An Algerian sleeper cell run by foreign provocateurs that involved a network of agents and a propagandist working on YouTube has been busted in France.
The disturbing revelations make one wonder how many such cells might be on American soil.
The French Secret Service busted a number of sleeper cell agents between October 30 and November 6. They acted on behalf of the Algerian Secret Service. The sleeper cell was put in place evidently to prep attacks against Algerian political opponents and journalists.
“Among those arrested was a YouTuber known for his outrageous and immoral behavior and his repeated defamation of countless people whom he generally did not know. He is Saïd Bensdira, known by the pseudonym “London Rat.” With him is his campaigner, Amira Houa, and Mohamed Aït-Aftis, known as Djahid to some and Carlos to others,” Atalayar reported.
Dismantling of an Algerian secret service network in France – Atalayar EN https://t.co/zRT12SX7Im
— The Algiers Herald (@AlgiersHerald) November 21, 2023
“The latter is an old acquaintance of the French secret services, having been involved in the attempted kidnapping and assassination of an Algerian journalist based in France. It was an operation that failed miserably, given the clumsiness and amateurism of the man who led him into the clutches of the French police,” the outlet added.
The “London Rat” evidently thought he was safe from prosecution because he was supported by the Algerian Secret Service and because he hid behind a pseudonym. He was a media liaison for them. Karim Amellal, the French ambassador of Algerian origin and inter-ministerial delegate for the Mediterranean, eventually brought him down.
“Karim Amellal, thanks to his position in the French administration, was able to obtain from the British authorities the address of this Hurluberlu, as well as his affiliation. The legal machinery was then set in motion in both the UK and France against this specialist in public defamation and blackmail,” Atalayar noted.
When he was outed, the “London Rat” fled Britain for Spain and France. The latter was his downfall.
Atalayar explained how Bensdira tripped up:
He soon came to the attention of the French Directorate General of Internal Security, which has already set its sights on his accomplice Mohamed Aït Aftis, an Algerian travelling on a British passport. Aftis, believing himself to be protected by the Algerian services after believing his murder case against an Algerian journalist to be closed, has made a series of blunders that have attracted the attention of the French security services.
The London troublemaker and his accomplice eventually fell into the DGSI’s net, taking with them Amira Houa, who presented herself as the personal representative of General Djebbar Mehenna. Only Lotfi Nezzar, son of retired General Khaled Nezzar, who was in Algiers, escaped arrest. But he will soon be arrested with the re-launching of the judicial investigation into the attempted murder of an Algerian journalist, in which he is widely implicated. As is a certain Kaci Ghilas, an accomplice of Mohamed Aït-Aftis in the operation against an Algerian journalist.
Also of note is an Algerian psychiatrist who reportedly supplied psychotropic drugs to the network and a businessman who allegedly financed the group. The French authorities want a word with them.
“The network is directed from Algiers by General Hamid Oubelaïd, alias Hocine Boulahia, head of the department in charge of operations against the Algerian political opposition abroad. His relationship with Mohamed Aït-Aftis is demonstrated by the traceability of their exchanges of messages on the signal application, as recorded in the minutes of the latter’s hearing,” Atalayar asserted.
The media reported, “After just over 48 hours in police custody, from 30 October to 2 November, the detainees were released under judicial supervision. A measure that ‘the London rat’ did not respect when he left French territory just after his release.”
“But in another case, whose investigation has just been concluded by the Nanterre judicial police, an international arrest warrant will take him out of his hole and send him to another from which he will not emerge for many years, given the seriousness of the charges against him,” Atalayar contended.
This is not the first sleeper cell to come out of Algeria.
The terrorist who advocates on terrorism in Moroccan soil, the Algerian terrorist Said Bensdira with his video urging for such terror acts, we await British authorities reaction.#بنسديرة_ارهابي #bensedira_Terrorist#Terrorist_living_in_Britain pic.twitter.com/AocSaxDwae
— Adil El Ouazzani (@AdilElOuazzani6) January 20, 2022
“This crackdown by the French counter-espionage services is the third failure of the DGDSE chief’s troops, now known as the ‘nickel feet’ of espionage. Not only is General Djebbar a novice when it comes to foreign intelligence gathering, having spent most of his career in army security, but even his closest colleagues, brought in from army security, have the same profile as him,” Atalayar wrote.
“Hence the multiple failures in the various operations carried out, starting with the planned assassination of five political opponents in France, through the attempt to create a separatist movement in the Moroccan Rif, to the very recent one aimed at damaging the Algerian opposition by various means,” the outlet concluded.