Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05RABAT1854
2005-09-02 17:33:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Rabat
Cable title:  

UNDERAGE WOULD-BE SUICIDE BOMBER TWINS DISCUSS

Tags:  PGOV PTER MO 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RABAT 001854 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR NEA/MAG, R

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PTER MO
SUBJECT: UNDERAGE WOULD-BE SUICIDE BOMBER TWINS DISCUSS
THEIR DESCENT INTO EXTREMISM

REF: A. RABAT 1809


B. 2004 RABAT 1301

C. 2004 RABAT 2171

(U) This message is sensitive but unclassified. Please
protect accordingly.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RABAT 001854

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR NEA/MAG, R

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PTER MO
SUBJECT: UNDERAGE WOULD-BE SUICIDE BOMBER TWINS DISCUSS
THEIR DESCENT INTO EXTREMISM

REF: A. RABAT 1809


B. 2004 RABAT 1301

C. 2004 RABAT 2171

(U) This message is sensitive but unclassified. Please
protect accordingly.


1. (SBU) In a front-page interview with Pan Arabic daily
Asharq Al Awsat on August 31, the 16-year old would-be
suicide bomber twins that King Mohammed pardoned on the
occasion of the Revolution of the King and People on August
20 (ref A) discussed the factors that led to their descent
into Islamic extremism. The sisters -- Iman and Sana
Laghrissi -- were sentenced to 5-year jail terms in January
2004 on charges they belonged to a Rabat terrorist group and
volunteered to serve as suicide bombers (ref B). Citing
harsh childhood living conditions in which one of the sisters
was raped and exploited as a maid and a profound empathy for
the suffering of Palestinians as motivations, the twins told
Asharq Al Awsat that they began to harbor intense, negative
feelings toward Israeli Defense Forces and the United States.
"The images of Palestinians being killed in Palestine
shocked me," said Sana.


2. (SBU) The 9/11 attacks "pleased" the twins, who followed
with interest Al Jazeera's stories on Usama Bin Ladin and, in
particular, the network's coverage of Bin Ladin's declaration
that America would not enjoy security unless Palestine was
liberated. "I saw (President) George Bush as an enemy and
felt hatred toward America," explained Sana. Acting on this
contempt, Iman twice reportedly called to threaten the U.S.
Embassy in Rabat with the message: "Despite all the security
measures around the Embassy, it will be destroyed, God
willing." At this point, the newspaper indicates, the twins
desired to go to Afghanistan to "undergo military training,"
but did not have the means to make the trip.


3. (SBU) The operational turning point in their free fall
reportedly was an encounter with a man named Abdelkader
Labsir who introduced them to extremist propaganda and the
concept of jihad against the infidels. Some of the materials
they read urged believers to take action against "cruel and
oppressive Arab leaders who do not govern according to
Islamic law," according to Asharq Al Awsat. Exploiting the
sisters' naivete, their religious extremist suitors began to
involve them in the planning of terrorist operations against
the Moroccan parliament and a Rabat supermarket. The twins
also reportedly began distributing terrorist tracts and
pamphlets in the Rabat metro area.


4. (SBU) The sisters told Asharq Al Awsat that images of the
"scattered body parts" of suicide bombers and the sight of
wailing widows following the May 16, 2003 attacks in
Casablanca jolted them and effectively extinguished their
enthusiasm for jihad. The girls ceased distributing their
pamphlets, according to Asharq Al Awsat, and began backing
away from their new terrorist friends, but too late to avoid
arrest by Moroccan security forces for their activities.


5. (SBU) In a related story on August 30, the
English-language Morocco Times website carried an interview
with the twins' mother, Rachida El Charii, who thanked the
King for pardoning her daughters. Illiterate and without a
television, Charii said she did not learn about her
daughters' release until neighbors informed her. Charii,
whose husband reportedly left her when the girls were just
two months old, blamed her daughters' terrorist activities on
a tough life of extreme poverty. She denied having any
knowledge about the terrorist group that lured her daughters,
but said that one day a "bearded man" came to her house and
asked for her daughter's hand in marriage. Charii refused
and did not hear from the man again until it emerged later
that it was he who had recruited her daughters into the
terrorist group.


6. (SBU) COMMENT: The story of the twins' fall into
religious extremism is a tragic one, but the prospect of
their reintegration into society following the King's amnesty
offers hope. The central role that images of injustices
against Palestinians played in framing the sisters'
anti-American views is a common theme among Moroccan young
people. The dramatic impact that the Casablanca bombings of
May 16, 2003 had on changing the young girls' opinions of
terrorism also echoes other reports and our own focus group
interviews in 2004 (ref C). END COMMENT.
RILEY