Moroccan Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui said the main suspect was “loyal” to al-Qaeda and that he tried several times to travel to Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia and Turkey before opting to carry out his attack in Morocco after having learned from the Internet how make explosives.
The bombing came at a time when Morocco was witnessing growing popular anger at the corruption thriving in the higher echelons of the government and security services. Public trust in the government and its security organs has fallen to its lowest levels in many years. In the wake of the bombing many people went around speculating that the “Makhzan”—an Moroccan Arabic term for the governing elite consisting of businessmen, wealthy landowners, high-ranking military personnel, security service bosses, and other well-connected members of the establishment—may have masterminded the attack to regain control of a stage gradually being overtaken by the populace.
But Thursday’s arrests may dispel those speculations and the government has sought to regain public confidence by commending its response to the bombing and its ability to capture perpetrators “within one week.”
Mr. Cherkaoui said the security forces “again demonstrated efficiency and ability to repel terrorism and all forms of crime and to maintain and protect the security of citizens and their safety.”
The interior minister must have forgotten that the Marrakesh bombing qualifies to be a disastrous failure to repel terrorism.
In the wake of the attack Moroccans wanted to know who was responsible. The government opened a probe to find out who carried out the bombing but failed to investigate who in the security services and in the government failed to protect public safety.
Today the government—and I do not mean the cabinet—seeks to claim credit on the basis of finding out who committed the bombing while forgetting that it was responsible for having failed to prevent the attack at the first place.
The United States formed a bipartisan national commission in 2002 that uncovered various security failures that led to the Sept. 11 attacks. The failures were made public in the 9/11 Commission Report and those individuals and security bodies that failed the nation were identified. The United States hasn’t been attacked in its mainland ever since.
In Morocco, this is the third major terrorist attack in the country in less than 10 years after the ones that happened in 2003 and 2007. Without exposing the failures of its security services and holding those officials, including the interior minister, responsible for having failed to protect the nation against terrorism instead of beating peaceful protesters in the streets, the deadly Marrakesh bomb attack may not be the last.
(Published on http://english.alarabiya.net/ on May 7, 2011)
But Thursday’s arrests may dispel those speculations and the government has sought to regain public confidence by commending its response to the bombing and its ability to capture perpetrators “within one week.”
Mr. Cherkaoui said the security forces “again demonstrated efficiency and ability to repel terrorism and all forms of crime and to maintain and protect the security of citizens and their safety.”
The interior minister must have forgotten that the Marrakesh bombing qualifies to be a disastrous failure to repel terrorism.
In the wake of the attack Moroccans wanted to know who was responsible. The government opened a probe to find out who carried out the bombing but failed to investigate who in the security services and in the government failed to protect public safety.
Today the government—and I do not mean the cabinet—seeks to claim credit on the basis of finding out who committed the bombing while forgetting that it was responsible for having failed to prevent the attack at the first place.
The United States formed a bipartisan national commission in 2002 that uncovered various security failures that led to the Sept. 11 attacks. The failures were made public in the 9/11 Commission Report and those individuals and security bodies that failed the nation were identified. The United States hasn’t been attacked in its mainland ever since.
In Morocco, this is the third major terrorist attack in the country in less than 10 years after the ones that happened in 2003 and 2007. Without exposing the failures of its security services and holding those officials, including the interior minister, responsible for having failed to protect the nation against terrorism instead of beating peaceful protesters in the streets, the deadly Marrakesh bomb attack may not be the last.
(Published on http://english.alarabiya.net/ on May 7, 2011)
It is of a great importance to examine where the failure comes from than finding who the terrorists were. I do find your comparison of U.S. and Moroccan security maintenance to be a very strong one. Why did it happen again in Morocco while not in the U.S.? I believe the Moroccan government feels so excited about jailing some potential terrorists and thinks that it has rooted out the problem. In fact, prevention and intervention is the only way to a peaceful Morocco
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