While casting doubt on the ability of the Polisario leadership to handle " even a tiny area," the article's author Richard Miniter, U.S. investigative journalist and bestselling author, said that Morocco had proposed "fair solution" through autonomy initiative described by Obama Administration as “serious and credible".
Richard Miniter, who recently visited the Tindouf camps at the invitation of the separatists, said that "not less than five thousand people disappear into the desert each year (...), either returning to Morocco, or joining drug traffickers or al-Qaeda. "
The article's author notes that a simple visit to Tindouf camps and the southern provinces of Morocco highlights the stark and painful contrast which existed between Berlin East and Berlin West at the time of the Cold War.
On the one hand, says he, Morocco "a constitutional monarchy, with 30 political parties, which made sustained efforts to promote a prosperous and stable society in the South, built new ports and (...) new housing units displacing slum dwellings left by the Spaniards, in addition to the arrival of foreign investors in the hotel sector in particular. "
Conversely, "the Polisario does not tolerate the existence of political parties or even independent media," says Richard Miniter, author of two bestsellers on the list of New York Times entitled "Losing bin Laden" and "Shadow War".
In this article entitled " Letting another Qaeda bastion grow ", he argues that many leaders and members of the Polisario Front have "links with the terrorist group Al-Qaeda" in the Maghreb and the “lawless wastes of the Sahara are becoming the next Afghanistan”.
The terrorist network, he added, was behind the attacks in Morocco, "America's oldest ally in the region."
It also carried out attacks against police stations in Algeria and tried to target U.S. warships crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and the United States Embassy in Mali, says he.
In addition, he mentioned the kidnapping of dozens of operations carried out by the terrorist group against European nationals in the region, “extracting more than $20 million in ransom, enough to finance an army”.
In this context, Richard Miniter tells the story of Bashir Rguibi, "former propagandist" of separatists, who returned to Morocco, who claims to have visited "a stronghold of Al Qaeda located at Buirtaqsit, technically a territory under the control of Polisario, where Qaeda operatives buy machine guns and rocket launchers. "
Source: MAP
-News concerning Western Sahara issue/ Corcas