TheGeneral Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (Arabic:المديرية العامة لمراقبة التراب الوطني;Tamazight:ⵜⴰⵎⵀⵍⴰ ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵜⴰⵢⵜ ⵏ ⵓⵎⴰⵜⵔ ⵏ ⵡⴰⴽⴰⵍ ⴰⵏⴰⵎⵓⵔ;French:Direction Général de Surveillance du Térritoire;DGST) is the civilian domestic intelligence service ofMorocco. It is tasked with the monitoring and anticipation of potentially subversive domestic activities.
The DGST is under the administrative supervision of theMinistry of Interior and specializes in counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, and protection of economic and scientific assets.[3] It has a number of central services, led by the Cabinet of the Director-General, alongside a number of territorial brigades which constitute local representations of the DGST across the country and within some government departments.[4][3] The DGST also has aspecial forces unit, the Rapid Intervention Group (GIR), which intervenes in counter-terrorism raids.[5][6]
TheCentral Bureau of Judicial Investigations (French:Bureau central d'investigations judiciaires, BCIJ; known colloquially as the Moroccan FBI) is thelaw enforcement branch of the DGST.[7][8] Based inSalé, it was founded in 2015 pursuant to a law passed following the2011 Marrakesh bombing which gave officers of the DGST the same legal status as police officers.[9][8] The BCIJ is subordinate to the DGST but under the supervision of the Public Prosecutor's Office.[10]
The Police for Radio Communications (French:Police des communications radioélectriques, PCR), colloquially known as the "radio center", is the DGST'ssignal intelligence (SIGINT) directorate.[4][3][11] The directorate intercepts thousands of communications per day, including phone calls, text messages, faxes, and e-mails.[4][13]
The PCR was founded in the 1960s under King Hassan II to help mitigate coup d'états against his rule.[13][11] The DST sought American expertise to reform the PCR for Internet surveillance following the 2003 Casablanca attacks.[14][13] In July 2008, twenty members of Morocco'sHouse of Councillors were arrested and found guilty of corruption following intelligence supplied by the DST from intercepted phone calls by the PCR.[13]
The few dozen technicians for the PCR are specialized in interceptingcommunications satellites, and cracking encrypted communications.[4] The PCR reportedly provides daily reports of a few hundred selected intercepts from national and international communications to the DGST's Cabinet of the Director-General.[13][4]
As of 2010, the PCR is reported to have operated a computer system which allowed the DST to perform keyword searches from intercepted e-mails, phone calls throughspeech recognition, and documents throughhandwriting recognition.[13] According to these reports, system reportedly has automatic traffic sorting and has a dictionary of keywords, phone numbers, and e-mails of interest for monitoring.[4]
On May 16, 1956, a year after Morocco gained its independence, theGeneral Directorate for National Security (French:Sûreté Nationale; DGSN) was founded as the country's national police force and was modeled after the FrenchNational Police.[15][16][17] Counter-subversion was led by the 7th police district inCasablanca and was led by Houssine Seghir, aplumber in theMers Sultan district and ex-member of an anti-colonial resistance movement in Casablanca.[15][8]
In 1958, the DGSN was expanded with seven counter-subversion forces labeled "cabinets".[17][18][19] The most notorious of these cabinets wasCabinet no. 1 or CAB 1, which was the cabinet charged with political affairs.[20][21] Among those cabinets wasCabinet no. 7, known as CAB 7 or "the Seventh", which was tasked with interrogations.[19][22]
In the early 1960s, the CAB 1 became a fully-fledged intelligence service after a restructuring led by threeCIA officers and French experts.[18][20][22] King Hassan II, an ardent anti-communist, held close ties with Western intelligence services during theCold War.[8] According toAhmed Boukhari, the CAB 1 had 300 agents and had brigades in six cities.[23][8] The CAB 1 ran a number of secret prisons, which they codenamed "fixed points".[24] In 2001, Boukhari implicated the CAB 1,Mossad, and the FrenchSDECE in the 1965 disappearance ofMehdi Ben Barka.[25][26][27]
In 1972, following two coup attempts against KingHassan II, the King dissolved the DGSN's "cabinets" including the CAB 1.[28][26] On January 12, 1973, following the dismantling of the CAB 1 a year prior, aRoyal Dahir was signed by King Hassan II creating the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (French:Direction de la surveillance du territoire; DST).[3][27][29]
Modeled after itsFrench counterpart, the Dahir set the DST's main responsibility as "safeguarding and protecting the security of the State and its institutions".[30][3] The DST was also tasked with "looking for and to prevent, through the collection of intelligence, activities that are inspired, or undertaken or supported by subversive or terrorist movements" while also being responsible for "responding to interference by external foreign agents".[31] The same day, a military foreign intelligence service was created, theGeneral Directorate for Studies and Documentation (French:Direction Générale des Études et de la Documentation; DGED), also modeled after the FrenchSDECE.[27][8] The DST and the DGED were both led byAhmed Dlimi until his death in 1983.[27]
