Bombings
continued from page 1
attacks that targeted a luxury ho
tel, a Spanish club, a Jewish com
munity center, a Jewish cemetery
and a narrow street between an
expensive Italian restaurant and
the Belgian consulate. Three
suspects and a bomber who was
injured in the attacks were be
ing interrogated by police on
Saturday, according to the offi
cial Moroccan news agency.
More than 100 people were
wounded, Moroccan officials said.
Police conducting raids in connec
tion with the bombings arrested 27
Islamists on Saturday, Moroccan
media reported.
The bombings in this coastal
North African City followed Mon
day’s terrorist attacks on three resi
dential compounds in Riyadh, Sau
di Arabia.
A senior U.S. official said a new
al-Qaida pattern may be emerg
ing in which the primary targets
are not western, but rather mod
erate Islamic regimes supported
by the West.
Terrorists view the rulers of such
countries as apostates, allowing
Western and Jewish activity to exist
in their borders.
In mid February, an audiotaped
message said to be from bin Laden
called on Muslims to carry out sui
cide attacks as part of a holy war
against the United States. The
tape also urged Muslims to rise up
against several other governments,
including those in Saudi Arabia
and Morocco.
“We say to honest Muslims that
they must move, incite and mobi
lize the nation ... to liberate them
selves from the enslavement of
these oppressive, unjust, apostate
ruling governments, which in turn
are enslaved by America, and to es
tablish the rule of God on earth,
and the most eligible for liberation
are Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pak
istan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen,”
according to a translation of the
tape by Reuters.
Later that month, a Moroccan
court sentenced three al-Qaida
members to 10 years in prison for a
plot to blow up U.S. and British
warships. Prosecutors said the
men, Saudi Arabians, planned to
sail a dinghy filled with explosives
from Morocco into the Strait of
Gibraltar. The plot was similar to
the October 2000 suicide attack
that killed 17 sailors aboard the
USS Cole in Yemen.
Vince Gannistraro, a former CIA
counterterrorism chief, said Satur
day the Moroccan bombings show
the weakness of al-Qaida.
“They went after extremely soft
targets and lost 10 of their own
people,” Gannistraro said.
The Jewish community center
was empty at the time bombers set
off their explosives; it was Shabbat.
And the Jewish cemetery had been
closed for several years, Moroccan
officials said.
The buildings bombed on Friday
had marginal significance to al-Qai
da’s cause, Gannistraro said.
He called the targets “pathetic,”
noting that the bombers did not
target Americans or Britons. “The
fact that they did this indicates
weakness.”
Most of the dead and injured
were Moroccans, but about a half
dozen of the victims were French,
Spanish and Italian.
“The terrorism has no logic, and
it makes no sense for me because
to come here and do what they
tried to do, the people killed were
Moroccan nationals,” said Khalid
Boukhari, marketing director of
the posh Farah hotel, where an ex
plosion gutted the lobby. As work
ers rehung a picture of King Mo
hammed and cleared debris,
Boukhari said he was struggling to
understand why the hotel was tar
geted. Its ownership is “100 per
cent Arab. We have a hotel that
has nothing to do with Americans
or Jews,” he said.
Crowds gathered outside the
Spanish restaurant on Saturday
afternoon as Fatima Zaghloul
recalled the gruesome scene of
the previous night when her
building across the street was
rocked by what she thought was
an earthquake. She said she saw
“a big, bright explosion” and
one of the restaurant’s guards.
“His head was almost cut off,”
she said.
“I’m still scared now. It’s a catas
trophe,” she said. “Nobody thought
this would happen.”
© 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services. Rubin reported
from Casablanca, Young
from Washington.
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Festival
continued from page 1
“(Audience members) were troop
ers.”
Music was only part of the festi
val’s fare. The always-busy Bangkok
Grill and Daybreak Coffee were pop
ular among food booths. Both Pizza
Research Institute and Holy Cow
Cafe left their restaurants and set up
outdoors. For the second straight
year, vendors used a recyclable plate
and silverware system in order to re
duce waste.
“We’re really the only festival in
the nation that has this system,”
Bowers said. “It’s cutting-edge in
terms of low-impact.”
Individual stand-out acts includ
ed Portland-based instrumental
band Taarka, who heated up Friday
night with a rip-roarin’ set, which
extended an extra 15 minutes and
brought forth wild dancing from the
crowd. The band closed with an
over-the-top version of their popular
tune “Death Mouse.”
Street performer and local fa
vorite Hollow Reed played an im
promptu set with his 12-string gui
tar on the steps of the EMU
Amphitheater and provided his sen
timents on the festival.
“People are moving harmonious
ly one with the other,” he said.
Kathak Indian Dancers, a troupe
of four dancers contributed their tal
ents on Saturday. Later, The Sugar
Beets closed out the night and pro
vided a hungry crowd with a sweet,
energy-induced set.
These acts, however, were just
from the main stage. Crowds also
found refuge from either sun or rain
by checking out workshops and
performances in the three indoor
stages. The Buzz Coffeehouse was
especially popular and crowded on
Sunday for Celtic-band Tom’s
Kitchen. Jamaican drumming
troupe Mabrak was scheduled to
give a drum workshop in the EMU
Fir Room, but were only able to
perform.
Contact the Pulse reporter
at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com.
News brief
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