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Posted on 09/01/2006 6:36:13 AM PDT by Valin
RABAT, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Morocco said on Thursday the number of arrests it has made after cracking a militant Islamist cell that planned attacks on government targets has risen to 56, including four women, in five towns across the country. Security services broke up the cell and seized explosives and propaganda materials in early August. The government has said the group was planning a far bigger attack than the Casablanca bombings in May 2003, which killed 45 people.
"The latest arrest was made 24 hours ago. It was a woman," Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa told a rare news conference. "The group was preparing to launch attacks on tourist sites and sensitive government facilities and to kill prominent personalities," he said, without elaborating. Security sources have told Reuters the group planned to blow up the Justice Ministry, military bases and hotels and to kill top ministers and foreign diplomats. Benmoussa named the group as the Mehdi Partisans and described it as "a Jihadist Salafist movement advocating violence to achieve its goals". The authorities had previously named the group as Jammaat Ansar El Mehdi (El Mehdi Support Group).
Security officials say police have broken up more than 50 radical Islamist cells, some linked to al Qaeda, and arrested more than 3,000 people since the Casablanca bombings. Benmoussa said the Mehdi Partisans group had underlined the danger radical Islamists still pose to Morocco's security and emerging liberal democracy. "The dismantled group of Mehdi Partisans ... underscores that today we are facing an extremist threat which aims at undermining our modern democratic project," he said.
While the 13 suicide bombers in the 2003 attacks were dwellers of poor slums in Casablanca, members of the Mehdi group came from the upper middle class and had contributed money to buy weapons, Benmoussa said. "The (Mehdi) group was busted at the latest stage of its formation. It was about to start a holy war on Morocco's soil," he added. The group had set up a military training camp in a rugged mountainous area of northern Morocco and had begun gathering intelligence for its "holy war" targets, which included planned attacks on government forces, Benmoussa said.
He urged Moroccans to back the fight against terrorism. "The government is committed to fight terrorism with all its means within the framework of the law and respect for human rights. That effort needs the support of all Moroccans."
Morocco is doing some good things in the WOT.
Sure sounds that way and it also looks like they have a lot of raw material to work with too.
You know how the Dems blame Pres Bush's foreign policy for Islamic terror. Gee, that must mean that Moroccan foreign policy is responsible for the increase in Islamic "militants" these days.
Morocco is such a "playa" on the world scene.
Just like Bali.
Just like Thailand.
Just like the Phillipines.
Just like Somalia.
I could go on, but you catch my drift.
Hah!
Gee, ya think???
Too bad the loyal opposition doesn't get it. To listen to them you'd think that OBL is the only terrorist in the whole wide world.
Cheers - Dinah
Just like Bali.
Just like Thailand.
Just like the Phillipines.
Just like Somalia.
I could go on, but you catch my drift.
Hah!
You could change the /sarc:on to /lib:on and that would work, too!
Just like the feministas.
/fem on: Women forced to submit and being treated as second class citizens? Hanging by the neck from cranes in Iranian squares? Not our problem. Genitals mutilated? Not our problem. I have my rights. George Bush is evil!/fem off.
Cheers - Dinah
Related article:
MOROCCO: WOMAN ARRESTED IN ANTI-TERROR PROBE
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.335698133&par=0
A fourth woman has been arrested in an investigation into Morocco's Ansar Al Mahdi terrorist group, the Moroccan interior minister Chakib Benmoussa told a press conference on Thursday. The announcement came a day after reports said security at Moroccan airports had been tightened following the arrest of three women - two of whom are married to pilots with the national airline Royal Air Maroc - charged with involvement with the radical Islamic group.
Morocco's official news agency MAP quoted the interior minister as saying on Thursday that the four women had been contacted by the wife of Karim Mejjat, reportedly a member of al-Qaeda killed in Saudi Arabia by security services.
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Bet they are not enjoying their stay with Surete National down in Marrakech...
Nice photoshop!
Try this one of Rummy:
Cheers!
I'm guessing that those they have arrested, would rather be in Gitmo than a Moroccan prison.
Just a guess.
Absolutely. And the traitorous libs here pretended that being naked with panties on their heads and dogs barking is somehow the epitome of cruelty. They are so utterly ignorant.
They're not "militants"; they are Terrorists.
The Democrats are intellectually and morally bankrupt.
I noticed that as well, therefore the "quotes" The Dems in this country are beyond redemption IMO. I can only hope that history remembers their perfidy.
Cheers - Dinah
More good news. 14 more sleazeballs off the street in the U.K. as well, as most here likely know. Let's hope both sets of arrests yield excellent intelligence and save innocent lives.
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