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DE RUEHRB #0123/01 0431458
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P 121458Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1207
INFO RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO PRIORITY 0205
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000123 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/RPM, NEA/RA AND NEA/MAG 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/12/2020 
TAGS: MARR PREL NATO MO
SUBJECT: DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL BISOGNIERO BRIEFS NATO 
CHIEFS OF MISSION ON MEDITERRANEAN DIALOGUE 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Samuel L. Kaplan for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary:  NATO Deputy Secretary General Bisogniero 
had a full day of meeting with Moroccan officials and 
diplomats from NATO countries on January 25.  After opening 
an all-day seminar on the Mediterranean Dialogue, he met with 
the Minister of Interior, the Chief of Staff of the Armed 
Forces, the Director General of the external intelligence 
service, Moroccan parliamentarians and diplomats.  Bisogniero 
emphasized Morocco,s positive role in the Mediterranean 
Dialogue; foresaw a larger role for Morocco; requested that 
the next meeting of the NATO Policy Group take place in 
Morocco; and praised Morocco,s moderate role and policies, 
thanking Morocco for participating in K-FOR and Operation 
Active Endeavor (OAE).  Bisogniero said Morocco wanted an 
official intelligence exchange program with NATO; wished to 
continue to increase the level of military-to-military 
cooperation; and deserved praise for hosting the November 
2009 Intelligence Exchange Conference in which all seven 
Mediterranean Dialogue countries participated.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) On January 25, following a day-long seminar at the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation on the 
&Mediterranean Dialogue and the New NATO Strategic Concept: 
Seize the Momentum for a Boosting and Reinforcing the 
Dialogue,8 Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero, the North Atlantic 
Treaty Organization (NATO) Deputy Secretary General, briefed 
NATO Chiefs of Mission resident in Rabat. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Ambassador Bisogniero started the one-hour brief by 
covering the principal messages from NATO to the Moroccans 
presented during the seminar.  He then discussed his three 
private meetings:  with Moroccan Minister of Interior Taieb 
Cherkaoui; the Inspector General of the Royal Armed Forces 
(FAR), &General de Corps d,Armee8 Abdelaziz Bennani; and 
the Director General of Morocco,s external intelligence 
agency (DGED) and de facto national security advisor, 
Mohammed Yassine Mansouri.  Ambassador Bisogniero noted that 
these meetings had not been scheduled as part of the seminar 
and were a complete surprise to him.  Additionally, he 
briefly commented on his meeting with Moroccan 
parliamentarians. 
 
------------------ 
Principal Messages 
------------------ 
 
¶4.  (C) Bisogniero summarized his principal messages as 
follows: 
-- NATO viewed Morocco as a leading country in the 
Mediterranean Dialogue; 
-- NATO desired to strengthen both political and military 
relations with Morocco; 
-- NATO requested that the next meeting of the NATO Policy 
Group take place in Morocco; and 
-- NATO praised Morocco,s moderate role and policies within 
the region and especially with regard to Morocco,s role in 
Kosovo (K-FOR) and its upcoming participation in Operation 
Active Endeavour (OAE). 
 
--------------- 
Being Practical 
--------------- 
 
¶5.  (C) Bisogniero said on a practical level that: 
-- Morocco was seeking an official Intelligence Exchange 
program with NATO; 
-- Both parties wished to continue to increase the level of 
military-to-military cooperation; 
-- 156 Moroccan officers participated in NATO events in 2009, 
a 112 percent from the previous year (Note:  He may have 
meant Moroccan persons and not just officers.  End Note.); 
-- Morocco deserved praise for hosting the November 2009 
Intelligence Exchange Conference in which all seven 
Mediterranean Dialogue countries participated; 
-- NATO wanted Morocco to participate in civil affairs 
programs; 
-- NATO stressed the importance of the Individual Cooperation 
Program (ICP).  Morocco wanted a signed ICP, similar to those 
of Jordan, Israel, and Egypt by February 2010; and 
-- NATO was drafting a new Strategic Concept, with a larger 
role for Morocco. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Meetings with Moroccan Officials 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) Ambassador Bisogniero briefly mentioned that in his 
meeting with Moroccan parliamentarians, he both noted, and 
asked for, a continuation of the increase in links between 
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Moroccan Parliament. 
 
¶7.  (C) During Bisogniero,s meeting with Minister of 
Interior Taieb Cherkaoui, the Deputy Secretary General said 
the two had discussed the defined &Moroccan Area of 
Operations8 in relation to the security of the Sahel and the 
Sahara.  The Minister stressed that the Sahel was the &rear 
base of the development of terrorism.8  He further stressed 
that Morocco was able to link drug trafficking to terrorism. 
(Comment:  This is a relationship that the Mission has 
not/not been able to confirm in Morocco.  End Comment.) 
Cherkaoui stressed Morocco,s eradication of 60,000 hectares 
of cannabis fields and its disruption of 2,300 illegal 
migrant networks.  Ambassador Bisogniero asked that Morocco 
would increase participation in Civil Emergency Action 
Planning exercises. 
 
¶8.  (C) Ambassador Bisogniero spent the longest part of the 
hour discussing his meeting with the leader of the Moroccan 
FAR.  He said General Bennani desired to increase 
military-to-military cooperation with NATO.  General Bennani 
also discussed Moroccan peacekeeping operations in the 
Balkans, adding that Morocco would soon present its plan for 
a decrease in K-FOR operations as NATO withdrew in what was 
termed a &scale-down.8   General Bennani asked Ambassador 
Bisogniero for NATO,s scale-down plan before presenting 
Morocco,s plan.  The two also discussed Morocco,s 
participation in Operation Active Endeavour (OAE). 
Ambassador Bisogniero noted that Morocco had signed the 
Tactical Memorandum of Understanding (T-MOU) on October 22, 
¶2009.  The next phase for Moroccan participation in OAE would 
be the certification of their ships -- probably in 2011. 
Morocco planned to deploy one of its two current Floreal 
class frigates to OAE, with plans that one of its newly 
acquired Sigma class frigates could deploy to OAE after 2013. 
 Ambassador Bisogniero pointed out that the Moroccans did not 
raise the politically sensitive issue of participating in OAE 
alongside Israeli naval units.  Ambassador Bisogniero said he 
had requested Moroccan participation in NATO,s 2011 Crisis 
Management Exercise (CMX) and asked that Morocco participate 
permanently in NATO,s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Relief 
Coordination Center (EADRCC).  Finally, Ambassador Bisogniero 
asked if Morocco would provide training -- in Morocco -- to 
Afghan National Army and security forces. 
 
¶9.  (C) During the meeting with the Director General of 
Morocco,s external intelligence agency (DGED), Mohammed 
Yassine Mansouri, the Deputy Secretary General said the two 
men had discussed the enhanced intelligence cooperation since 
¶2007.  The Moroccan DGED formally requested that Morocco be 
linked into the NATO Battlefield Information Collection and 
Exploitation System (BICES), a classified multi-nation 
intelligence exchange intranet.  Ambassador Bisogniero 
replied that this would be difficult in that it would require 
unanimity among all 28 NATO members to authorize, plus 
Moroccan financing if authorization were approved.  Mansouri 
replied that financing was not a problem.  Ambassador 
Bisogniero invited Mansouri to Brussels for an upcoming 
Special Committee meeting of the intelligence services. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) In closing, Spanish Ambassador to Morocco Luis 
Planas Puchades stated that Spain and Morocco had recently 
established very strong ties regarding counter drug smuggling 
and counter clandestine migration. 
 
 
***************************************** 
Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website; 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Moro cco 
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KAPLAN