CIA Reportedly Offered Top Moroccan Intelligence Chief US Citizenship and Senior Role

Appointed in 2005 by King Mohammed VI to head the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST), Hammouchi has upset all traditional concepts within the department. He has added a personal and original touch to this institution.

According to Jeune Afrique, "The DGST now appears to be a normalized and frequentable institution," before adding, quoting Mohamed Dkhissy, central director of the judicial police, "in four years he has accomplished what had not been done in several decades within the DGSN."

Hammouchi has accumulated a positive record within the two directorates, the DGSN and the DGST, thanks to his dedication and sense of duty. Discreet and not very worldly, this does not prevent him from encouraging his teams to be more open.

The spokesman for the DGSN, quoted by Jeune Afrique, declares "our motto is to hide nothing from public opinion except what is prohibited by law, whereas before the instruction was to communicate only the strict minimum provided for by law."

Abdellatif Hammouchi would have been contacted by the Director General of the CIA, George Tenet, with a view to poaching him, writes the weekly, before adding that a position at the CIA headquarters as well as American nationality had been offered to him; but he had declined the offer, stating "Moroccan I was born, Moroccan I will remain, Moroccan I will die."