General Mehenna sets up a TV channel in Paris to prepare for the 2024 presidential election in Algeria
Although the army remains the sole decision-maker in the choice of who will occupy the El-Mouradia palace, trampling on the sovereignty of the people, the fact remains that certain senior officers, aware of the vulnerability and instability of the military institution, are seeking to take the initiative so as not to be left out in the cold from one day to the next.
We remember how General-Major Wacini Bouazza, installed at the head of the internal security services by the late Gaïd Salah, then Deputy Minister of National Defense and Army Chief of Staff, betrayed his godfather at the start of the election campaign by playing the card of the Minister of Communication, Azzedine Mihoubi, whom he propelled to the head of the candidates for the supreme magistracy in the December 2019 elections. He almost succeeded, were it not for Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaïd Salah's insistence on nominating Abdelmajid Tebboune for the presidency of the republic.
When the head of internal security announced to the old soldier in the early hours of December 13, 2019, that Azzedine Mihoubi had won the election, he was instructed to declare Abdelmajid Tebboune president, whatever the outcome of an election boycotted by the vast majority of the Algerian people.
As a result, Tebboune has been at the helm of the country since December 19, while the officer who tried to oust him in order to place his foal is now behind bars in Blida military prison, serving a 16-year sentence and downgraded to the rank of simple trooper.
Five years later, the Wacini Bouazza scenario is likely to be repeated by the head of External Security, this time General Major Djebbar Mehenna, who has already spent a short 11-month stint (from October 2019 to July 2020) in Blida military prison for illicit enrichment.
According to a well-informed source, General Djebbar Mehenna, Director General of External Security (DGDSE), has just commissioned one of the media relays active in social networks to create a TV channel in anticipation of the December 2024 presidential election. The channel's aim is to dress up as the opposition, targeting President Tebboune, his advisor Boualem Boualem and police chief Farid Bencheikh.
A way of blocking the way to a second term for the current tenant of the El-Mouradia palace, and paving the way for a foal chosen by General Mehenna and his clan.
Speaking of clans, it's obvious that the head of external security is not acting alone. Retired generals Mohamed Mediène alias Tewfik (former head of the secret services from 1990 to 2015) and Khaled Nezzar (former Minister of National Defense from 1990 to 1993) were instrumental in getting him out of prison and back on the scene as a member of the High Security Council.
He owes a great deal to these two men, whose orders he obediently carried out during the civil war. Two men who have no love for Abdelmajid Tebboune, whose godfather is none other than their sworn enemy the late Gaïd Salah. He had thrown one of them into prison and the other forced to flee with a 20-year prison sentence in absentia hanging over his head.
The role of these two men, in particular General Tewfik, cannot be ruled out. His compatriot Khaled Nezzar, very ill and physically diminished, is handing over the reins to his son Lotfi, who is involved in serious corruption and money-laundering. In fact, it was he who was responsible for finding the henchman who would give substance to the TV channel project.
A henchman with no experience whatsoever in the world of the press. Even less in the audiovisual field. All his experience is limited to a stint with an Algerian Arabic-language newspaper, where he received readers' letters and took charge of the matrimonial ads section. With no roots in the press to build up a team of journalists and technicians, it would be impossible for him to satisfy his mentors.
His only asset is his opportunism and his servility to whoever offers him the most. Paradoxical as it may seem, he enjoys political refugee status in Great Britain, but he is known for his obedience to the powers that be, in particular the secret services, of which he is one of the most insolent media relays. His favorite targets are the Algerian opposition abroad, using unscrupulous lies, and Morocco.
Is General Chengriha involved?
If Generals Tewfik and Nezzar are standing behind General Djebbar for the reasons given above, could General Saïd Chengriha, the army's Chief of Staff and the regime's strongman, know about and agree to the creation of a TV channel in Paris to block Tebboun's path to a second term in office? It's hard to believe. Saïd Chengriha doesn't need all this fuss to get rid of Tebboune.
All he has to do is tell him to leave the table, and the president will comply. He knows full well that he's just a man in the hands of the military. He has no strength to oppose the will of the generals who made him what he is today. Even if his real mentor was alive a week after his investiture, he owes his presidential mandate to the army generals, and in particular to Gaïd Salah's successor.
If the army chief of staff isn't on board, it's safe to say that General Djebbar is repeating the scenario of Wacini Bouazza, who at the time relied on the An-nahar TV channel of Mohamed Megueddem alias Anis Rahmani. We now know what happened to the two men. One has been sentenced to 16 years in Blida military prison, while the other has been sentenced to 10 years in El-Menia penitentiary, 700 km south of Algiers.
Financial hostages forced and coerced
To carry out the project, General Djebbar did not need to dig deep into his pocket, even though he had amassed a large fortune during the civil war. It is well known that Djebbar Mehenna used to extort money from businessmen in his native Kabylia and in and around Blida, where he had been in charge of the main investigation and research center during the civil war.
A center where detainees were only released after payment of a ransom. He also operated as a pimp in Blida's largest hotel, which he had transformed into a large brothel for prostitutes who offered their charms to the many officers of this garrison town, headquarters of the 1st Military Region and home to numerous barracks, including the Ecole de Formation des Officiers de Réserve (EFOR).
His protectors and associates, too, are not putting their hands in their pockets for the creation of a TV channel from which they expect to make a great profit. Just as he did in 2014, when he was Central Director of Military Security, with the ATLAS channel in Algiers. While the owner of this channel, a young businessman by the name of Hichem Bouallouche, had absolutely no connection with the world of politics and wanted to turn his TV channel into an entertainment channel, he found himself in deep trouble since a close relative of General Mehenna put his foot in the political stirrup.
On the instructions of the army's security chief, the channel put itself at the service of 2014 presidential candidate Ali Benflis. The result: the channel's owner was the only one to suffer the wrath of Bouteflika, who won the election, and found himself an asylum seeker in Italy, his channel's premises under seal, and his brothers banned from leaving the country and sentenced to prison terms. Long before his dismissal from the army, General Djebbar Mehenna was of no help to Hichem Bouallouche.
For his second experience in the world of heavy media, with a view to helping a foal chosen by him and his clan win the presidential election, General Djebbar Mehenna forced a number of businessmen to prepare the first pot of money, amounting to one million euros, which was recently handed over to the man who was to carry out the project.
The project is being supervised by officers loyal to the head of external security, including Colonel Souaï Zerguine, alias Mouadh. Also on board are officers Bachir and Ahlmed Touati, alias Houari l'oranais, who hails from Kabylia.
These officers handed over five flash disks containing compromising recordings of President Tebboune's children, notably Zohra and Khaled, and the children of his advisors Boualem Boualem, Skander and Noureddine.
To increase the size of the kitty, General Djebbar's men arrested a businessman in Oran, owner of the Eden hotels in western Algeria, and extracted the sum of 200,000 euros from him. This is how a chain is financed that will promise Algerians better days with a new puppet president from General Djebbar and his henchmen.
