Washibgton/ Morocco News Board ---  The United States Marine Corps has deployed its “Few and Proud” to Morocco to take part in African Lion 2012, a joint and combined annual iteration sponsored by the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff (CJCS), scheduled by US Africa Command (AFRICOM), executed by Marine Force Africa (MARFORAF), and hosted by Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (RAF). The Marine contingent is comprised of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (special ops capable) (MEU(SOC)) and the 14th Marines, a reserve unit from Fort Worth, Texas. The exercise will serve to promote military cooperation, reinforce interoperability, and consolidate the two nations’ counter-terrorism strategy and merge their vision of regional stability.

Washington / Morocco Board News--     2011 will be remembered as the year a young Arab generation leaders, intellectuals, and parents thought to be politically vain, unengaged, timorous, convulsed and toppled three dictators and caused others to reassess their positions, make concessions, and reform their ways. So many died for intangible ideals such as freedom, social justice and equity, democracy. Others wanted nothing more than an honest job, a decent living, a dignified existence. Many hold Mohmmed Bouazizi’s self-immolation as the catalyst of the revolution that spread like wild fire.  Somehow his demise pinched a nerve many believed neuroparalytic.

Washington / Morocco Board News -  Surveying the Moroccan media’s coverage of today’s election, I got the impression the political parties are locked in a vicious, but healthy fight for power. I have intently read, listened, and watched as the leadership of the thirty political parties vying for a parliamentary majority reveled in exposing their grand vision of Morocco under their governance in newspapers and magazines and on national radio stations and television channels.

Washington / Morocco Board News -- A few days ago, Charlie Savage wrote an article for the Times reporting on a sub-rosa 50-page U.S. legal memorandum drafted in 2010 justifying the execution of a U.S. citizen without a trial.David Barron and Martin Lederman, the drafters of the memo and both decisive lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel then, posit that the killing of a U.S. citizen that has never been found guilty by a court of law is compatible with the character of the Constitution if the individual constitutes an eminent lethal threat to innocent Americans and the conditions for his arrest are prohibitive.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights – Association Marocaine des Droits Humains (AMDH) made public today, Tuesday July 12th, a pointed report on the July 1st constitutional referendum. It noted the government orchestrated grave transgressions that undermined the electoral process and influenced the electorate leading to a 98.5% in favor of the new constitution.

The confident and fantastically positive promulgations of the government’s official spokesperson, Khalid Naciri, who seems to have forgotten his moment of ignominy, that the revolution of the people AND the king – as he termed it – is on the eve of a historical attainment, that Morocco is a democracy,

Washington / Morocco Board News--    On May 17, 2011, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) advised congress on a possible foreign military sale (FMS) estimated at about 50 million U.S. dollars to Morocco. In a continuous effort to revamp its air force inventory, Morocco had submitted a military procurement order to the U.S. government for 20 AIM-9X-2 Sidewinder Block II Missiles;