All in the name of democracy and freedom.In October 1947, the conservative mayor of Marseilles hiked public transit fares, sparking outrage among downtrodden workers. The report says the Government’s acceptance of US diplomatic assurances failed to protect human rights as obligated under the law. French traffickers smuggled nearly five tonnes of pure heroin into America that year, according to the bureau. Antoine et Barthélémy Guérini : les parrains du Milieu marseillais     D'origine corse, les frères Guérini dominèrent pendant plus de vingt ans le Milieu marseillais. ‘But you look at vast numbers of other countries in Europe, they’re not with France and Germany. The communist ‘menace’ of the former Soviet Union has been replaced by the so-called ‘war on terror.’.In this new era, though, the agency no longer commands the dominant position it once did. With their political connections at home, the Guerini brothers’ had literally found a safe harbour. In 1929, Lovestone and the Lovestonites, as his minions came to be known, severed ties with Moscow following an ideological dispute the previous year. By mid-April the dockworkers strike had been broken.Due to their strong-armed support of the strikebreakers, the Guerinis’ political fortunes improved immediately. The German charges preceded by about a week those issued in Italy against more than two dozen CIA operatives for the alleged abduction of Hasan Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from Milan in February 2003. The suspects in both the beatings and shootings were political allies of the mayor, members of the Corsican gangs that ruled the Marseilles underworld.Brothers Antoine and Barthélemy Guerini, Marseilles leading Corsican gangsters, were arrested for the shootings, but within days charges were dropped, after police witnesses inexplicable recanted testimony. The four-year programme, named after then-US Secretary of State George Marshall, is credited with leading the way for economic recovery in much of postwar Western Europe.A few months later, US President Harry S Truman made another decision that would have lasting impact. He signed the National Security Act of 1947, creating the CIA.In the autumn of 1947, the nascent intelligence agency would set a course of action that would be repeated dozens of times in years to come. Mémé quant à lui s'en… That same year, the United States belatedly bankrolled a crackdown on Turkish opium production.By then, however, other Corsican traffickers had begun to shift their interests to Southeast Asia, where US troops, coincidentally, had replaced French forces. But for the far-flung enterprise to succeed, it needed a well-established wholesale buyer.Honouring a request by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the state of New York in 1946 granted Salvatore C. ‘Lucky’ Luciano an early parole under the condition that he be deported to Sicily. Une suite de vendettas s'est enchaînée. L'aîné Antoine et son frère Barthélémy dit Mémé, devinrent de puissants gangsters dans les années 1930 et dominèrent le Milieu marseillais de la Libération , de 1945 jusqu'en 1967, date de l'assassinat d'Antoine. En 1921, âgé de 13 ans, il sera le premier membre de la famille à quitter la Corse pour aller vivre sur le … Barthélemy Guérini dit Mémé (1908-1982) est le frère d'Antoine Guérini. In July 1947, fearing that Western European governments would fall under the influence of Soviet communism, the United States implemented a multi-billion-dollar foreign aid package – the European Recovery Plan – more commonly known as the Marshall Plan. Gunfire wounded several demonstrators, killing one. Murders carried out. Marseille, Janvier 1969. Fueled by the frustrations of postwar poverty, a Socialist-Communist coalition mounted a boycott of the city’s trams. The Italian trial is scheduled to begin in June. Over the next decades, the two men would use their respective positions in the international labor movement to clandestinely manipulate trade unions throughout the world.For his part, Lovestone had perfect credentials: he helped found the Communist Party in the US. Munich prosecutors are basing their case on evidence provided by authorities in Spain, Italy and the European Union. Brown, the CIA’s European labor asset, used some of the money to furnish Corsican strongman Pierre Ferri-Pisani with Italian strikebreakers. To counter the 1947 general strike in France, he devised a strategy of splitting the left by pitting