The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency should declassify all files pertaining to the kidnap and "disappearance" of Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka, Human Rights Watch said today.
Moroccan security officials are believed to have masterminded Ben Barka's abduction in Paris in 1965, and are believed to have killed him shortly thereafter. His body was never found.
The failure to identify and punish the principal perpetrators, and the rumored role of foreign intelligence agencies, continue to spark controversy in Morocco.
In response to a 1976 request under the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA acknowledged having 1,846 files pertaining to Ben Barka, but cited national security reasons in refusing to release them. The vast majority of these have remained secret ever since.
Interest in the CIA files was rekindled last year, when a retired Moroccan secret policeman came forward to allege that, during the 1960s, CIA agents were working in the police bureau that carried out the “disappearance” of Ben Barka. The ex-agent, Ahmed Boukhari, repeated this allegation in a published a book in France earlier this month. The U.S. has not commented on this matter.
The current request was submitted jointly by Human Rights Watch and the Institut Ben Barka, a France-based organization dedicated to collecting and preserving documents by and about Mehdi Ben Barka. The request was made under the Freedom of Information Act, a U.S. law intended to ensure public access to government records.
The Human Rights Watch/Institut Ben Barka letter to the CIA could be accessed here.
