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Georges Watin
Georges Watin (10 May 1923 – 19 February 1994), nicknamed la Boîteuse [the feminine version of "The Limper"], was an Algerian-born French agricultural manager and militant activist of the counter-revolutionary ''Organisation armée secrète''. He was involved in torture, murder, bombings and assassination attempts, including against French president Charles de Gaulle. His plans and actions were a major inspiration for events depicted in Frederick Forsyth's début novel, ''The Day of the Jackal'', in which he called Watin "The most dangerous man in the room". Biography He was born in Aïn Defla ("Duperré" to French colonists), where his father was an army colonel. He gained the nickname ''la Boîteuse'' because of a pronounced limp from a childhood accident. A landowner, he studied agronomy and managed an agricultural property in Arib ("Littré" to colonialists), on the Mitidja plain. He violently opposed the movement towards independence for Algeria and expressed such views as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organisation Armée Secrète
The ''Organisation armée secrète'' (OAS, "Secret Army Organisation") was a far-right dissident French paramilitary and terrorist organisation during the Algerian War, founded in 1961 by Raoul Salan, Pierre Lagaillarde and Jean-Jacques Susini. The OAS carried out several terrorist attacks, including tortures, bombings and assassinations, all resulting in over 2,000 deaths in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence from French colonial rule. Its motto was ' ("Algeria is French and so will remain"). The OAS was formed from existing networks, calling themselves "counter-terrorists", "self-defence groups", or "resistance", which had carried out attacks on the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) and their perceived supporters since early in the war. It was officially formed in Francoist Spain, in Madrid in January 1961, as a response by some French politicians and French military officers to the 8 January 1961 referendum on self-determination concerning Algeria, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
