Morocco: On the arrest of suspected Marrakesh bombers

By MUSTAPHA AJBAILI

The Moroccan government has arrested three individuals allegedly responsible for the deadly Marrakesh bombing and hailed the “swift” response of the security services in coordination with international intelligence services from France, Spain and the United States.

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)

Media & Mass Communications: What does the death of Osama bin Laden mean for the Arab world?

By MUSTAPHA AJBAILI


Arab news media have reacted to the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden with considerable speculation on its consequences in the Arab and Muslim world.



While most of the voices in the region agree that the death of America’s “Most Wanted Number One” had dealt a blow to the terror network, many have warned that various Al-Qaeda affiliates, which tend to operate independently from the network’s top leadership, would likely continue to threaten the security in the region for months to come.



The news media in the region have also engaged in much discussion about the timing of bin Laden’s death.



Jamal Khashoggi, journalist, writer and former editor-in-chief of the Saudi newspaper al-Watan, told Al Arabiya TV that if Mr. Bin Laden had been killed before the wave of pro-democracy uprisings in the region, some people would have protested against America. The march for freedom in the region has damaged Al-Qaeda’s agenda and showed to the world the freedom-loving spirit of the majority of Arab and Muslim youths, he said.



Mohammad Abu Rumman, a columnist and an expert on Islamist groups, said, “The death of Mr. Bin Laden came during the downfall of dictatorial regimes and the rise of freedom in the Arab world.”



Mr. Abu Rumman told Al Arabiya that Mr. Bin Laden had lost his self-claimed image as the champion of the Muslim world with the demise of dictatorships, which were responsible for creating some of the conditions that allowed extremism to breed. When political dissent can’t be expressed in words, resort to violence becomes likely, Mr. Abu Rumman added.



Abdullah Al-Mutair, father of al-Qaeda militant Ibrahim al-Mutair who was killed earlier this year by Saudi authorities, said that he had received the news of bin Laden’s death with “joy.” Mr. al-Mutair added that Mr. Bin Laden has killed more Muslims than non-Muslims and that everyone should be please with his death.



Saudi journalist Khaled al-Moshawah, meanwhile, said that the effect of the rise of freedom in holding back extremism in the Arab world was yet to be seen.



He said: “It is still early to say that al-Qaeda will not exploit the revolutions. The death of Mr. Bin Laden is certainly a blow to the terror network, but it remains to be seen how the man’s followers will respond.”



Regardless of speculation, Mr. Bin Laden’s death will likely be a sense of triumph for some in the United States and a relief for many Muslims who are tired of seeing a violent man speak for their faith.



(Published in english.alarabiya.net on May 2, 2012)

Media & Mass Communications: Coverage of Marrakesh terrorist attack displays a more analytical approach by Moroccan media

By MUSTAPHA AJBAILI


Al Arabiya

When it comes to terrorist attacks, mainstream news media tend to be guided by official accounts—be it in the Arab world, the United States or in Europe. But covering the recent bombing that occurred in Morocco’s tourism hub city of Marrakesh, there was a discernible effort in local media coverage toward analysis.



The media tackled difficult questions about why the bloodshed happened. One key question that the media raised: Whose interests were served by the café blast?



Government fingers pointed to Al-Qaeda as the suspected mastermind of the attack, which killed 16 people, but voices in the news media, primarily in the electronic and printed press, exercised caution not to be dragged into misleading the public by presenting an official version of a story. The media noted that the blast was still under investigation by US, French and Spanish intelligence services.



In part, the caution displayed in the local media coverage was likely a result of early reports from Egypt two months ago that now-jailed former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly had a hand in last New Year’s Eve bombing of al-Qiddissin Church in Alexandria in which 24 people were killed. The report was unsubstantiated.



Another explanation of the Moroccan media’s more thoughtful approach to coverage of the blast could lie in the timing of the attack. Morocco has witnessed in the past three months growing public discontent with the government and widely expressed anger at “symbols of corruption,” such as some friends of King Mohammad VI.



One of the most popular independent news websites in Morocco, www.hespress.com, has said that “the terrorist bombing in Marrakesh has taken the reform process into a new stage because of the challenges it raised, requiring a cautious and responsible approach to dealing with the consequences of this attack.”



“The party behind the attack—be it foreign or domestic—has put several goals, first of which was to obstruct political progress in Morocco,” the website said.



Another likely reason why journalists this time appeared to be writing outside the orbit of government influence was the detention of Al-Massae newspaper’s executive editor Rachid Nini on the eve of the Marrakesh bombing. Several journalists and human rights activists recently organized a sit-in in front of the parliament to demand Mr. Nini’s release and demand more press freedom. It just so happened that the day happened to be last Thursday, the day of the attack on the café in Marrakesh.



Could it be that the news media in some countries not yet affected by popular uprisings are seeking to break free of their long-time obsequious coverage in order to avoid the embarrassing situation of waking up one day and finding one’s sacred cows gone?



(Published in english.alarabiya.net in 01 May 2011)