Morocco attacks fit terror pattern

Yet, while the Righteous Path and its sister party had not been linked to bin Laden's organization prior to the Casablanca attacks, Al Qaeda's links here were already documented. Moroccan officials, working with the CIA, arrested three Saudi nationals in June, 2002 for plotting to attack NATO vessels in the straits of Gibraltar. The Economist, a national daily newspaper, detailed new Moroccan links In Tuesday's editions, pointing out that leaders had been "schooled" in Afghanistan, along with some 300 other Moroccans, a dozen of whom remain incarcerated at a US detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Those arrests, which included a senior Saudi operative, Mohammed Tabiti, exposed bin Laden's broader plans to disperse Al Qaeda cells and foment terror through local affiliates.

The three Saudis, now imprisoned for life here, told Moroccan interrogators that they escaped Afghanistan, met in the Afghan city of Gardez, and arrived in North Africa on a mission to attack US and British warships in the Strait of Gibraltar, senior Moroccan officials said at the time. The Saudis also claimed to have been with bin Laden in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, as US bombers began their assault there. They insisted that the terror chief dropped out of sight in late November, 2001, but used his closest envoys to direct them to launch new terrorist attacks once they had become established in "familiar areas."

Cells were to operate in the regions of the world that they knew best.

"Terror cells spread out and melded themselves into Islamic organizations and newly formed terror groups," says Charles Heyman, Editor of the London-based Jane's World Armies. "Instead of one Al Qaeda network, you now have 100 mini-Al Qaeda networks operating with a global scope."

Impoverished Islamic countries like Morocco are fertile grounds for Al Qaeda's brand of extremism, say Islamic leaders like Mr. Arsalan. "This new extremism, to be precise, is a reaction," he insists. "Our youth want to leave the country because of the massive unemployment, poverty, and ignorance. When they can't get out, they seek solutions in drugs and even in suicide bombings."

Many suspected members of radical Islamist groups have been arrested in Morocco in recent months, and US officials have praised Rabat's cooperation in exchanging intelligence and actively pursuing individuals believed to be associated with Al Qaeda. But both human rights groups and Islamic networks have a new antiterror law, which they contend gives security forces authority to arrest suspects on paper-thin evidence.

A leading human rights activist, while agreeing that poverty fuels the flames of terror, blames the government for what he says has been its policy to bring Islamic political parties into the mainstream. "These parties are undemocratic by nature," says Mohammed El Boukili. A front-page editorial in Tuesday's Economist newspaper agreed, blasting authorities for surrendering to the demands of Islamists.

The Party of Justice and Development, a leading Islamic party - as well as the largest opposition party - appears poised to make major gains in upcoming local elections scheduled for September. A European diplomat said, however, that Islam is integral to Moroccan politics and can not easily be excluded. He credited the government with trying to integrate religion into the political sphere and combat terror at the same time.

Page: 1 | 2