Citations
From the memoirs of Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud
Men die and some of them leave in silence while others are surrounded by noise and polish, But after a little time, the powders melt away from those faces that were polished and decorated by falseness to become pale and pale as if they were burned out by not the desert sun, but by the fire that don’t leaves nothing.
History is made by men, and for this reason, history does not forget the deeds of men, no matter how much some ones try to hide them and even remove them, and despite all these attempts, the pages of history are not erased and its memory is not forgotten and does not become forgotten.
Memoirs of Algerian Mujahid and Diplomat Rabah Mechhoud, Part 1, page 6
Military history professors have intentionally or unintentionally neglected to mention the role of Israeli intelligence in the Arab-Israeli wars in their writings, focusing instead on military superiority in general and aviation in particular. However, those who carry out reconnaissance and guidance operations are not exposed to this, Therefore, it is everyone’s duty to reveal the truth as it is, in order to benefit from the positives and avoid the negatives…
The Israeli spy network carried out its mission and provided the Zionist leadership with the accurate military and political information necessary before the battle.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 3 page 48
I went to my house and stayed there until the car picked me up and drove me to the airport. When I arrived and the plane landed, the protocol was that the diplomatic and military escorts stand in front of the door of the hall of honor until the president comes out of the hall of honor and shakes hands with him, then the diplomatic escort walks to the president’s right and the military escort to his left.
President Houari Boumediene came and shook my hand while looking at me with a smile, then he shook hands with the military escort and we walked towards the airplane
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 4 page 26
I was one of the members of the Al Zaytouna Association of Algerian Students in Tunis, and I was also in charge of the secret organisation in Tunisia, and I point out that this association was ostensibly a cultural association, but in fact it was a front for the Algerian national movement.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 1 page 15
History does not favour anyone, regardless of how much it is obscured or distorted. In modern history, intimidation may play an important role in obscuring the truth, because the people being talked about may be powerful and influential, making it difficult to tell the truth about what they have done and exposing those who do tell the truth to dire consequences.
To be honest and for the record, the majority of militants, i.e. the overwhelming force of militants in all over the Algerian country, were supporters of the party’s leader ‘Messali Hajj, who was the first to speak the word of independence, before the independence of Algeria, he was even accused of madness
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 1 page 16
The next day, Colonel Fathi al-Deeb, who was then a captain, not a colonel, and was a well-known Egyptian intelligence officer in charge of the Algerian revolution.
I testify that he was loyal to the Algerian revolution, and Mr Ben Bella said to me in a state of confusion “One of the Egyptian brothers will come and you will sit with him alone and he will ask you questions and see how you answer them”.
I was, of course, very young at the time.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 1 page 36
While I was in my office at the embassy, the new acting ambassador of the Iranian embassy called me on the phone and told me that his country’s foreign minister, who was visiting the UAE, wanted to meet me at the guest palace. I told him: ‘Foreign Minister Qotb Zadeh is a guest of the UAE, and I cannot visit him unless he requests it and it is arranged through the protocol department or the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.’ About an hour later, the same person called me back and said: ‘We have informed the officials in the UAE of the Minister’s wish.’ About half an hour later, I received a phone call from the Director of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is of Syrian origin and the son of “Fawaz al-Adm”, the former President of Syria. He became Director of Protocol and enjoys Emirati nationality. He told me, word for word: ‘We have informed the Iranian Foreign Minister that he wishes to meet with you,’ and he set a time for me to meet with the minister.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 4 page 212
days, the right Mr. Ben Bella came to me at night with the two mentioned persons, and he was very eager to meet me, so I moved away with him from those two persons, when he said to me: “Brother, I am Ben Bella.” I said: “I do not know Ben Bella, so either you have something to prove it or else tell me the secret word, and as for your friend who came with you, he came to me yesterday and claimed to me that he is Ben Bella.”
