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.

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Department of Homeland Security
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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.

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Biometric Collection
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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.

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Passports
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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.


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Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website;
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Moro cco
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Jackson