Specialized Administrative Sections
The Specialized Administrative Sections, or, was a French civil-military program operating in French Algeria from 1955 to 1962.
About
The SAS was created in 1955 by the Governor-General of Algeria Jacques Soustelle to provide a hearts and minds program to provide rural Algerian villagers with practical help and provide a visible French presence thus improving their daily lives while simultaneously protecting them. Several hundred small volunteer teams led by Arabic speaking junior officers with local knowledge. The well funded SAS program covered public health, education, building, agricultural assistance and justice administration It also provided local counter-insurgency intelligence and security forces liaison. The officers were known by their headgear as "kepis bleus" and were men serving in remote areas and were protected by a handful of local Moghazni auxiliaries. Their popularity made them targets with the FLN.General tasks of the leaders of these sections was published in a presidential decree by the French President Charles de Gaulle No. 019-59 dated September 2, 1959.