The Casbah Connection
Why Morocco is producing some of the world's most feared terrorists
The Combatant Group had formed by 1995 around a nucleus of Moroccan veterans of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Some of its members are believed to have fought in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan. Morocco's government, ironically, may have fostered the radicalization of the group by facilitating the dispatch of volunteers to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight the Soviet occupation--and by encouraging certain fundamentalist activities at home to thwart the monarchy's foes on the left and in other Islamist organizations. The membership of the Combatant Group is believed to number in the dozens. European and U.S. officials say members speak multiple European languages and have probably concealed travel between Morocco and Europe by joining with other illegal migrants. Some have raised funds through petty criminal activity, including the sale of hashish.
The Combatant Group didn't start out as part of al Qaeda, but officials say there has been coordination, and Combatant Group members are believed to view Osama bin Laden as an inspirational leader. Al Qaeda representatives took part in a planning session in Istanbul in February 2002 that may have paved the way for the Casablanca bombings. In February 2003, three months before those attacks, bin Laden vowed to punish Morocco for helping Washington against al Qaeda. The previous year, an al Qaeda sleeper cell of Saudis was unearthed in Morocco. The Saudis were convicted of plotting to strike NATO warships transiting the Strait of Gibraltar.
Disillusioned. Morocco's efforts in the aftermath of the Casablanca bombings to diminish poverty, tighten state oversight of Islam, and speed up political and social reforms suggest what officials here believe are the triggers for militancy. Contrary to the impression a tourist gets from glam-packed Marrakech and the Atlantic and Mediterranean seascapes, Morocco is a seriously underdeveloped country. Urban unemployment is well above 20 percent, with one third of the burgeoning population of young men jobless. In Marrakech, a college economics major discusses his bleak job prospects. "The future," says Adil Nasser, 23, "looks ever more gloomy." In Rabat, several unemployed activists have threatened to immolate themselves. In Casablanca, the view of impoverished enclaves is obscured by "walls of shame," as some call them. Not far away, the wealthy live in walled compounds of their own in a district called Anfa, where the million-dollar homes would fit comfortably in, say, Beverly Hills.
Bidonville s sprout up along the edges of many Moroccan cities. One, called Oulad M'Taa, lies along the train tracks linking Rabat and Casablanca. There, chickens peck at the fetid garbage strewn near the tightly clustered hovels. Rail commuters roar by with barely a glance. In the arid countryside, jobs are even scarcer. In the oasis towns of the northern reaches of the Sahara, young men linger by the roadside in the hope that motorists will stop and buy a box of dates. Few do.
Illiteracy is a scourge, affecting half of adults. Less than 20 percent of rural women can read. Social indicators like infant mortality and education rank among the lowest in the region. Government officials in Rabat say they're making progress, but poverty and joblessness still drive migration to the bigger cities and to Europe. By the Strait of Gibraltar, Moroccans have been known to mark time just gazing at Spain, 8 miles away and tantalizingly visible on a clear day. "There are many young people ready to commit suicide around the Mediterranean," says Nadia Yassine, an organizer of a leading Islamist movement. She is referring both to those chancing the hazardous boat trip to Europe and those intent on joining terrorist groups. "You know the profile of our young people: no future, no prospects, no hope."
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