Mr. Ben Bella looked confused, so he asked me: “Did you say anything to him?” I said: “No, I did not say anything to him.” Then he went out and showed me an Egyptian passport with the name “Maziani Massoud” as Mr. Ben Bella was carrying this nickname, which was the password that I had taken from Algeria, and indeed I found the name “Maziani Massoud” written on his passport, and there I knew that he was the actual “Ahmed Ben Bella” because the martyr “Zigoud Yousef had told me that the password was for the holder of an Egyptian passport with the name “Maziani Massoud” written on it.
As for the secret word that confirms that I am the emissary of the hero “Zigoud Youssef and makes Ben Bella trust me, it is the word “Region II, Second Element No. 2222” Here, each of us made sure that we were with the right person.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 1 page 31-32
As for the type of shoes – God forbid – they had inverted soles, which made the footprints appear upside down in order to camouflage those who were cutting the jar, as they say, or cutting the footprints during the day, because the sand retains the footprints… I disguised myself in those clothes and left Tunisia with a man named ‘Daw Shalouf,’ who had been sentenced to death and had escaped from prison.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 1 page 27
As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Ben Boulaïd, may God have mercy on him, tasked me with maintaining unity among students in Tunisia. He had met me while passing through Libya before the revolution, and at the time I did not know whether he was passing through Libya or returning from it. I was also tasked by Zighoud Youssef, may God have mercy on him, with purchasing some weapons and ammunition before the revolution, which I sent to specific locations as I mentioned earlier. When
the revolution broke out, I was the first Zaytouni student to take up arms and participate in preparing for the revolution.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 1 page 20
On 9 August, I was assigned the task of smuggling weapons from abroad. I left Algeria on that day for Tunisia, and since that day I have not seen my family members, as after the attacks of 20 August 1955, France took revenge and exterminated many families in the region. The forces of the French General ‘Paul Ausaris’, one of the thugs of French colonialism during the Liberation Revolution, killed in one moment the members of my family, young and old, and our house was completely destroyed and no trace of it remained, after the colonial army carried out prolonged air raids followed by strong artillery strikes on the village where I lived called ‘El Kef of the municipality of ‘El Harouch’, Province of Skikda, knowing that I was considered dead to the French colonialists, as my name was included in the list of deaths in the civil status records of the French administration at the time.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 1 page 50
Some people believe that diplomatic work consists of parties, soirées, wine, hard currency, luxury and so on, but in reality diplomatic work is suffering, sleepless nights, fatigue, gathering information, reviewing and extrapolating the information that diplomats are able to obtain. The diplomat is the eye that sees, the ear that hears, and the mind that thinks for his country. He is the shining or ugly image of his country, Their work reflects on their country and homeland, and my diplomatic experience has made me strongly reject the lies that claim that those who do not drink alcohol cannot represent their country… How can we believe that someone who has no mind or whose thinking and mind have been affected by alcohol can distinguish between good and bad, as they say, since the two are opposites that can never coexist?
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: 5 page 54
I dedicate this part of my memoirs:
To Dr. Fadel Abbas.
