Foro de Inteligencia, Espionaje y Servicios Secretos

The Moroccan Terror Connection
By OLIVIER GUITTA (Middle East Times)
Published: December 08, 2008
TERROR BEYOND MOROCCO -- The first major terror operations outside of Morocco where Moroccans were involved were the Madrid Mar. 11, 2004 attacks that killed 191 people. The photo shows an exploded train at a Madrid station after a bomb attack from an al-Qaida linked Moroccan group on that day. (DPP photo via Newscom)
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WASHINGTON -- Until recently Morocco was more likely to be associated with tourism, rather than terrorism. That trend however is slowly changing.

That change began on May 16, 2003 when Morocco suffered its first experience at the hands of Islamist terrorism. That day, Casablanca was hit with four simultaneous terror attacks that left 45 people dead and hundreds injured. Al-Qaida style attacks were perpetrated by Moroccan citizens belonging to the GICM (Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, known by its French acronym), a group affiliated with Osama bin Laden's organization.

Needless to say that the kingdom was stunned that its sons had turned violently against it. Since then numerous - over 30 - local Islamist cells have been dismantled by Moroccan security forces that have tackled the problem head-on. Most of the cells have been linked to terrorist networks specializing in recruitment of volunteers for al-Qaida in Iraq, some of whom cooperate with individuals based in France and Belgium. Also the Mezwak mosque in Tetouan, where over a dozen young men were recruited to commit suicide attacks against coalition forces in Iraq, has become quite infamous. The Saudi-owned daily Asharq al-Awsat called it " the highway for suicide bombers to Iraq." Unsurprisingly, among foreigners, Moroccans are second in the number of jihadists in Iraq right after the Saudi contingent.

But that is not all: Moroccans living abroad are more and more showing up in Islamist terror groups. In fact Moroccans have been involved in terror operations from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Spain, from Holland to Belgium.

The first major terror operations outside of Morocco where Moroccans were involved was the Madrid Mar. 11, 2004 attacks that killed 191. Interestingly, some of the alleged perpetrators of these attacks were attending the Tetouan mosque. On Dec. 5, a Moroccan court sentenced Hisham Ahmidan to 10 years in prison for his role in the Madrid attacks.

Then in November 2004, Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan gruesomely murdered Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam.

In Feb. 2008 one of the largest Islamist networks in Morocco was dismantled. Called after its leader the Belliraj network had planned to hit multiple targets inside the kingdom; 35 people were arrested then, most of them had connections to Belgium. Unsurprisingly, on Nov. 27 Belgium arrested another 11 people linked to the Belliraj network on an international arrest warrant issued by Morocco. Six of them are Moroccans, one of them had a rocket launcher in his home.

Then moving on to Italy. Italian security forces said on Nov. 18 that they placed under investigation 11 activists of the Moroccan Islamist association al-Adl Wal Ihssane. These individuals are suspected of terrorist activities disguised as charitable activity. This Islamist movement, banned in Morocco, has a strong presence in Europe, where it has several branches, particularly in France, Spain and Italy. Then on Dec. 2, Italian police announced the arrest of another two Moroccan nationals: Rashid Ilhami, a 31-year-old preacher and Ghafir Abdel Kader, 42. They are accused of "international terrorism."

According to Italian prosecutors, the two suspects were planning suicide attacks against two barracks, one of the army and another of the Carabinieri (a paramilitary unit) on the outskirts of Milan. The two alleged terrorists had first thought to go to Iraq or Afghanistan before realizing they could launch a jihadist operation on Italian soil.

These examples show a worrisome pattern. Moroccan authorities, however are not sitting idle and have very much stepped up its cooperation with European countries and in particular with Spain. This really took place after the Mar. 11 terror attacks in Madrid.

In July 2004, Moroccan authorities told Spanish anti-terror judge Baltazar Garzon that they knew of 600 Moroccan nationals who had trained in al -Qaida camps but had lost track of 400 of them. According to Garzon: "Morocco is the worst terrorist threat for Europe." He estimated that the al Qaida-linked cells number over 100 and that at least 1,000 terrorists are actively sought by Moroccan authorities. In light of this, the two countries have to push aside their differences and cooperate.

Interestingly, the collaboration between the two police is not limited to a simple exchange of information but they also work and coordinate sometimes for weeks to dismantle a cell.

In Nov. 2006, Spanish defense minister José Antonio Alonso revealed that the CNI (Spanish intelligence) and the Direction Générale des Etudes et de la Documentation (Moroccan intelligence services, known by the acronym DGED) had created a special unit to exchange information in real time. The results of this cooperation have been so far excellent and have resulted in the foiling of numerous plots and dismantling of several terror cells.

Morocco is also trying to defuse these "time bombs" located in Europe. In fact, Salafist ideology has made inroads within the Moroccan community in Europe. So Morocco is sending vetted religious clerics to some European countries. These imams have the heavy task to de-radicalize young Moroccans or to prevent them from being radicalized.

Moroccan authorities do not want to have this terrorism image associated with their country. And that is why they are doing their utmost possible to change this. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of other countries.

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Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a foreign affairs and counterterrorism consultant, is the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com).