Moroccan authorities are conducting an aggressive country-wide campaign against Shi’a ideology. Over the weekend, a number of individuals, all Moroccan citizens, suspected to be Shi’a adherents have been arrested and “soft” interrogated; their homes were searched and documents believed to be Shi’a propaganda were confiscated. The authorities are trying to determine if these individuals have affiliations with the Iranian intelligence security elements.
Morocco’s Investigations should cover those who had known associations with Saddam’s Iraqi Intelligence Services (IIS) as well. Much like Baghdad’s museums in the power vacuum that resulted from the U.S. invasion in 2003, media sources reported that Iraqi Mukhabarat offices were looted; large quantities of documents went missing from the IIS Special Operations (14th) Directorate in Salman Pak, south of Baghdad. It is believed that Iranian intelligence operatives were able to whisk the documents into Iran. The intelligence documents consisted of reports on and from sources of the IIS in Arab countries. I am speculating that Iran is blackmailing those sources and using them to fulfill its own agenda. The use by the Iranian intelligence of the Iraqi school in Rabat as a shiite propaganda platform indicates how far reaching their operations are.
The Moroccan government’s actions to counter the dissentious Iranian threat are commendable. I hope the Moroccan internal security service has a proactive counterintelligence plan to address the issue that is not limited to reactive and cursory investigations.
A. T. B. Copyright © 2009
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Seems that security officials ill informed paranoia is propagating..
I wasn’t sure that I understood your text (I still working on my english
) but from Moul’s comment, it seems that I was right.
…and propagating really fast…
if I understand correctly you are condoning and encouraging the stigmatization and even police interrogation of Moroccan citizens solely on the basis of their faith or religious adherence? I must admit I am extremely surprised by your position given the usual focus of this blog on the importance of democracy and human rights. Books are being seized in libraries, schools are being closed, sectarian hatred is being peddled by the media, and you find this commendable?
I could almost have given you the benefit of the doubt, but the fact that you insinuate a link between the Moroccan shia community (if it is even that significant) and both the Iraqi IIS and Iranian services shifts the debate from plausible and valid political considerations to an extremely close-minded sectarian reading and analysis of events which honestly is quite disappointing…
the current fear campaign, largely based on paranoia and face-saving political maneuvers is not only to be condemned based on principle alone but, even if you were right and the threat did exist, from a strategic perspective as well. Sweeping so largely is quite amateurish from the point of counterintelligence and actually ends up eliminating the chance to gather any valuable information or evidence as well…