Wikileaks revelations on relations between Algeria and Morocco

Tags: Wikileaks, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Polisario Front, Bouteflika, Mohammed VI,

The « revelations » of the Wikileaks site are disappointing. In any case, we publish the diplomatic notes on relations between Algeria and Morocco

TSA Algeria – December 2, 2010

The Algerian obsession, propaganda against the Polisario Front and a total alignment with the Americans
by Luones Guemache

Seventy pages of diplomatic memos, mainly from the American embassy in Rabat and covering the period between 2005 and 2009. TSA obtained the notes from American diplomacy on Morocco, before their publication on the American site Wikileaks. These documents relate in particular the conversations between American officials and Moroccan officials in Rabat: the ministers of the interior and foreign affairs, the heads of internal intelligence and counter-espionage, senior government officials, etc.

There is a bit of everything there, but certain subjects regularly come up in the discussions between the Americans and their Moroccan interlocutors: the fight against Islamist terrorism in the Maghreb and in the Sahel region, Algeria, the management of Islam in the Kingdom as well as international subjects such as Iranian nuclear power – we learn for example that Rabat was opposed to the bomb as early as 2006, well before the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2009.

The documents reveal Moroccan officials’ obsession with Algeria. In their conversations with American officials, Moroccans often highlight Algeria’s “lack of cooperation” in the fight against terrorism in the region. They blame the emergence of AQIM on Algiers’ “failures” in the fight against terrorism. An analysis that the Americans do not share. According to them, it is on the contrary thanks to Algeria’s successes that the former GSPC was forced to join forces with Al-Qaeda to create AQIM.

Officials have suggested a direct link between the Polisario Front and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). We also discover a more significant involvement than we could have imagined from Rabat in the Sahel. We learn, for example, that in 2007, Niger had requested military support from Morocco against a terrorist group that had entered its territory from Algeria. Why had such a request not been addressed directly to Algeria? Mystery.

TSA Algeria

When Moroccan officials speak of Algeria as a threat

by Yazid Slimani

In their discussions with visiting American diplomats and officials in Rabat, Moroccan officials accuse the Algerians of being reluctant to cooperate with them in the fight against terrorism. This is the case, for example, of the Director General for Territorial Surveillance (internal intelligence services), Abdelatif Hammouchi, during the visit to Rabat of the assistant to the American president for internal security and counterterrorism, Frances Fragos Townsend. « Cooperation with the Algerians is erratic, » says Hammouchi. « Sometimes they provide us with very good information and sometimes it seems like a dead end. They are difficult partners, » adds Yassine Mansouri (head of the General Directorate of Studies and Documentation, the Moroccan counterintelligence service, editor’s note), » reports a diplomatic note dated July 31, 2007, obtained by TSA before its publication on Wikileaks.

Earlier that year, the Director General of Bilateral Affairs at the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Youssef Amrani, had thus « suggested that the emergence of AQMI was mainly due to the failures of the Algerian government, » reports a note from May 18. A position that is clearly not shared by the United States, which defends Algeria’s anti-terrorist policy. To Amrani’s accusation, an American diplomat responded that « the GSPC was forced to associate with AQMI because the Algerian government succeeded in marginalizing it. »

In the same note, the American diplomat notes that Khalid Zerouali, in charge of Moroccan border security at the Interior Ministry, « bristled » when American officials cited Algeria as « a model » in the fight against terrorism in North Africa. For Zerouali, « Morocco is much more stable and safe, whereas I cannot travel from Algiers to Oran without fear. »

The WikiLeaks documents also reveal that Morocco has long suspected Algeria of seeking to develop a military nuclear program. This concern was reported in particular in a US diplomatic note dated November 21, 2006, transmitted five days after a meeting between the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Omar Hilale, and the American ambassador in Rabat on the subject of Iran’s nuclear program. Hilale thus stated that « an Iran with nuclear weapons would be a disaster for the region and especially for Morocco. It would provoke an arms race in the region and it would accelerate the pursuit of what he described as a similar Algerian military nuclear program, even if it is only nascent. » « If Iran succeeds, within ten years, other countries in the Middle East will have the bomb and the Algerians will follow shortly after, he said, » the note states.

Finally, according to Rabat, if bilateral relations with Algiers do not improve, the responsibility would be entirely Algerian. In the memo of July 31, 2007, American diplomats report that after a visit to Algiers, Fouad Ali Himma, deputy to the Minister of the Interior, told them that « repeated Moroccan efforts to bridge the diplomatic chasm have been rejected. He assured that he had told the Algerians that Morocco was ready to reopen its border and take other measures to restore confidence, but the Algerians never told us what they wanted, » they quote. He attributed what he described as Algerian intransigence to the generational and mentality gap between the leaders of the two countries, » reports the American note, which specifies that Himma is close to King Mohammed VI, often considered more powerful than the Minister of the Interior himself.