the socialists and communist against each other. With the waterfront now under its domination, the Guerinis and other Corsican outfits found themselves free to pursue their most profitable venture – heroin trafficking. Fils du bûcheron Félix Guérini, Barthélémy dit Mémé est membre d'une fratrie de huit enfants (six garçons et deux filles). After Brown installed Leon Jouhaux, a French socialist as its leader, the union broke with the communist-led CGT federation. Not surprisingly, the CIA would also play a prominent part there, too. Jusqu'à la guerre, ils ne cesseront de monter en puissance, possédant deux bars et une bonne dizaine de,Mémé aurait fait partie des dirigeants du réseau clandestin «,C'est à partir de cette époque que Mémé commence à s'éloigner du Milieu, préférant fréquenter le grand monde. In 1973, press accounts alleged that Air America, the CIA’s proprietary airline, had participated in heroin smuggling in connection to the agency’s secret war in Laos.In modern day Europe, 60 years after the fall of Nazi Germany, the Cold War is a fading memory, but the CIA continues its misdeeds on the continent. Meanwhile, Marseilles’ unions went on strike, which pushed the Confédération Génerale du Travail (CGT), France’s leftist labor affiliation, to follow suit nationwide. Some activities are apparently conducted in plain sight, more overt than covert. Un jeune Corse au sang chaud Fils du bûcheron Félix Guérini, Barthélémy dit Mémé est membre d'une fratrie de huit enfants (six garçons et deux filles). According to the charges, Aero employees transported el-Masri to Egypt and Omar to Afghanistan, where they were allegedly tortured.A report approved by the European parliament in mid-February accused the governments of Ireland, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland and other European Union states of permitting the CIA flights to operate within their borders. Moreover, in the eyes of Washington policy wonks, the French labor strife smacked of Soviet subversion. To stem the perceived red tide, the CIA called upon two leaders of the American labor movement to act in its behalf.The CIA’s chief labor assets were Jay Lovestone of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and his top lieutenant Irving Brown. Brothers Antoine and Barthélemy Guerini, Marseilles leading Corsican gangsters, were arrested for the shootings, but within days charges were dropped, after police witnesses inexplicable recanted testimony. During his incarcertion, the ONI conducted extensive interviews with the notorious Mafia chief. Italy, Germany and other European Union states are now demanding respect for their individual sovereignty and adherence to the rule of law. … They’re with the US. In both cases crew members of Aero Contractors, a CIA-connected company based in North Carolina, are named as participants. The accused may, nevertheless, be tried in absentia, setting the stage for a spectacle that would further damage America’s tarnished reputation abroad.When it comes to ‘Old Europe,’ the US may have better served its geo-political interests if it had chosen to honour its elders.Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Only the names and faces of the enemy have changed. En 1921, âgé de 13 ans, il sera le premier membre de la famille à quitter la Corse pour aller vivre sur le continent, sans même savoir parler français, ni lire ou écrire. Base on a 12-month investigation, the report found that Ireland allowed 147 CIA flights to use Irish airports. I think that’s old Europe.’.The comment led to a diplomatic war of words and pointed to the growing rift between America and its longstanding allies. Il est actuellement sénateur et conseiller départemental des Bouches-du-Rhône pour le canton de Marseille-2. I don’t. When American union dollars dried up, Brown tapped the CIA for funding.Losing little time, the agency funneled an estimated $1 million into the French Socialist Party, allowing it leadership to orchestrate a successful campaign against the strikers. With his criminal partner Meyer Lansky acting as a liaison, Luciano provided leads that, according to the Navy, helped secure New York harbor and also prepare the allies for the invasion of Sicily.After he arrived in postwar Sicily, Luciano’s innate entrepreneurial spirit led him into the narcotics trade. La fratrie Guérini (ou Guerrini) est une famille corse originaire de Calenzana, composée des frères et sœurs