Algerian leader spars with security chiefs

ALGIERS, Algeria, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is locked in a power struggle with his main intelligence service after it moved against some of his key political allies in an anti-corruption campaign on Jan. 12.

Within days of launching the high-profile crackdown on graft, the Department du Renseignement et de la Securite placed Mohammed Meziane, chief executive of the state-owned oil giant Sonatrach, under judicial investigation along with several of his management team.

But political insiders believe that the real target of the DRS is Bouteflika, the 71-year-old veteran of the 1954-62 independence war against France who is serving his third term as president.

They believe that the Intelligence and Security Service wants to clip his wings and restore the power of the military by picking off Bouteflika's closest allies and tarnishing his administration.

One of the most trusted of these is Energy Minister Chakib Khelil. He appointed Meziane several years ago and had taken him under his wing.

Meziane is the most senior Algerian official in years to be caught up in a corruption scandal. A former Sonatrach executive called the investigation into Meziane's affairs "an earthquake."

According to African Intelligence.com., a Paris-based Web site that specializes in intelligence affairs, one of Sonatrach's vice presidents, Chawki Rahal, is also in the DRS cross hairs.

Rahal is related to Abdellatif Rahal, Bouteflika's diplomatic adviser.

In a separate corruption investigation launched in December, the DRS targeted another Bouteflika crony, Transport Minister Amar Ghoul.

Khelil crossed swords with the Intelligence and Security Department, which is attached to the Ministry of Defense, in 2007.

One of his close associates, Abdeklmoumen Ould Kaddour, was arrested for spying. Kaddour headed Brown & Root Condor, an engineering joint venture between Sonatrach and KBR of the United States.

Sonatrach wields immense influence in Algeria, a key member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and controlling it carries considerable political power.

The company, which employs some 120,000 people, plays a vital role in Algeria's energy industry, the North African state's economic mainstay. It accounts for 98 percent of Algeria's foreign currency receipts.

The DRS actions have caused political shockwaves in the Algerian capital at a time when Bouteflika's health has been reported to be poor.

The president was first elected in April 1999, with the backing of the generals who were the true power in Algeria at that time.

But he has struggled to sideline the military and reduce its powers since then and brought the civil war to an end.

The military had dominated the regime since the early 1990s and plunged the former French colony into a decade of civil war when it scrapped parliamentary elections in 1992 that Islamists were set to win.

Some 200,000 people perished in the conflict in which the Islamists were crushed. A few hundred diehards, now aligned with al-Qaida, continue to cause trouble. But the government is in no danger of falling.

Bouteflika's third term expires in 2014, and he has not indicated whether he plans to run again.

The president recently lost one of his closest and most senior advisers, retired Gen. Larbi Belkheir, who died Jan. 29 at age 72.

Belkheir was Algeria's kingmaker for decades, and his death has left a vacuum at the heart of the country's complex and opaque political system that could figure in the intelligence service's perceived feud with Bouteflika.

DRS Director Mohammed "Tewfik" Mediene has been crossing swords with Bouteflika for years. The president has sought to clip Mediene's wings and overhaul the security services to act as a counterweight against the military.

In recent weeks, the DRS has retaliated against the president by launching the anti-graft campaign -- a tactic that in other Arab states usually precedes sweeping governmental changes -- and whipped up street protests and strikes against the government.