Free Republic

CASABLANCA, Morocco — It’s not every day that an Arab government is forced to apologize for publicly embracing a pro-Palestinian peace activist. But Ofer Bronchtein’s peculiar offense is that he’s a Jew. Long known as one of the Arab world’s most moderate states, Morocco stunned the world by electing the Islamist Justice and Development Party (known by its French acronynm “PJD”) last November. Since January when its leaders were sworn in, the PJD has been embroiled in a series of public fights over “Zionism.” The latest uproar came after Moroccan newspapers showed photographs of Bronchtein, a former adviser to the...

While President Barack Obama was “forcefully” endorsing the Ground Zero Mosque, Michelle Obama was paying homage with her presence to the Great Mosque at Granada, which overlooks what was once Islam’s most important outpost in Europe, the Alhambra palace in Granada. There is no doubt about the influence of the Great Mosque of Granada overlooking Alhambra. One Spanish guidebook states that the Alhambra is to Granada what St.Peter’s is to Rome or St. Mark’s Square to Venice. Michelle Obama and her nine-year-old daughter, Sasha, visited the Alhambra Mosque at dusk on the second day of her visit to Spain, one...

The Moroccan Ministry of Justice said Thursday that the hunger strike staged by prisoners involved in Laayoune events, has “a political character and is motivated by foreign parties,” reported MAP news agency. The Ministry insisted that the prisoners, who took part in the riots which occurred last May in Laayoune, “enjoy all their rights and benefit from medical follow-up.' “There is no link between the hunger strike and their detention conditions,” added the Ministry.

January 30, 2005 Kofi Annan’s son admits oil dealing Robert Winnett and Jonathon Carr-Brown THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein. Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme. The alleged admission will increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who is already facing...

MADRID, Spain - They were young, they were angry and they almost got caught. A highway patrolman stopped members of the Madrid bombing cell as they drove a stolen Volkswagen toward Spain's capital with a trunk full of dynamite a week before the train bombings. But all they got was a ticket. It's another baffling detail of a terrorist attack that killed 191 people, wounded more than 1,800 and is blamed on men with nicknames like Mowgli, the boy in "The Jungle Book." In their final minutes of life, poised to blow themselves up rather than surrender or be arrested,...

All- We arrived in Durban at 1:30 PM Sunday….thought the game was at 2PM and scrambled from the hotel to find it was actually at 4 PM match against Morocco. As sent yesterday, Eddie made the starting line up. Good thing for him because he would have had to reimburse his father and grandfather for the trip expenses. We arrived at the field to much tension. Apparently the Moroccan players, staying at the same hotel as our boys, had been taunting the Americans for the previous two weeks. The Moroccans are French speaking Arabs. They had been teasing the boys...

Newspapers in Morocco have been full of praise for Spain's newly elected socialist government, saying it is a source of pride and joy for Morocco. "The victory of our Spanish socialist friends is a source of pride and joy for us and for the entire socialist family in the world," wrote on Tuesday al-Ittihad al-Ishtiraki newspaper, which is close to Morocco's Socialist Union of Popular Forces, the main party in the north African country's monarchical government. "The days of contempt, of muscle-flexing by the authorities, of gratuitous bellicosity and of demagogic one-upmanship are gone. Spain is, now more than ever,...

Egyptian President, Moroccan King blast West Bank barrier, call for Mideast roadmap to be implemented. CAIRO - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Wednesday called for the unconditional implementation of the internationally drafted Middle East peace "roadmap." In a joint statement at the end of their talks here, they also called for the United Nations to play "pivotal role" in Iraq. They "hailed international efforts deployed to relaunch the peace process in the Middle East" and called for the implementation of the roadmap "without conditions or modification" from the Israeli side. They blasted "Israel's attempt to...

Morocco cracks down on Islamists By Isambard Wilkinson (Filed: 22/07/2003) A mass trial of hundreds of Moroccans suspected of having links with Islamic terrorism opened in Casablanca yesterday amid fears that the crackdown signals a return to the country's oppressive past. In the gloom of Casablanca's criminal court six rows of wispily bearded young men sitting behind a bullet-proof glass cage murmuring Koranic verses represented the first batch of 700 Islamists to be tried. As some of the suspects whispered encouragement to one another and laughed defiantly, other gaunt-looking young men shook uncontrollably as they wept. The 52 first suspects...

ABU DHABI [MENL] -- Arab countries are quietly preparing for a U.S. military campaign to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Arab diplomatic sources said preparations can be seen in Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and most of the Gulf Cooperation Council states. They said the Arab efforts are focusing on bolstering internal security to deal with the prospect of pro-Saddam unrest. The sources said the fate of Saddam was a major issue in the Arab League summit in Beirut last week. They said Arab delegates from virtually all of the countries in attendance assessed that Washington would attack...