Antoine, Barthélémy, François, Pascal, Pierre, Lucien, Toussainte et Restitude. De 1945 à … Politicians would be bought. Lansky again acted as the Mafia don’s emininence grise, hashing out an agreement in 1951 soon after the CIA had crowned the Guerini brothers overlords of Marseilles’ waterfront. Décoré de guerre pour fait de Résistance, Barthélemy Guérini sera condamné à vingt ans de prison en 1969 pour meurtre. Despite this, the US is not expected to approve the extradition of the CIA agents wanted for kidnapping. Depuis le meurtre d'Antoine Guérini, véritable "parrain" à Marseille, ses frères ont voulu le venger. The CIA’s arranged marriage of Marseilles’ Socialists and the Corsican underworld endured for the next 25 years.In 1950, the CIA sealed the bond by calling on Marseilles’ Socialists and their Corsican enforcers to once more do its bidding. His long association with Local 22 of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union provided further cover. In Northern Ireland, for instance, the three-member Independent Monitoring Commission, which oversees demilitarisation of loyalist and republican factions, includes Richard J. Kerr, a retired deputy director of the CIA. Il adhère au Parti socialiste en 1967. Overwhelmed by the reaction, the CGT called off the strike on Dec. 9. The CGT endorsed the boycott a month later and the shutdown quickly spread to other sectors of French industry.To crush the labor stoppage, the CIA channeled $2 million through the US government’s Office of Policy Coordination. Il est membre du bureau national du Parti socialiste. Once refined, heroin shipments often traveled a circuitous sea route, entering the US either through Cuba or Canada. As a result, the latter official purged communist sympathisers from the ranks of law enforcement and then sanctioned savage police attacks on the picket lines.More importantly, the CIA helped forge a lasting alliance between the Marseilles Socialist Party and the city’s Corsican gangsters. At its zenith in 1965, the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics estimated that Corsican syndicates operated as many as 24 heroin-processing plants in or around Marseilles. L'histoire de cette famille rejoint celle du milieu marseillais. Elections thrown. Their closing of the port of Marseilles threatened to derail the Marshall Plan. Ce dernier prête les caves de ses différents établissements pour cacher des juifs, mais se débrouille pour tout de même faire des affaires avec l'occupant. CIA largesse bought cooperation of politicians such as Marseilles Socialist Gaston Defferre and Socialist Interior Minister Jules Moch. Le clan Guérini a régné sur la pègre marseillaise du lendemain de la guerre jusqu'en 1967. In January of that year, Marseilles’ dockworkers, the vanguard of French labor, ordered a selective boycott of American military cargoes bound for the French colonial war in Indochina. With money and arms supplied by CIA operatives, the Corsicans harassed communist union officials, and assaulted and murdered rank-and-file unionists. By 1944, Lovestone had shucked his communist ties altogether and moved up the bureaucratic ladder to head the AFL’s rabidly anti-communist Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC), the organization’s international arm.Marching in lockstep with Lovestone’s political reversal, Brown moved the FTUC in the same direction in Europe. That afternoon Communist city councilmen were attacked at a city council meeting. Political tensions escalated for the next month, culminating in the events of November 12, when mass protests erupted. Vexed by Germany and France’s opposition to United States plans to invade Iraq, Rumsfeld labeled the two nations as ‘Old Europe.’,‘Germany has been a problem and France has been a problem,’ Rumsfeld told Washington’s foreign press corps. Former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld set the stage for the conflict in January 2003. The kidnappings are part of a covert CIA programme of ‘extraordinary renditions’ in which terrorist suspects are illegally nabbed and flown to undisclosed locations for interrogations. Despite his espionage background, the involvement of a former top American spy doesn’t seem to raise any eyebrows in Dublin or Belfast.Overall, however, the CIA’s current involvement in internal European affairs pales in comparison to the Cold War era.The defeat of Nazi Germany by allied forces in 1945 set the stage for a power struggle between victors, with Britain