Mohamed Mediène

Head of Algerian intelligence

General Mohamed Mediène (الجنرال محمد مدين), also known as Toufik (توفيق), is an Algerian intelligence officer who formerly served as head of the country's secret services, the Intelligence and Security Department (Département du renseignement et de la sécurité, DRS), from 1990 to 2015. He was described as the world's longest serving "intelligence chief" and nicknamed le chakal. He was born in 1939 to a family from Guenzet (Sétif Province), but grew up near Algiers at Saint Eugene (Bologhine). He joined the National Liberation Army in 1961, a few months before Algeria's independence. He was an officer for the NLA.

Shortly after independence, he joined other NLA military members in studying at a KGB school in the Soviet Union. He was then posted to the 2nd military region (around Oran, bordering Morocco), then commanded by future President Chadli Bendjedid, where he established ties with Larbi Belkheir. In 1983, he was posted to Tripoli as military attaché. Soon after returning, he became head of presidential security for Bendjedid. He later became head of army security in the Sécurité Militaire, led at the time by Mohamed Betchine. After Betchine's departure in 1987, Mediene was appointed general and a temporary chief of the intelligence organization. Little is known for certain about le pouvoir, but Mediene has frequently been mentioned as a leading décideur. Arabic has been the official language of Algeria since 1962, but French remains the language of power in Algeria and cabinet meetings are conducted in French, the language of the Algerian elite, who often struggle with Arabic. Preceding this, Ahmed Gaid Salah, the Deputy Minister of Defense, accused the DRS of complacency in failing to prevent the In Amenas hostage crisis. And in September 2013, the DRS was reorganised to bring more of it under state control. In February 2014, the secretary general of Bouteflika's party, the FLN, accused the DRS of infiltrating and destabilizing several political parties. Through the DRS' networks, Mediène was believed to hold significant power in Algeria's media, business lobbies, army, and different political parties. A popular rumor in Algeria that cannot be verified has it that Mediène "always receives people in his office with his back turned if you see his face, this is the last time you see someone in your life." Regardless if this rumor is true or not, the popularity of this rumor says much about Mediène's reputation in Algeria, a man widely viewed as the "Darth Vader" of Algerian politics. Mediène's dismissal was viewed as the culmination of a long "behind the scenes power struggle" with Bouteflika, leaving the latter fully in charge and giving him more power to determine his own successor.