Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07CASABLANCA64
2007-04-04 10:05:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Casablanca
Cable title:  

MOROCCANS UNEASY THREE WEEKS AFTER BOMBING

Tags:  MO PGOV PINR PREL 
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DE RUEHCL #0064/01 0941005
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 041005Z APR 07
FM AMCONSUL CASABLANCA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7665
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 2880
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 0765
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0265
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 3714
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 2244
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 7928
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 2006
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0541
C O N F I D E N T I A L CASABLANCA 000064 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/MAG, INR/NESA/NAP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/07/2015
TAGS: MO PGOV PINR PREL
SUBJECT: MOROCCANS UNEASY THREE WEEKS AFTER BOMBING

REF: A) 06 CASABLANCA 000409
B) 05 CASABLANCA 001304

Classified By: Principal Officer Douglas C. Greene for Reasons 1.4
(b),(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L CASABLANCA 000064

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/MAG, INR/NESA/NAP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/07/2015
TAGS: MO PGOV PINR PREL
SUBJECT: MOROCCANS UNEASY THREE WEEKS AFTER BOMBING

REF: A) 06 CASABLANCA 000409
B) 05 CASABLANCA 001304

Classified By: Principal Officer Douglas C. Greene for Reasons 1.4
(b),(d).


1. (SBU) Summary: Three weeks after an Islamic extremist
accidentally blew himself up outside an internet caf in the city's
notorious slum, Sidi Moumen, the streets of Casablanca remain tense.
Since the evening of March 11, when a 23-year-old unemployed Moroccan
detonated a belt of explosives he was wearing outside an internet
caf, Casablanca has been a city on edge despite the many prior
public warnings and high alert status in advance of March 11. The
response of local Moroccans in the immediate aftermath was,
understandably, fear. However, fear was quickly replaced by anger
directed at not only the bomber, but at the police, the Moroccan
government, and even in hushed tones, the King himself. Corruption
is the main culprit according to many conversations on the streets of
Casablanca and some blame the King and the system of royal amnesty
that allowed the bomber to walk free two years earlier. Despite the
government's insistence that security authorities have the situation
in hand, many Casablancans continue to be angry, fearful, and
concerned about what the future holds. End Summary.

--------------
Suspicions
--------------


2. (SBU) For some time before the March 11 bombing, Casablancans
appeared to be preparing themselves for the "inevitable." In
conversations during the weeks prior to the bombing, talk often
drifted to concerns about the probability of another terrorist
attack. Some Casablancans feared that a new attack would mark the
anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, March 11, 2004. Over a
period of weeks, contacts speculated that the birth announcement of
the King's second child could trigger an attack, much as the
announcement of the birth of his first child was perceived to have
done in 2003. On that occasion, the announcement was followed
shortly after by the attacks of May 16, when 45 people were killed in
six explosions around Casablanca. These predictions, added to daily
reports (and rumors) of foiled attacks and arrests of Islamic

extremists throughout the region, had many in Casablanca fearing that
another attack was to be expected.

--------------
Fear and Rumors
--------------


3. (SBU) In the period that followed the Sunday night explosion
outside a small internet caf, many Moroccans compared notes about
the days running up to the incident. Rumors spread quickly, as they
often do in the city, about how friends had heard that it was best to
stay home the weekend of March 10. Some friends and contacts claimed
they were told to stay away from certain restaurants and hotels in
the Casablanca and one longtime Consulate FSN confessed to have heard
acquaintances say not to go out that weekend at all. Many around the
city remarked, in the days that followed the blast, that they had
visited restaurants the night of the explosion, later rumored to be
on a list of targets, only to find them closed.


4. (SBU) Since March 11, there has been an increased level of
security at many restaurants frequented by the international
community and upper class Moroccans. Many, formerly with no security
at all, now boast uniformed guards at all entrances. Restaurant
owners and managers have also informed us that business, especially
in the evening, has dropped off significantly since the March 11
explosion. Many in Morocco's privileged class still avoid shopping
malls and movie theaters in upscale neighborhoods as well, out of
fear of being targeted. These reactions are similar, we are told, to
those that occurred after the May 16, 2003 bombings.

--------------
Then Came Anger
--------------


5. (SBU) As word was released that the suicide bomber had been
granted royal amnesty in 2005 after serving two years of a five-year
sentence for terrorism, anger was added to fear. Casablancans have
told us that the number of amnesties given in recent years, under
King Mohammad VI, is far greater than the number given by his father,
Hassan II. Just days before the bombing the King granted amnesty to
nearly 9000 prisoners to celebrate the birth of his daughter. To the
surprise of many, 14 of the 9000 released had been sentenced to
death. Some political contacts saw this as an informal royal
statement of support for the recent push to abolish the death penalty
in Morocco. Others saw it as a mistake. Fuel was added to the fire
when Casablancans learned from the media that the bomber had been
planning terrorist attacks since November 2006, along with a group of
former inmates living in the Sidi Moumen slum he called home.


6. (SBU) Immediately after the incident the people of Sidi Moumen
spontaneously protested against terrorism in front of the bombsite.
In addition, in the days that followed other demonstrations occurred
on the spot, which many speculate may have been encouraged by local
government officials. A few days following the bombing, a teacher
from a nearby neighborhood told Poloff that her students were furious
with the terrorists for once again bringing "shame" to Sidi Moumen
but they are equally enraged with the GOM. The teenage students said
that the GOM promised to replace the slums with better buildings and
new businesses creating more job opportunities. In their experience,
however, little seems to have materialized, leaving an angry and
disenfranchised youth open to outside extremist influence. Those, on
the other hand, who do find new housing often are without jobs and
are unable to pay new electric and water bills that were virtually
unknown when they lived in the local slums -- leaving them once again
in a desperate situation. Jobs that are available in the area are
low paying, leaving families like that of the March 11 bomber,
Abdelfettah Raydi, to live in a space the size of a large closet.
This situation often forces older children to live on the streets
where they can easily fall pray to extremists eager to recruit new
members to the jihad.

--------------
At the Root of it All, Corruption
--------------


7. (SBU) According to many, any problem existing in Casablanca can
be explained away in one word: corruption. To nearly everyone with
whom we spoke, the royal amnesties Morocco witnesses at nearly every
large holiday or celebration are simply a way for prison guards and
higher-ups to earn extra cash. The system, they claim, is rife with
corruption. According to one contact, prison guards are bribed by
the inmates' families, friends, or associates to have the prisoners'
names put on the list for amnesty, as many suspect occurred in
Raydi's case. The guards' wages are low and they are often eager to
supplement their income and as one local put it, "why not, everybody
in Casablanca wants to drive a Jaguar." The list then works its way
up the chain of command stopping at each level, for the possibility
of compensation, until it reaches the King for his signature. Most
Moroccans understand that the King does not create the list. Still,
they hold him personally responsible when an amnesty-related problem
occurs. Raydi's case was not the first time that someone who
benefited from amnesty was implicated in terrorism.

--------------
Comment
--------------


8. (C) Political fallout from the bombing, especially in Casablanca,
is surprising in at least one respect. Distrust of the government,
anger at the widening economic divide, and concern over an increasing
terrorist threat - all have had an important impact on the views of
non-elites in Casablanca. With the September parliamentary elections
fast approaching, many of the citizens of the fifth largest city on
the continent are looking for an alternative, and what we frequently
hear as an alternative choice is the Islamic Party of Justice and
Development -- a party that is seen by a growing number of
Casablanca's non-elites as the only honest one and perhaps the party
of hope for the future.


GREENE