MOROCCO UPDATE - INFORMATION COLLECTION, SCREENING

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000370 SIPDIS DEPT FOR S/CT - HILLARY BATJER JOHNSON AND PAUL SCHULTZ, DEPT PLEASE PASS TO NCTC AND DHS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/17/2019 TAGS: ASECKHLS CVIS KVPR PINR PTER KHLS MO SUBJECT: MOROCCO UPDATE - INFORMATION COLLECTION, SCREENING AND SHARING REF: A. SECSTATE 32287 ¶B. 07 RABAT 1672 Classified By: Classified By: Econ Counselor Stuart Smith. Reasons 1.4( b) and (d) ¶1. (C) The U.S. mission in Morocco continues to pursue the expansion and enhancement of counterterrorism (CT) cooperation with the Government of Morocco (GOM). The GOM has been an active partner in combating international terrorism and routinely provides biometric data on persons of interest to us. Post's CT working group coordinates numerous CT related programs managed by the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) program, DHS, INL, S/CT, DOD, and FBI (among others). All seek to strengthen Morocco's ability to monitor and enforce its borders. Most of the information on Moroccan collection, screening and dissemination of information at its ports of entry in reftel are still up to date. The following are updates to information since reftel. -------------- Department of Homeland Security -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Mission now has a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Regional Office which has the lead on most issues relating to GOM monitoring and enforcement of borders. DHS opened its regional office in Morocco (Casablanca) in September 2008. The office is now staffed with 4 personnel and is responsible for DHS portfolio throughout the Maghreb region. This Area of Responsibility includes the countries of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Mauritania. It is responsible for the coordination of criminal and administrative investigations under Section 428 of the Homeland Security Act. This includes overseeing: the targeting and review of individual and classes of visa applications and applicants; the delivery of training to consular officers on law enforcement subject matters pertaining to visa issuance; liaison activities with post law enforcement, intelligence, and host country officials; and other duties as necessary. ¶3. (SBU) The office also handles coordination of investigations related to terrorist organizations and activities directed against the United States and U.S. interests abroad. More specifically, the office investigates suspicious financial holdings and transactions that relate to violations as defined by the Department of Homeland Security. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also has jurisdiction over other investigations such as money laundering, human trafficking, human smuggling, document fraud, trade fraud, intellectual property rights violations, cyber crimes, child exploitation, child pornography, trafficking or any other unlawful enterprise wherein the proceeds are used to finance or promote terrorism. ICE Office Casablanca handles coordination of the USG's initiative on trafficking in persons (G-TIP) in Morocco. Additionally, the office coordinates investigations and foreign law enforcement intelligence collection directed against major transnational organized crime groups which engage in human smuggling, document fraud, trafficking of women and children, terrorism and other continuing criminal activities. -------------- Biometric Collection -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Moroccan authorities are currently participating in Phase IV of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services' Fingerprint Sharing and Training Initiative. Moroccan police have completed the intermediate palm print training, and will conduct advanced palm print training in the summer of 2009. The FBI has provided 8 million new fingerprint cards that comply with U.S. standards, which are currently in use, and the GOM will procure additional cards on its own as it uses the current stock. The GOM continues to use the rolled method for taking fingerprints. The new National Identification Card is now available, incorporating biometric (bio) chip technology. Although citizens have been reluctant to replace their old cards ahead of schedule, the five year expiration of current cards will result in universal deployment of new cards within five years. -------------- Passports -------------- ¶5. (C) The GOM began issuing Machine Readable Passports (MRP) in the spring of 2008. The GOM is in the process of upgrading the MRPs to include a bio-chip with identifying information. The contract to develop this new passport has been awarded, but we are not aware of a projected date for issuance of these passports. An American firm, Global Enterprise Technologies (GET),a losing bidder on the contract to develop the bio-chip enabled passports, has shared with the Mission's Commercial Service its assessment that the winning bidder will use commercially available (i.e., non-proprietary) equipment for producing the data chips. GET has stated that these commercially available standards would render the Moroccan chip-enabled passports more prone to counterfeiting. ***************************************** Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website; http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Moro cco ***************************************** Jackson