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Bouteflika by Mohamed Benchicou

I've found Mohamed Benchicou's book "Bouteflika une Imposture Algerienne" floating on the net and available for download (click here to access pdf). I feel a little guilty for posting it here, bearing in mind authors' rights. I bought the book and it is doubtless a very important document on Algerian history, on Algeria's present even, which is why I thought I'd share this link, because not everyone can afford it and it is a vital read. Rare are the books on Bouteflika, he is a shadowy figure and I believe it took some guts to publish, bearing in mind Benchicou spent two years in prison.

Mohamed Benchicou is an Algerian journalist, formerly director of the newspaper Le Matin, which he founded in 1991 (and before that he was the director of the paper Alger Republicain). Benchicou was famously arrested on false grounds in 2003 and imprisonned for two years from 2004 to 2006 and Le Matin was closed.

In 2004, he published his book 'Bouteflika, an Algerian imposture' (translated literally, although having read the book I would translate it as 'Bouteflika, an imposture made in Algeria').

I hope you download it, or better if you can, buy it. Most importantly, read it.

It is written with much indignation, anger even, Benchicou confesses to that in the first few pages of his prologue. But he never loses his track, he is presenting facts, information collected on Bouteflika from and by several sources, foreign governments (France, the USA, Tunisia, Morocco, the UAE), the Algerian government, individuals closely linked to Bouteflika and his government, from autobiographies of former army generals, etc. This is a piece of investigative journalism, I would venture to say, written as objectively and plainly as an investigation should, despite his rightful outrage.

It is a fascinating read. An eye opener of sort (how wide can an eye go I wonder) as it is another piece of the puzzle on Algerian modern history.

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