US embassy cable - 05RABAT1854

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RABAT 001854 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR NEA/MAG, R 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PTER, MO 
SUBJECT: UNDERAGE WOULD-BE SUICIDE BOMBER TWINS DISCUSS 
THEIR DESCENT INTO EXTREMISM 
 
REF: A. RABAT 1809 
 
     B. 2004 RABAT 1301 
     C. 2004 RABAT 2171 
 
(U) This message is sensitive but unclassified.  Please 
protect accordingly. 
 
1.  (SBU) In a front-page interview with Pan Arabic daily 
Asharq Al Awsat on August 31, the 16-year old would-be 
suicide bomber twins that King Mohammed pardoned on the 
occasion of the Revolution of the King and People on August 
20 (ref A) discussed the factors that led to their descent 
into Islamic extremism.  The sisters -- Iman and Sana 
Laghrissi -- were sentenced to 5-year jail terms in January 
2004 on charges they belonged to a Rabat terrorist group and 
volunteered to serve as suicide bombers (ref B).  Citing 
harsh childhood living conditions in which one of the sisters 
was raped and exploited as a maid and a profound empathy for 
the suffering of Palestinians as motivations, the twins told 
Asharq Al Awsat that they began to harbor intense, negative 
feelings toward Israeli Defense Forces and the United States. 
 "The images of Palestinians being killed in Palestine 
shocked me," said Sana. 
 
2.  (SBU) The 9/11 attacks "pleased" the twins, who followed 
with interest Al Jazeera's stories on Usama Bin Ladin and, in 
particular, the network's coverage of Bin Ladin's declaration 
that America would not enjoy security unless Palestine was 
liberated.  "I saw (President) George Bush as an enemy and 
felt hatred toward America," explained Sana.  Acting on this 
contempt, Iman twice reportedly called to threaten the U.S. 
Embassy in Rabat with the message: "Despite all the security 
measures around the Embassy, it will be destroyed, God 
willing."  At this point, the newspaper indicates, the twins 
desired to go to Afghanistan to "undergo military training," 
but did not have the means to make the trip. 
 
3.  (SBU) The operational turning point in their free fall 
reportedly was an encounter with a man named Abdelkader 
Labsir who introduced them to extremist propaganda and the 
concept of jihad against the infidels.  Some of the materials 
they read urged believers to take action against "cruel and 
oppressive Arab leaders who do not govern according to 
Islamic law," according to Asharq Al Awsat.  Exploiting the 
sisters' naivete, their religious extremist suitors began to 
involve them in the planning of terrorist operations against 
the Moroccan parliament and a Rabat supermarket.  The twins 
also reportedly began distributing terrorist tracts and 
pamphlets in the Rabat metro area. 
 
4.  (SBU) The sisters told Asharq Al Awsat that images of the 
"scattered body parts" of suicide bombers and the sight of 
wailing widows following the May 16, 2003 attacks in 
Casablanca jolted them and effectively extinguished their 
enthusiasm for jihad.  The girls ceased distributing their 
pamphlets, according to Asharq Al Awsat, and began backing 
away from their new terrorist friends, but too late to avoid 
arrest by Moroccan security forces for their activities. 
 
5.  (SBU) In a related story on August 30, the 
English-language Morocco Times website carried an interview 
with the twins' mother, Rachida El Charii, who thanked the 
King for pardoning her daughters.  Illiterate and without a 
television, Charii said she did not learn about her 
daughters' release until neighbors informed her.  Charii, 
whose husband reportedly left her when the girls were just 
two months old, blamed her daughters' terrorist activities on 
a tough life of extreme poverty.  She denied having any 
knowledge about the terrorist group that lured her daughters, 
but said that one day a "bearded man" came to her house and 
asked for her daughter's hand in marriage.  Charii refused 
and did not hear from the man again until it emerged later 
that it was he who had recruited her daughters into the 
terrorist group. 
 
6.  (SBU) COMMENT:  The story of the twins' fall into 
religious extremism is a tragic one, but the prospect of 
their reintegration into society following the King's amnesty 
offers hope.  The central role that images of injustices 
against Palestinians played in framing the sisters' 
anti-American views is a common theme among Moroccan young 
people.  The dramatic impact that the Casablanca bombings of 
May 16, 2003 had on changing the young girls' opinions of 
terrorism also echoes other reports and our own focus group 
interviews in 2004 (ref C).  END COMMENT. 
RILEY