During theGlobal War on Terror, the DST held close cooperations with the CIA and provided an intelligence-gathering platform for theSahel.[8] In the 2000s, the DST held capabilities in technical eavesdropping and clandestine surveillance.[30]
In 2002, the DST received information regarding anal-Qaeda sleeper cell following intelligence received from an informant. After further investigation by the DST which involved eavesdropping, three Saudi nationals were arrested by theRoyal Gendarmerie for planning to attack an American warship off theStrait of Gibraltar.[30][32]
In January 2004, the DST led to the arrest of three underage girls who were planning to commit suicide bombing attacks in Casablanca after information received from a local informant.[30]
The DGST holds a large network of personal informants, which they use to obtainhuman intelligence (HUMINT).[30][13] The constant presence of the DGST has infused Moroccan society so deeply that informing the DGST has taken the status of a patriotic duty.[30]
In 2015, the DGST reportedly warned their French counterparts that ISIS leaderAbdelhamid Abaaoud was in Greece.[33] After the2015 Paris attacks masterminded by Abaaoud, the DGST also reportedly informed French authorities about Abaaoud's whereabouts and gave information about the Belgian cell behind the attacks.[33][34]
U.S. Secretary of StateMike Pompeo with Abdellatif Hammouchi, the Director-General of the DGST and DGSN, in 2019
Prior to the2016 Berlin truck attack, the DGST contacted the GermanFederal Intelligence Service (BND) regarding a terror cell in Berlin which included the perpetrator, Anis Amri. The DGST contacted the BND four times about Amri, who was named and marked as dangerous by the DGST, and provided information regarding his associates and links to ISIS alongside photographs of him.[35] In 2021, the DGST announced that they had dismantled 213 terrorist cells since 2002.[12]
On 8 September 2023,an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8Mw hitMarrakesh-Safi region of Morocco.[41][42] DGST along withDGSN has announced it will contribute MAD 50 million to Special Fund for Managing Earthquake Effects.[43][44][45]
The DST is mired in manytorture allegations and scandals.[46][47] As early as 2002 it operated theTemara interrogation centre, a black site for extraordinary renditions and interrogations on behalf of the United States.[48]After the2003 Casablanca bombings, the DST became involved in controversial interrogation methods to obtain confessions from suspects. After the 2011 Arab spring protest the secret detention centre is said to have been relocated to theAin Aouda secret prison. Additionally, it has been revealed that the United States paid Morocco USD $20 million to build a secret detention centre sometime in 2004–2006.[49]
In 2010,Zakaria Moumni a former MoroccanThai boxing champion, was arrested upon entering Morocco.[50] later revealed that he Zakaria Moumni tortured and then imprisoned on trumped-up charges, on instructions fromMounir Majidi (the secretary of kingMohammed VI) and the head of the DSTAbdellatif Hammouchi.[51] and the US official at the same yearAli Aarras, a Belgian citizen, was extradited to Morocco from Spain where he was cleared of terrorism charges because of lack of evidence. After his extradition to Morocco and subsequent trial, he was condemned by judgeAbdelkader Chentouf to 10-years in prison. The sentence was based on confessions, which according to Ali Aarras were obtained under torture.[52]
In February 2014, the director of theDGSTAbdellatif Hammouchi, while on an official visit to France, was summoned by a French judge to answer for torture allegations in various cases, including the case of Zakaria Moumni and theGdeim Izik protest camp suspects.[51][53] This caused a diplomatic incident and vivid protestations from the Moroccan state apparatus who responded by suspending judicial cooperation accords with France. And announced that it will sue the plaintiffs for libel.[51][53] However, the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior retracted all its lawsuits in France just days after filing them.[54]
^Amjahid, Von Mohamed; Müller, Daniel; Musharbash, Yassin; Zimmermann, Holger Stark und Fritz (2017-04-07)."Berlin Attack: "An Attack is Expected"".ZEIT ONLINE (in German). Retrieved2024-04-19.
^Prince Moulay Hicham El Alaoui (9 April 2014).Journal d'un Prince Banni: Demain le Maroc (Grasset ed.). Grasset.ISBN978-2-246-85166-0.2001. J'y rencontre un journaliste du Washington Post, Barton Gellman, l'un de mes anciens condisciples à Princeton, qui m'apprend – c'est alors un scoop – que le Maroc accueille un "site noir". Autrement dit, mon pays est impliqué dans les extraordinary renditions, c'est-à-dire qu'il fait partie des pays qui acceptent de recevoir sur leur sol, en toute illégalité, des prisonniers de la CIA pour les interroger à leur façon "musclée". Barton Gellman affirme en avoir les preuves. En effet, le 26 décembre 2002, il publie son enquête
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