Wikileaks Cable on Morocco's Military Released: "MOROCCO'S MILITARY: ADEQUATE, MODERNIZING, BUT
FACING BIG CHALLENGES'.
'The Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR) are modernizing but remain weighed down by long-standing problems. King Mohammed VI, who in 1999 inherited a military in need of professionalization, has implemented some needed reforms, but much remains to be done. Civilian control, if ascribed to the person of the King, is complete, but there is no real Defense Ministry. Outside the FAR, there is only a small administration. The military remains plagued by corruption,
an inefficient bureaucracy, low levels of education in the ranks, periodic threats of radicalization of some of its soldiers, political
Marginalization, and the deployment of most of its forces in the Western Sahara.
There have been some indications of pending changes in the leadership. In general, the U.S. and Morocco share a robust military relationship with prospects for even closer ties in the future. The health of the relationship is evident by increased U.S.-Moroccan military training exercises and Morocco's purchase of sophisticated weapons from the U.S. to include 24 F-16s this year. We anticipate that the U.S.-Moroccan military relationship will continue to flourish but Morocco's ability to absorb its new high-end military purchases and restrictions on high quality Moroccan
information sharing with our attaches represent two challenges ahead. This mission-coordinated report draws heavily on valuable reporting and analysis from the embassy's military components, the Defense Attache Office and the Office of Security Cooperation'"
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