Word: morocco
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Jacques Lemaigre-Dubreuil was a leading member of France's financial aristocracy. He was also a devious politician who was pro-Fascist before the war, but later, as a top adviser of General Giraud, helped arrange for the Allied landings in North Africa. In hate-filled Morocco, where his peanut-oil business was based, Lemaigre-Dubreuil believed in a moder ate policy of "evolutionary autonomy" as a matter of hardheaded self-interest...
...afternoon last weekend, Lemaigre flew back to Morocco from a Paris meeting with Premier Edgar Faure. He sat down at a desk and scribbled a note to Faure: "The situation is getting worse...
...Rats. As had no other incident, the murder shocked France into a sense of urgency. Premier Faure was roused from bed at 3 a.m. in Paris to hear the news. Next morning he rushed off to see Lemaigre's widow, then summoned Pierre July. Minister for Tunisia and Morocco, for urgent consultation. Emerging from this meeting, July declared bluntly: "Counter-terrorism . . . once again has dishonored France." He sent France's No. 1 cop, Roger Wybot, to investigate the murder and reorganize Casablanca's police force...
Wybot's mission was official admission of what has long been recognized privately in Morocco-that French counterterrorists are operating with the indulgence and sometimes cooperation of the local French police. Counter-terrorism began about nine months ago soon after the arrival of gentle Francis Lacoste to succeed General Augustin Guillaume as Resident General. To suspicious French colons, Lacoste, after hard-boiled General Guillaume, smelled of negotiation and compromise, and they denounced the national government's policy as "treason." Clandestine French organizations sprang up, calling themselves "The White Hand," and "Agir" (to act). They were manned by hired...
Then came the bombs. The Maroc-Presse was a special target; the managing editor was threatened, the executive editor driven from Morocco by bombings and machine-gun attempts on himself and his family. The counterterrorists operated with the obvious sympathy of diehard colon organizations such as the Présence Française. When one suspected killer eluded police questioning, it was discovered later that he had driven off in a red sports car belonging to a prominent physician and Présence Française leader and had holed up for several weeks at the physician's estate...