To hard-bitten French air force intelligence officers in North Africa it was the perfect chance to score a coup that might shorten Algeria's long and bloody war. Sultan Mohammed V of Morocco, with the unofficial blessing of Socialist Guy Mollet's government, had invited top Algerian rebel chieftains from their Cairo headquarters to Rabat to talk peace terms with him. Then they would fly to Tunis for discussions with moderate Tunisian Premier Habib Bourguiba. A daring plan occurred to the officers: Why not kidnap the Algerian rebels' high command in midair?
Two difficulties occurred to them. It would not do to kidnap His Majesty the Sultan. And the whole thing should be cleared with somebody in Paris. The somebody in Paris turned out to be hawk-nosed Socialist Max Lejeune, Secretary of State for the armed forces and close friend of Algeria's tough Minister Resident Lacoste, opponent of a liberal line in Algeria. Lejeune cautiously hinted of the operation to Premier Mollet, who had promised the Sultan and Bourguiba that the rebels would enjoy immunity. Mollet snapped: "Definitely not."
The Trick. Notwithstanding, Lejeune gave the go-ahead to the intelligence officers. He apparently counted on the French Cabinet's current impatience with the Sultan. After all, when the Sultan's 28-year-old son had discussed with Mollet the possibility of talking to the Algerian rebels, Mollet had agreed as long as it was done unspectacularly. Instead the Sultan had welcomed the rebel leaders to his palace, had been photographed with them and had issued a joint communique.
The Sultan's indiscretion played right into the plotters' hands. The Sultan's French advisers persuaded him that the French, already miffed, would be even more hurt if the rebels flew with him to Tunis in his private Super-Constellation. The Sultan saw the point. At the airport he explained his delicate problem to the rebel leaders, then took off without them.
A few minutes later the Algerians (accompanied by nine newsmen) took off in a chartered DC-3 of Air Atlas, Moroccan-operated but staffed with French crews. Unsuspecting, Mohammed ben Bella, the Algerian military chief (who won the Croix de guerre as a sergeant in World War II), settled down to study papers. Mohammed Khider, the underground's political chief, scanned Paris-Match.