Seven years after September 11th, Maghreb citizens reflect on the lasting impact of terror

2008-09-12

The September 11th, 2001 attacks in the United States left a lasting impact on the Maghreb region. Following similarly bloody operations in Algeria and Morocco, many realised the threat of terrorism affects everyone and requires a comprehensive approach.

Said Jameh and Achira Mammeri in Algiers, Sarah Touahri in Rabat and Jamel Arfaoui in Tunis contributed to this report for Magharebia—12/09/08

[Getty Images] In the seven years since the September 11th attacks in the United States the Maghreb region has also been heavily affected by terrorist attacks.

On September 11, 2001, four aircraft hijacked by terrorists crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and a field in Pennsylvania, causing the deaths of nearly 3,000 people.

On April 11th, 2007 at 10 in the morning, another symbolic building, this time in Algeria, was targeted. A car bomb exploded at the Government Palace in Algiers. A few minutes later, another car exploded near a police station in Bab Ezzouar, in the eastern suburbs of Algiers, with a gruesome death toll: 50 killed, almost all of them civilians.

The carnage continued. On December 11th, 2007, al-Qaeda struck once more, killing dozens of innocent people in two simultaneous suicide attacks carried out in two residential districts of Algiers. The first was outside the Constitutional Council. The second suicide bomber targeted the UN offices, claiming the lives of at least 31 victims, of whom 17 were UN employees. Another 170 people were wounded.

"On the 11th of each month, I try to limit my journeys, and when possible I prefer to stay at home," Said, a public sector worker, said. "Terrorists are prepared to do anything. Committing an attack on this date ensures they’ll have a massive media impact."

But not everyone believes the timing reflects a strategy by al-Qaeda, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks in the United States and Algeria.

[Getty Images] On April 11th, 2007 car bombs targeting the Government Palace in Algiers and a police station in the suburb of Bab Ezzouar killed 50 people, almost all of them civilians.

"The date is irrelevant; they can strike wherever and however they wish," says Karim. "Their objective is to cause as much damage as possible, regardless of how they do it or what day they choose," he told Magharebia.

Al-Qaeda terrorists can carry out their operations at any moment, noted Algeria security expert Abderrahim Saber, citing the Boumerdès attack of August 14th, 2008 and the Bouira attack perpetrated the next morning. Those attacks left over 60 people dead.

The attacks in Algeria were carried out by a local armed group affiliated with al-Qaeda, the GSPC, which found in Osama Bin Laden's group a new method to fight an old battle against the Algerian government.

Some believe the attacks in the United States have enabled Algeria's calls for assistance in confronting armed terrorist groups to finally be heard overseas. Before 2001, Security expert Mouloud Morchedi said, the bloody events plaguing Algeria since the 1990s were viewed as an internal affair.

For Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, who had also served as PM during the Black Decade, the 2001 attacks showed that terrorism was not a phenomenon restricted to Algeria, where insurgents sought to topple the existing regime in the 1990s, or to other Middle Eastern countries.

Algeria also came to realise that fighting terror required an international strategy in the framework of the United Nations. The country signed the UN Strategy for Combating Terrorism, which was ratified in the UN General Assembly on September 8th, 2006.

"The [2001] attacks removed the mask of international terrorism, which showed through these attacks that it didn't exempt anyone and [instead] helped distort the image of Muslims and Islam," said Samir, an employee in a private communications enterprise.

Moroccans agree that the 2001 attacks in the United States distorted the image of Muslims in the world. "In the past, I could travel abroad without any problems. But since that murderous event, the procedures for obtaining visas have become very strict. Sometimes they even end up refusing to grant a visa to someone, without a valid reason," Mehdi Berrada, a bank worker, told Magharebia.

Sales assistant Maroua Aboulghait said September 11th will remain seared in everyone's memories because it shook the whole world.

"Since that date, terrorism started to break out everywhere, even in our country, which has always been stable. You feel that the State has become very rigorous at the security level, to the point where you sometimes wonder if the authorities are exaggerating things in their fight against the threat of terrorism," she said.

[File] A suicide bomber killed himself in a Casablanca internet café on March 11th, 2007. A string of subsequent suicide bombings reminded citizens of the May 2003 attacks that killed 45.

On March 11th, 2007 – three years exactly after the deadly train bombings in Spain – a suicide bomber blew himself up in an internet café in Casablanca. He was one of many terrorists who tried to strike the Moroccan city that year. Some blew themselves up while being chased by security forces. And two, on April 14th, targeted the US consulate and its cultural centre in the city. The 2007 attacks reminded Moroccans of one day in May 2003, when a series of suicide bombings left 45 people killed.

The dismantling of a number of networks in just the last year has shown that the threat of terrorism still exists.

Given its strategic position opening onto Europe, Morocco has been widely affected by terrorism, international relations professor Taj Eddine El Houceini told Magharebia. The September 11th attacks gave the green light for a rash of other operations at home and around the world and demonstrated to Moroccans that the threat of terrorism is real.

"September 11th had an effect at the security level, but also where investment and tourism are concerned," he said. He noted, however, that Morocco is "one of the countries least affected by the repercussions of these attacks when compared with Algeria and other countries in the Middle East".

The chairman of the justice and legislation committee in the first chamber of parliament, Habib Choubani, told Magharebia that the 2001 attacks had negative repercussions for several countries, including Morocco, which, he said, "stepped up the security side of things and the exchange of information, at the expense of the human rights aspect".

The interior ministry has said that Morocco has just one choice; to keep watch and eradicate the evil, particularly with the persistent threats of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

In Tunisia, most observers agree that the war on terror needs more than rigorous security measures.

Political analyst Borhane Besais contends that the attacks in the United States have allowed the formation of an international solidarity movement against terrorism. "The war on terror has become one of the constants in international relations."

He adds, however, that terrorism cannot be eradicated by security means alone. Terrorism and extremism will exist "as long as the choice is unilateral and is based on the security approach and completely ignores the fair development approach for creating a more equal world," he said.

Security expert Slaheddine Jourchi agrees that more than just heightened security is needed. "The issue doesn't have just a security and intelligence dimension, but it must be addressed in a more profound way on all levels," he said, suggesting that an intellectual and cultural debate must be initiated to identify the roots of violence in Arab and Muslim societies.

"We must confess that the political, economic and social atmosphere in our area is a sick and strained atmosphere; something that has been, and is still, feeding extremist groups and giving them more power and energy," Jourchi told Magharebia.

"Without reviewing the policies and options in the Arab region, the al-Qaeda crisis will become yet more severe."

Lotfi Lamaari, chief editor of weekly magazine al-Haqaiq, saw the signs of destruction with his own eyes at "Ground Zero", the site of the tragedy in New York. He considers the attacks to be a shame on mankind "because the victims were innocent people who left behind grief in the hearts of children, wives and mothers."

"As an Arab and a Muslim, I can't but apologise for all humanity for the attacks committed by people who relinquished their humanity and turned into monsters."

Laamari notes how people became more suspicious of each other in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

"Arabs in all airports have become the subject of suspicion and doubt from other travellers, policemen and border guards; they have become the second victim after the victims of the twin towers," he commented.