On Morocco’s Lobbying Effort in DC

I’ve been meaning to post an excerpt of my recent investigative piece on the Moroccan lobby’s activities in DC. By the way, FARA is a super useful tool and I’ve filled the piece with links to various records for those interested.

Morocco has advanced its message through organizations with anodyne names, such as the Moroccan American Cultural Center, Moroccan American Trade and Investment Council, and the Moroccan American Center for Policy, all of which are offshoots of the Moroccan American Center. The Moroccan American Center is a nonprofit funded and supervised by the Moroccan government. While these may sound like a cultural organization or an independent think tank, they are actually a vehicle for advancing the Moroccan regime’s interests.

Public records available on the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) site show the Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) has been actively lobbying U.S. policymakers immediately since its registration in 2004, in support of the priorities of the Moroccan regime.

MACP’s latest supplemental statement  also shows a long list of contacts with Congressmen and members of the media. It also includes a breakdown of MACP’s expenses, showing that the organization spent $648,590on consultants and another $183,279 on advertising and public relations — from May to October 2012.

MACP pushes the regime’s agenda on a wide array of issues, notably its territorial claims over the Western Sahara and its bilateral relationship with the United States. The policy section on MACP’s website lays out Morocco’s position on the Western Sahara dispute, linking to a 2009 letter sent to President Barack Obama by 233 Congressmen that warns of the emergence of al Qaeda in the region, and claims, “The single greatest obstacle impeding the security cooperation necessary to combat this transnational threat is the unresolved territorial dispute over the Western Sahara.”

Continue reading the piece on Free Arabs.

The Low Standard of the “Morocco Model”

A Moroccan model. Not to be confused with the “Morocco model.”

Certain factors come into play when this notion of a “Morocco model” is cited. It most often appears in Western mainstream outlets, later regurgitated by allies of the Moroccan regime under the guise of panel discussions, academic papers, and press releases. One of the most notorious of these allies has been the Moroccan American Center, a registered lobby for the Moroccan government. It operates under a neutral name, but its activities are far from neutral. Their panels have praised the regime’s “reforms,” their press releases read like talking points from state media, and they selectively highlight news in Morocco convenient to their narrative–that narrative being that Morocco is a model for the region.

When Morocco is touted as a model for the region, the forces of the status quo set a standard. A low standard at that. This standard applies to the average authoritarian regime and usually an ally of the United States (an ally out of geopolitical strategy, access to natural resources, etc). Morocco is presented as a model because it successfully marketed itself, after hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on PR strategy, as a liberal country meeting the demands of its people, while somehow, not changing much. This is complemented by the neoliberal economic policies that have made way for projects such as the monster Morocco Mall, the pending construction of the French-built TGV (high-speed train), and dozens of luxurious residential projects propped up by the investments pouring in from the Gulf. It is a delicate image drawn up by very fragile short-term policies that only need a light splash to wash away.

Beyond this image, Morocco is handling a serious budget deficit, which the proposed 2013 budget bill does little to stabilize in the longterm with the countless tax exemptions to the wealthy. The violent repression of protests has continued. Activists face detainment for the self-expression of their political views. Artists are slapped with jail time for lyrics. Journalists lose accreditation simply over reporting facts. Newspapers are censored over printing political cartoons. The list goes on.

There is an inherent danger behind this reference to Morocco as a regional model. It is the most obvious example of how threatened outside powers are by the strength of people fed up with the socioeconomic circumstances polarized by state policies, paired with decades of authoritarianism. Morocco is a model for the authoritarian regime desperate to preserve itself in a region where its counterparts are falling one by one. It’s a model for regimes serving the foreign interests of the United States and the European Union over serving its people. Where cutesy words eluding to vague notions associated with democracy replace the concrete and legal separation of powers, Morocco serves as a prime model.

When a State Department press release praises Morocco and its “path” towards reform, it is not praising the courage of the people who demanded change in the face of police truncheons. It’s a cautious acknowledgement of the voices advocating for reform, while simultaneously breathing a sigh of relief at the regime’s ability to maneuver back into its autocratic comfort zone. Calling Morocco a model is a message to other countries in the region: “Democratic reforms are cool and all, but not at once please. Just take it easy. Who needs change now, right? Here are some franchises and shiny aid packages to keep you busy. Your reforms and demands for change can wait another 3 or 4 years!”

I can officially move on.

I just had a flashback of a funny memory. When I was first getting into blogging last year, I remember coming across the most pro-regime post ever, written by WaPo blogger, Jennifer Rubin. It was published less than 2 weeks before the constitutional referendum and read like a piece from la MAP. Here’s an excerpt:

The constitution will no doubt be opposed by the secular left, which would like to abolish the monarchy altogether, and by the Islamists who will bristle at all that diversity, especially the king’s role in protecting other faiths. But the king is still seen as a beloved and unifying figure in the country, and the opposition is not expected to be able to vote down the proposed constitution.

[…]On Sunday there were peaceful protests of a few thousand calling for reforms to go further. No one was killed. Parties opposing the constitution aren’t banned. There is, it seems, something to be learned from the Moroccan experience.

I wrote her a lengthy email responding to some of the claims she made in her post. The following is a screenshot of her reply to my email (click on image to view her whole response):

I genuinely didn’t know if I should’ve taken her calling me a man as an insult or a compliment. Or if she just couldn’t tell that Samia is a female name. Anyways, today, I was doing some research for an upcoming piece and was going through the records of the Moroccan lobby on the Department of Justice’s websites. I came across this link. It’s a bit old, from 2010. But towards the end, it lists members of the media the Moroccan lobby has made contact with (whether via email, meeting, etc.). It also lists what topics the Moroccan lobby brought up.  I had a good laugh at this:

Now that explains why Al Oula was citing her blog posts as an official source and representation of American public opinion on Moroccan affairs!