Abdelilah Issou is a Moroccan dissident officer. He recounts what he experienced within the Moroccan army, the corruption within the royal army, and the serious Israeli projects in Morocco…
Met by TSA, he recounts what he experienced within the army and the practices that encouraged him to desert, practices which, he assures, are still current.
He also evokes the untenable economic and social situation of the kingdom, the errors of the monarchy, the repeated absences of Mohammed VI, the question of Western Sahara, normalization with Israel, tensions with Algeria, and the blackmail done to Spain.
The testimony he provides on the functioning and state of mind of the royal Moroccan army, which is “plagued” by corruption, is particularly interesting, being that of an officer who knew it from the interior.
“Israeli biological weapons laboratories in Morocco”
Abdelilah Issou, who has been living in Spain for 20 years, served in the Moroccan army between 1988 and 2000. He spent most of his career in Western Sahara. He left the army with the rank of lieutenant after having suffered all kinds of bullying and reprisals for having refused to condone the embezzlement in which his superiors were engaged.
Foodstuffs, fuel, and others, nothing escapes the predation of senior officers of the Moroccan royal army. “Junior officers must sign to enrich the corps commanders,” he summarizes.
High Moroccan officers are “businessmen” and it was the late King Hassan II himself who wanted it that way. “After the (failed) coups of 1971 and 1972, he brought together his majors and told them: don’t play politics, make money,” says the former Moroccan army officer.
Even the concentration of troops along the separation wall in Western Sahara also aims to distance the army from the centers of power and reduce the risk of a putsch.
The analysis fits perfectly with the facts: since the failed coups of Generals El Madhbouh and Oufkir and the outbreak of the Western Sahara conflict, the Moroccan army has no longer attacked the monarchy.
In the Moroccan army, “everything is for sale”
Ranks, transfers, and leaves are also monetized. Abdelilah Issou remembers an offer made to him to pay between 40,000 and 60,000 dirhams to be assigned to a “nice unit” in the North.
Paradoxically, the most “beautiful units” are those stationed in Western Sahara. The ex-lieutenant describes them as “gooses that lay golden eggs”. To lead a battalion in this area, you had to invest no less than $100,000 at the time.
And when the king’s generals do not divert soldiers’ rations or negotiate transfers of officers, they take a tithe from drug trafficking on the Algerian borders and in the Rif.
Abdelilah Issou served for six months in the region, but it was his time in the infantry in Western Sahara that marked him the most. It is in this area that the soldiers suffer the most: lack of water, suffocating heat, insufficient food, snakes, scorpions…
Predation and embezzlement logically impacted the living conditions of soldiers in the cantonments, which, according to the dissident officer, killed their “fighting spirit”.
This was particularly the case in Western Sahara where corps commanders fled before Polisario attacks and intervention units only intervened to collect the dead.
And things have not changed, assures our interlocutor. “The only change I see is the use of drones in the liberated territories,” he says. And again, current personnel have “no combat experience”.
Abdelilah Issou describes a situation of disintegration within Moroccan units, with desertions, as has been reported recently, suicides, and rebellions.
“If the Polisario wins, the Moroccan regime will fall”
The determination of the Moroccan Makhzen to keep Western Sahara under occupation is explained, according to the dissident officer, by the fact that this issue is vital for the survival of the monarchy. “They know that if the Polisario wins, the regime will fall,” he said, adding that this is also the analysis of all the secret services and diplomats of other countries.
This is why Moroccan leaders are “ready to ally with the devil”. The normalization with Israel, which was concluded in 2020, is the perfect illustration of this.
A transaction in which Morocco has, according to the opponent, “gained nothing.” Israel has not even recognized the Moroccan nature of the Sahara,” he notes.
As for the weapons that Tel Aviv can supply to Rabat, they are outdated and, in any case, they are not free, which only aggravates the kingdom’s already heavy debt. Morocco is one of the most indebted countries in Africa, with a stock of more than $65 billion.
The exclusive winner of the normalization agreements is Israel, assures the dissident who reveals what is hidden in the ballet of Israeli soldiers in Morocco. Already, he reveals, Israeli research laboratories on biological weapons have been relocated to Morocco under the guise of scientific research centers.
“It’s extremely serious,” he said, referring to the possibility of using Moroccans as guinea pigs in these laboratories disguised as hospitals.
For the former Moroccan officer, Morocco could constitute a sort of rear base for Israel in the event of a conflict in the Middle East.
“The major decisions are made in Tel Aviv and are transmitted to Rabat via Azoulay (André, advisor to the king, editor’s note),” he adds.
Israel’s presence in Morocco constitutes a danger for Algeria, with which it has “old scores to settle”.
The Israelis are known for not hesitating to carry out sabotage actions. They can attack Algerian energy installations and hydrocarbon transport ships, Issou warns.
Otherwise, in the event of a clash between Morocco and Algeria, the Israeli army will not intervene, it will at most be able to provide equipment, expertise or diplomatic support to the United States or Europe. “They are not ready to die for Morocco, they who, for a single soldier, free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners,” analyzes Abdelilah Issou.
The former Moroccan officer assures that if war breaks out with Algeria, the Moroccans will have no chance, and they know it. “With a good strategy, the Algerian army can reach Rabat in 48 hours,” he said.
For him, normalization is a “new form of protectorate”, “the people are against it” but the army is “powerless”.
The Moroccan army “plagued by corruption”
The role of a soldier is today “a job to survive” in Morocco, which has a high unemployment rate and where prices are “higher than in Madrid”. “There is no work. To join the army, the gendarmerie, or customs, you have to pay,” he maintains.
The situation is aggravated by corruption which, the former officer believes, will only disappear with the end of the regime and the establishment of a Republic.
To make matters worse, King Mohammed VI is constantly absent (which is nothing new, according to our interlocutor), and his image is tarnished by his association with the Azaitar brothers, in addition to the multiple scandals that splash the monarchy on the scene. international, such as the corruption of European deputies.
Abdelilah Issou even believes that he knows that Mohammed VI is considering abdicating in favor of his son Moulay Hassan, in a scenario similar to that of Juan Carlos and Felipe in Spain.
Regarding Spain, he only sees as an explanation for the attitude of Pedro Sánchez’s government the probability that it is “held” by the Moroccans who listened to his telephone.
Clearly, the dissident officer does not believe that Spain gave in to migratory blackmail.
“The entry of migrants into Ceuta and Melilla has a solution. It is the story of Pegasus which is serious,” he believes, not also excluding the corruption of Spanish leaders, citing the case of members of a ministerial delegation returning from Rabat with “heavy suitcases” to seen and known to everyone.
