Tebboune: The military OK for a second term

He had obtained the long-awaited green light from the military during a conclave held at the army circle of Beni-Messous, on the heights of Algiers, on the evening of July 5, at the end of the ceremony celebrating the 64th anniversary of independence.  

A lot of speculation has circulated about the next presidential election set for next September 7th. If the masters of the game remain immovable and unshakable, it is the name of the tenant of the presidential palace of El-Mouradia who was at the centre of the discussions. There was no argument for a second automatic mandate for the current tenant of the palace. Even if he seemed to benefit from the favours of the current chief of staff of the army, General Said Chengriha, Tebboune was in the sights of the secret services that General Tewfik directs in the shadows, since his release from prison on January 3, 2021, after eight months of detention in the military prison of Blida.  

The plot piloted by General Mehenna Djebbar, the boss of the General Directorate of Documentation and External Security (DGSE) had burst into the open by the shattering statements of Colonel Boualem Bennacer, an executive of the DGDSE assigned to Alicante as consul, at the military court of Blida where he was called to testify against one of his colleagues, Colonel Tarek Amirat.

The plot is confirmed by the dismissal of the boss of the police Farid Bencheikh who had managed to recover and hand over to President Tebboune the smartphone of the so-called Said Bensdira alias "the London rat" which contained innumerable proofs of the conspiracy against President Tebboune. The latter remains imperturbable and acts as if nothing has happened. On the contrary, he eliminates his defenders, Farid Bencheikh, the boss of the police, and Colonel Boualem Bennaceur alias Hamza, today in prison. And as paradoxical as it may seem, he strengthens the ranks of his opponents. He will go as far as to entrust them with the General Directorate of Internal Security, by validating the appointment of General Abdelkader Haddad, alias Nacer El-Djen, proposed by Djebbar Mehenna, whose bloodthirsty past does not cease to pursue him. By sinking into their arms, Tebboune proved loyalty and loyalty to them by assuring them that they will not find a better than him to ensure the sustainability of their system. Therefore, there is no reason for the various military clans to compete to find the most docile candidate. 

Abdelmadjid Tebboune, whose videos showing him crawling on all fours in front of the late Abdelaziz Bouteflika or being scolded by ex-prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal, continue to circulate on the web, is the man best suited to serve a system that stops at nothing to persist at the head of a state in full disintegration. 

This decay was revealed in the open, on July 4th at the people's palace. As tradition dictates, the celebration of the independence anniversary is marked by the promotion of general officers and senior army officers. This year, the graduation ceremony took precedence over all other "Independence Day" commemoration activities. The eight public television channels as well as many private channels provided live coverage of the ceremony from the People's Palace.  

This ceremony was marked, for connoisseurs of the arcana of the Algerian military institution, by scandalous promotions which some officers took advantage of. The most striking is the promotion of Colonel Mohamed Ramdania to the rank of general. This officer is the first soldier to have shot and killed a civilian during a control barrage in Reghaïa, a suburb about thirty kilometres east of Algiers.   

Mohamed Ramdania had just taken his first steps under the flags. He was an active officer student in the first year at the School of Surveillance and Air Defence of the Territory (ESDAT). It was the beginning of the Civil War. The officer cadets are mobilized, in the evening, to erect roadblocks on the roads leading to Algiers. Mohamed Ramdania, originally from Taoura, a small village in the Souk-Ahras department on the Algerian-Tunisian border, was one of them. One evening in February 1992, while he was in a checkpoint, he gave the order to the driver of a truck to extinguish the lights of his vehicle. The driver, an elderly man of advanced age, had not understood the signals of the service member. The young officer cadet Mohamed Ramdania, in two steps two movements three movements, places a bullet from his Simonov, between the two eyes of the driver. He will never regret his gesture. His classmates, always remember these words pronounced just after his forfeiture. "I would finish general-major, chief of staff of the army and if necessary, I would walk on the corpses of all the inhabitants of Reghaïa" he launched.  

32 years later, Mohamed Ramdania is promoted to the rank of general. Two years before him, it was Colonel Abdelkader Haddad, alias Nacer El-Djen, who had benefited from the same promotion. According to his relatives, he does not know the number of Algerians he had killed with his own hands. He "liquidated" as his former colleague Sergeant Houari says, ten to twenty people a day.  

During this ceremony, Army General Said Chengriha is decorated with the medal of bravery. He, too, appears on the shelves of criminals who killed innocent Algerians during the red decade of the civil war. According to Habib Souaïdia, author of the book "The Dirty war" published by La Découverte editions in 2001), the current chief of Staff of the Algerian army had executed in cold blood a family father, in the town of Lakhdaria (60 km east of Algiers), came to question him about the reasons for the search of his house in the middle of the night. "Perhaps it was this crime that allowed him to decorate his chest with a bravery medal," comments a retired officer.  

It is good to emphasize that the army General Said Chengriha that his opponents recall that he is the most mediocre soldier in the history of the armies of the world for having vegetated for 18 years in a single rank and spent 14 years in the same position considered as punishment. Under the reign of Tebboune, whom he manages as he sees fit, Said Chengriha, in four years has benefited from two promotions. In July 2020, he moved from major general to lieutenant general. Two years later, in 2022, he was promoted to army general and in 2024, for lack of a higher rank, he was decorated with the medal of bravery. All that remains for him is the Order of national merit which the late Ahmed Gaïd Salah had been decorated with, in December 2019, during the investiture ceremony of Tebboune at the head of the Algerian state. This title is promised to Chengriha. The cord that is normally only intended for presidents of the republic will be passed around his neck on the day of Tebboune's inauguration for the second term. In addition to this distinction, Chengriha will be appointed Minister of State for national defence. Thus, the most mediocre military man on earth will end up at the highest rank of the Algerian army and at the rank of Minister of State for defence. Enough to flatter his ego, he who has suffered for a long time from multiple psychic complexes. Moreover, one more year, he maintains the gap between the ranks of major general and army general by refusing to open the rank of lieutenant general to the many applicants who vegetate in the guard of major general.  

Tebboune dribbles his "political supporters" and announces his candidacy

A second mandate for Tebboune is, today, acquired and the election is only a simple formality to be completed. Moreover, the fact of stopping a single date for a single round is significant in many ways. The games are done. No one dares to denounce the electoral fraud announced long before the election took place. Not even Tebboune's "competitors" who will serve as hares in an electoral joust that has lost its charm long before kick-off.  

Moreover, Tebboune, whose candidacy was to be announced by political formations in charge of playing the supporting roles in a parody of bad taste, had fun to dribble them to announce his candidacy solo. An unprecedented scenario has been set up by the shadow decision-makers. While the FLN and the RND, two political formations used to playing the role of supporting the military candidate, were supposed to hold a meeting on July 13 at the headquarters of the RND to ask Tebboune to run for a second term, it was a public service journalist who was assigned this role in a broadcast edited at the last minute who will speak on behalf of all Algerians to ask if Tebboune would "grant the wish of all these witnesses of the great achievements that Algeria has known under his leadership". Suddenly, exit the microscopic Islamist party of Bengrina and the other Front of the Future of a regular of the hare races in the presidential elections. Ditto for the FLN and the RND, the eternal political supporters of the army candidates. This time, the military does not need phony political support at all. Tebboune will be reappointed for a second term, no offense to the submissive people who are busy waiting in long queues for a can of oil, a litre of milk, a bag of semolina or a cistern of water. So goes to the Algeria of gas and oil. For the Algerian people's right to self-determination, which passes through the freedom to elect the President of the Republic and the National Assembly in full democracy, it would be necessary to go back in five years. And again!