and the US on one side and the Soviet Union on the other. To further US foreign policy objectives, the CIA would employ various proxies, including criminals, to infiltrate and ultimately subvert political parties, labor unions and other organizations. The administration of George W Bush now finds itself politically eviscerated, mired by escalating violence in Iraq and weakened diplomatically elsewhere abroad.In ‘Old Europe,’ opposition to US foreign policy has moved from words to action.German prosecutors in Munich issued arrest warrants in February for 13 Central Intelligence Agency agents for the alleged kidnapping of Khaled el-Masri, a Lebanese-born German citizen. L'arrivée des troupes allemandes perturbe grandement les activités du Milieu, et les différents protagonistes doivent opter soit pour la collaboration, soit pour la résistance. (Dessin de Calvi),Droit d'auteur : les textes des articles sont disponibles sous.Auteurs de l'article « Barthélemy Guérini » . Fils du bûcheron Félix Guérini, Barthélémy dit,Au début des années 1930 Antoine s'est fait un véritable nom dans le Milieu marseillais et propose alors à son frère de s'associer avec lui. Antoine Guérini (né en 1902 à Calenzana en Corse et mort le 23 juin 1967 à Marseille) était un gangster français actif des années 1940 au milieu des années 1960, associé principalement à son frère Barthélemy Guérini dit « Mémé ». Il organise régulièrement des banquets et des réceptions qui réunissent des personnalités de la politique, des affaires et du,Procès de Barthélémy, Pascal et François Guérini. Having first aided Marseilles Socialist Gaston Defferre during the resistance movement, the two brothers had now established a secure footing in his postwar municipal government. He swiftly cornered the market by diverting legally produced heroin, manufactured by Shiapareilli, an Italian pharmaceutical company, to the United States. En 1977, il est élu conseiller municip… Ancien maire du 2e secteur de Marseille et président du conseil général des Bouches-du-Rhône, il se présente sans succès aux élections municipales de 2008 à Marseille face à Jean-Claude Gaudin. Lansky, the American mob’s financial wizard, then went to Switzerland to set up untraceable bank accounts through which to launder the drug proceeds.The French connection, at least the Guerinis control over it, fell apart in 1967, when a gang war claimed the life of Antoine and led to the imprisonment of Barthélemy. In addition, European investigators concluded that nine CIA kidnap victims passed through Ireland on their way to so-called ‘black sites,’ where torture was allegedly used to gain information. Millions of workers walked off the job in industries throughout France.Marseilles’ dockworkers represented the most militant of the strikers. Across the breath of Europe there has been an undeniable shift in public perception and political power. Dans le cas des frères Guérini, c'est la résistance qui l'emporte à fortiori, même si les témoignages sont contradictoires, surtout en ce qui concerne Antoine. The unusual clemency was based on his supposed wartime cooperation. When that scheme collapsed, Luciano turned to the Corsican syndicates in Marseilles, including the Guerini brothers. Coups engineered. In the evening, the violence spread. As a consequence, US heroin addiction skyrocketed.The French connection relied on a steady supply of raw materials: opium from Turkey and morphine from Lebanon. Mayor Defferre and the local Socialist Party would employ Guerini bodyguards and campaign workers for the next 17 years.The CIA nurtured partnership also wrought unintended financial benefits for the Marseilles underworld. With the cooperation of Lovestone, Brown used money diverted from the US garment workers to set up Force Ouvrière, a non-communist union in France. Within months of breaking the dockworkers strike, the port of Marseilles began manufacturing and exporting large quantities of heroin to the United States, according to the Politics of Heroin by Alfred W. McCoy. It also criticised Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern for withholding some information to the committee investigating the CIA flights.As evidenced by the indictments and EU report, the CIA continues to operate in much of Europe. You’re thinking of Europe as Germany and France. Three years and hundreds of billions of dollars later, mounting domestic opposition to the war in Iraq forced Rumsfeld to resign under pressure.