TSA Algeria

Faced with many problems, the Moroccan army is preoccupied by the Polisario Front and Algeria


by Samir Allam

It is an unflattering portrait that American diplomats paint of the Moroccan army. In a classified cable dated August 2008 and revealed by the Wikileaks website, American diplomats stationed in Rabat speak of a Moroccan army plagued by problems of corruption, an inefficient bureaucracy, low levels of education in its ranks, recurring threats of radicalization of some of its soldiers, political marginalization, aging equipment and the deployment of most of its forces in Western Sahara.

The Moroccan army’s strength is estimated at 218,000 soldiers, according to the memo from the American embassy in Rabat. The army has 175,000 soldiers, 13,000 make up the air force and 7,800 are in the navy. The gendarmerie, which « reports directly to the king, » has 22,000 elements. The average salary for soldiers is about 2,000 dirhams (270 USD) per month, the memo notes. Officers are better paid, with a starting salary of about 6,000 dirhams (850 USD) per month. « With benefits such as free housing, these (salaries) are reasonably competitive in the Moroccan context, » the document underlines.

Western Sahara is the Moroccan army’s main concern. At a certain period – which the note does not specify – between 50% and 70% of the Moroccan armed forces were deployed in Western Sahara.

Unsurprisingly, the Moroccan military’s other major concern is Algeria. According to the U.S. document, the Moroccan military has “contingency plans” and is conducting strategic simulations to counter a possible Algerian attack. However, the Moroccan military does not have troops deployed along the Algerian border, according to the memo. Moroccan soldiers are stationed in garrisons located hundreds of kilometers from the Algerian border from where they could deploy in the event of an Algerian incursion.

According to American diplomats, although the border between the two countries is closed and relations are cold, Algeria does not pose an imminent threat to Morocco. In the event of a confrontation between the two countries, it would take place via the Polisario Front, they believe.

Finally, the Americans mention solid military cooperation between the United States and Morocco. But the authors of the document doubt Morocco’s ability to acquire high-end military equipment to modernize its army. The reason? The high costs of this equipment are beyond the reach of the kingdom’s modest means.

TSA Algeria

For Bouteflika, France is trying to settle its scores with Algeria « by supporting Morocco »

by Sonia Lyes

The Wikileaks documents, revealed on Friday evening, November 3, by the dailies El Pais (Spain) and Le Monde (France), show significant differences of opinion between Algiers and Rabat on the subject of the conflict in Western Sahara. These differences add to the total disagreement between President Bouteflika and King Mohamed VI.

« If I could solve the problem I would. But I cannot speak for the Sahrawis. » What is needed is that « Morocco and the Polisario find a solution, and they can do it with the help of the Americans, » the Algerian president said during a meeting. This is what President Bouteflika said in 2007 in Algiers to the assistant to the American president George Bush for internal security and counterterrorism, Frances Fragos Townsend.

The French, President Bouteflika confided during another meeting reported by American diplomats, « because of the weight of their colonial history in the Maghreb, are incapable of playing a constructive role in the conflict. » According to him, « France has never really accepted Algerian independence. » Today, it is trying to settle its scores with Algeria « by supporting Morocco. »

In February 2008, receiving an American diplomat, the Algerian president denounced « the autonomy plan » wanted by Rabat instead of the self-determination referendum in Western Sahara. For him, the Moroccan proposal offers only a semblance of autonomy. The Algerian provinces have more autonomy from Algiers than what Rabat is proposing for Western Sahara, the Algerian president noted.

A position reaffirmed in November 2009 before the head of the American command for Africa (Africom), General William Ward. « You cannot defend the application of one principle for Palestine and another principle for Western Sahara. »

TSA Algeria
In Algiers, the CIA has its own aerial surveillance cell for terrorist groups

by Yazid Slimani

For the United States, Algeria has become in recent years the number 1 partner in the anti-terrorist fight in the Sahel against Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). This is what emerges from the latest diplomatic documents revealed by Wikileaks. « No country is more important than Algeria in the fight against Al Qaeda in the Sahel and the Maghreb, » stated the American ambassador to Algiers David Pearce in a note dated January 6, 2010, just after Algeria was added to a list of countries at risk by the American Administration for Security in Transportation.