To those who risked their future and that of their children to help me gain access to highly confidential information.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘5’ page 5
In Italy specifically, there are about 15 or 20 Arab embassies, in addition to the Palestine Liberation Organisation office, while there is only one embassy for the Zionist entity. However, there is a big difference between the large numbers of diplomats and those who are merely pretending to be diplomats. There are those who work and those who pretend to work but want to be praised for what they have not done. Thus, there are those who work, those who do not work, and those who do not want to work.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘5’ page 56
God Almighty has honoured me by allowing me to take part in that battle in March 1968, which took place in the Jordan Valley at the Karameh camp, God Almighty also honoured me by allowing me to fire upon the aggressor Jewish occupiers, and to witness and be part of that battle from start to finish, and to climb onto the tanks that had been Broken down and hit; so I climbed onto them and took some photographs of that.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘4’ page 224
I confess in all honesty and sincerity to my dear readers that my aim in what I have written and continue to write is to tell the whole, unvarnished truth, and that painful memories come flooding back to me as I write, I find myself in a sea of information, some of which I have mentioned, whilst other parts have left me torn as to whether to record them, omit them, or at least postpone them, for there are matters that my honour, my chivalry and my Islamic faith forbid me from addressing, and yet, when I write, I imagine a large, spacious dock, yet one that is still overcrowded with those jostling within it, and before them a large sign bearing black letters stating: ‘These are the ones who committed crimes, betrayed and deceived, and failed in their duties, and lined their pockets with ill-gotten gains plundered from the wealth of the Arab Muslim nation, and removed the right man from the right place, and elevated the agents of colonialism and brokers to the highest positions.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘3’ page 100
I made arrangements with a friend of mine, Mr. “Al-Nemer Bel Kacem ” may God have mercy on him, who was in fact him who encouraged me to attend the “Abdelhamid Ben Badis” Institute. We agreed to move together to Tunis to continue our studies, so we set out from the city of “Skikda” to the city of “Annaba,” and from there we boarded a bus called “Al-Jazairiya,” heading to Tunis. This happened on a day when a demonstration had broken out in the “Bab Bhar” area in front of the British Consulate, in protest against the British authorities’ refusal to allow the leader “Habib Bourguiba” to enter British territory. From there, we went to a hostel in “Souk al-Nahhas,” where we stayed and met some students. We tried to enroll that year, but at that time there was a food poisoning incident at one of the schools—specifically at a school called “Al-Badisiya”—which led to a school strike, forcing us to return to Algeria. My brother “Bel Kacem Al-Nemer” in the city of “Annaba,” where he went on to the city of ‘Constantine’ and I went home. I was then tasked by the National Movement for establishing a national organization or national cells in “Ain Oum El Rkha,” which is now called “Bel-Rahhal.” This was alongside the martyr “Mokhtar Bel-Rahhal”—after whom that district is currently named—as well as “Mohamed Ben Shaaban,” who was known at the time as “Bou Maiza.”
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘1’ page 11-12
Recording the history and details of the Algerian Revolution is a matter of great importance and that is difficult, but it must be addressed with complete candour, because the testimonies that the Ministry of Mujahideen began to collect came far too late: because the very few of the first mujahideen are still alive , for the most part, lost their memories, This makes the task difficult, and it is made even more so by the presence of pseudo-mujahideen and self-proclaimed revolutionaries who have taken centre stage, giving their testimonies and flooding history with distortions and lies. Consequently, the challenge will fall upon those who lead and those who write history, as they must undertake a difficult process of sifting through testimonies from these pseudo-mujahideen—who, regrettably, were welcomed with open arms and became revolutionaries—because only a very small number of the true mujahideen and revolutionaries remain alive, although we have deliberately delayed discussing history, however, we can still make amends where possible.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘1’ page 86 -87
Before President Houari Boumediene left, when I met him, he looked at me, smiled and said, ‘Don’t you know Morocco?’ because he knew I had never been to Morocco and didn’t know the country, and because of the attack launched by Morocco against Algeria in 1963, I was still in the Algerian National Army at the time, and I saw what I saw; that is why I did not wish to visit Morocco. So I asked permission to stay on for a few days after the conference had ended, to visit and see some Moroccan cities, foremost among them the city of ‘Fes’.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘4’ page 70
I was instructed to travel to Cairo in late October 1955 so that the Algerian revolutionary delegation, comprising Messrs Mohamed Khider and Ahmed Ben Bella, could present me to the Arab League and the Egyptian intelligence services as proof and confirmation that they had contacts within Algeria.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘1’ page 59
In Cairo, I was asked to give a speech at a gathering organised by the Palestinian Students’ Association to mark the anniversary of the ill-fated ‘Balfour Declaration’; there I met the Association’s General Secretary, Mr Yasser Arafat, as well as Messrs Khalil al-Wazir, Salah Khalaf and other members who went on to form the ‘Fatah Organisation’ .
