from the head of the CIA to the head of the Algerian army is the incident that took place on the Algerian-Moroccan maritime borders, which cost the lives of two young Moroccan yachtsmen in violation of international law. The incident could have sparked off an armed conflict at a time of tension marked by multiple provocations on the Algerian side for the reasons given above.
In any case, the American telephone call was followed a few minutes later by an emergency meeting convened by General Chengriha. The meeting was attended by the heads of the three security corps, the DGSI (internal security), the DGDSE (internal security), the DCSA (army security) and the Gendarmerie Nationale, in addition to the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Defence. A veritable council of war to which the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and Minister of National Defence, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who is also President of the Republic, was not invited. Another oddity.