American diplomats welcome the growing intensity of political, security and economic cooperation with Algeria. But they say they are frustrated by the Algerian authorities’ reluctance to share intelligence on terrorist groups operating in the country and blame security forces for failing to pass on information that could have prevented the December 2007 attacks on the United Nations in Algiers.

Intelligence cooperation is also done through an active CIA base that has its own aerial surveillance cell for armed terrorist groups on Algerian territory via Africom. This CIA presence in Algeria was only publicly revealed in 2009 after the Warren affair, the spy who raped two Algerian women after drugging them.

Moreover, a cable dated February 1, 2009, published in recent days by the Lebanese daily Al Akhbar, reveals that the Algerian state put pressure on the press to stop covering this affair. Two days after the scandal was revealed, « it had completely disappeared from the press. The almost total absence of coverage in the public press clearly shows that the government prefers for this story to die down, » is reported in the same memo.

TSA Algeria
Bouteflika despises Mohamed VI, with whom he will never shake hands

by Samir Allam

Abdelaziz Bouteflika despises King Mohamed VI. And he made this known to the Americans during talks at the El Mouradia Palace, according to documents from the WikiLeaks website revealed on Friday evening, November 3, by the Spanish daily El Pais. But the Algerian president assured his interlocutors that Algeria will not wage war on Morocco because of Western Sahara and will not allow the Polisario Front to fight from Algerian territory. However, the border will remain closed until the conflict in Western Sahara is resolved, President Bouteflika explained.

« I will not shake the king’s hand. » President Bouteflika made this statement in June 2006 to US President George Bush’s assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, Frances Fragos Townsend, during a visit to Algiers. Before describing the Moroccan monarch as « not open » and « inexperienced, » according to the same source. According to Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the late Hassan II and Moulay Rachid, brother of the current king, were his most open. President Bouteflika recalls a meeting with Moulay Rachid during a match in Seville, Spain. « We chatted and joked happily, but I cannot do the same with the king, because we do not have the same sense of humor, » he lamented.

According to a document dated July 1, 2006, President Boutelika admitted, according to the American ambassador in Algiers, that he believed in dialogue to resolve the problems with Morocco. But he does not believe in a dialogue with King Mohamed VI.

Presidents Bush and Chirac tried to make President Bouteflika more lenient towards the king. The Algerian president recalled that the king was still a child when he himself was already a veteran diplomat. But the king inflicted an affront on President Bouteflika by canceling at the last minute a visit by the prime minister to Rabat. « I am not Jesus, I am not going to turn the other cheek, » Bouteflika declared at the time.

Source : OSSIN


Global Voices: Western Sahara: Comments on Wikileaks revelations


Reactions to the diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks continue to flourish across the blogosphere. The revelations about the Western Sahara conflict have generated a few comments.

Ali Amar is a Moroccan journalist. Writing on VoxMaroc , a blog hosted by the French daily Le Monde , he points out that while the leaks exposed US diplomats’ reservations about poor governance and corruption in Morocco, they showed unwavering American support for the kingdom’s position on Western Sahara:

[I]n Washington’s eyes, Morocco remains a banana monarchy, ruled by a proto-mafia clique. Realpolitik, however, takes over when it comes to supporting the regime of Mohammed VI, particularly on the question of Western Sahara: a report by former ambassador Thomas Riley dated 2009 unreservedly supports the autonomy plan advocated by Rabat.

Stephen Zunes, writing on the Huffington Post , agrees. He dismisses [en] the ideas expressed by a diplomat in an August 2009 cable as tainted and distorted by an ideology that, he says, recalls the Cold War (link added by author):

The cable is strongly reminiscent of the long-running effort by State Department officials during the Cold War to delegitimize national liberation struggles by pretending that they were creations of Cuba, the Soviet Union, or some other state challenging U.S. hegemony. Indeed, in a throwback to Cold War rhetoric, Jackson [the diplomat who wrote the cable] claims that the Polisario Front , which has been recognized as the legitimate government of Western Sahara by more than 80 governments, is “similar to Cuba.” In the cable, Jackson seeks U.S. support for Morocco’s calls for a census and audit of international programs in the Polisario-run refugee camps, but not for the international call for human rights monitors in the occupied territory.

A telegram published earlier this month suggests that the Algerian president is seeking a solution to the conflict that would allow his country to “save face.” Fayçal, writing on the Algerian news website Algerie Focus, comments :

Has Algeria turned its back on the Polisario Front? The question is worth asking, especially when we read a rather intriguing cable from the WikiLeaks website that shows an Algerian President wanting to put an end to a problem that had become too embarrassing for Algeria.

#Morocco #Algeria #Wikileaks #WesternSahara #Polisario #Bouteflika #MohammedVI