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘1’ page 59
I heard that there was a group of detainees in an underground cell, beneath the headquarters of the Second Province. They were ‘Al-Shadli bin Jadid’, Rabah Bel-Ousif, may God have mercy on him, Qaid Ahmed, may God have mercy on him, Atayliya , al-Hachimi Hajras and others. They were in a very miserable state, having been placed in an underground cellar of a French prison, where they had remained for about a month. We did indeed go down into that cellar and found there al-Shadli bin Jadid, Bel-Ousif, ‘Qaid Ahmad’, ‘Atayliya’ and ‘Al-Hachimi Hajras’ and others. We rescued them and set them free; they were in a wretched state and in a terrible condition. How hideous, how abhorrent, and how repugnant it is for brothers to fight amongst themselves.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘1’ page 79 & 80
The Libyans regarded the November 1954 revolution as their own; they believed in it with complete sincerity and devotion. The role played by the Libyans in supporting the Algerian revolution was significant, and they devoted themselves to supporting the Algerians, whether by helping to smuggle weapons into Algeria or by collecting donations. Moreover, the Libyans acted as a support group for the Algerian Revolution; indeed, they regarded the Algerian Revolution as their own. God Almighty guided them to the Algerian Revolution, and their faith in the Algerian cause was profound and unparalleled. Only God knows the extent of what Libya offered to Algeria during the liberation revolution.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘1’ page 65
As I stood at the entrance to the hall before the meeting began, and just as I was about to go in, I caught sight of someone hurrying out of the lift. He quickened his pace when he saw me, came over and embraced me. Many of the delegation members looked on in surprise as he greeted me warmly, as though he were meeting a brother he had not seen for many years, meeting him for the very first time . Who, I wonder, was this person?
He was the martyr ‘Khalil al-Wazir’ (Abu Jihad), who had come on a brief visit to the city of ‘Baghdad’. He said to me: ‘I have an appointment now with the late martyr President ‘Saddam Hussein’, and after I return I shall try to meet you, even if only for a few moments.’
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘5’ page 225
The ceremony came to an end and our Iraqi brothers were overjoyed; they came up to me to thank me, so I said to them: The brave Iraqi army is our army, and I had the honour of entering the Iraqi Military College in Al-Rustamiya and receiving military training there, which I am proud of. In addition to this, I undertook and completed my university studies at the University of Baghdad, where I obtained a Bachelor’s degree – a Bachelor’s degree – in the History of Arabic Literature, under the name ‘Abdul-Sattar Mahmoud Ali’. This name accompanied me and I accompanied it to such an extent that I forgot my real name was ‘Rabah Mechhoud’, which was on file with the intelligence services and agencies of the French occupation, who believed that I had been martyred or killed in 1956.”
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘5’ page 119
My discovery of a experienced Jewish spy
Then I said to him in Hebrew: “Shalom…?” I noticed he was a little flustered, though he tried to hide it, and he said: “What do you mean by that? I don’t understand…” So I said to him: “ ‘You understood me perfectly well, because I don’t for a moment believe you’re that stupid,’ and I put down the piece of paper I’d found… I asked him what the symbols meant, and he said: ‘He didn’t write those symbols; they seem to be the remains of some letters that ended up among the luggage as a result of the move and the long journey.’
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘3’ page 153
On the morning of 21 April 1965, the Iraqi military attaché, Captain Zakaria al-Samarrai, called out to me, so I said to him: “May God bless you and keep you strong.” He replied: “Were it not for God’s mercy, I would not be speaking to you now to tell you that I have a gift for you, the books you wish to read.” By ‘books’, he meant information. I replied, “We shall meet in two days (that is, in ten minutes).” I then met my friend, whose face was beaming with joy.
Memoirs of the Algerian mujahid and diplomat Rabah Mechhoud Part: ‘2’ page 73