Free Morocco’s political prisoners!

• Mouad Belghouat, who raps under the name El Haqed (The Indignant), recently imprisoned for a one year sentence, his trial based on the criticism of security forces in his song “Kilaab Addawla (Dogs of the State).”
• Younes Belkhedim, considered the poet of the February 20 Movement, recently sentenced to two years in prison.
• Nadia Yassine, noted Islamist activist and opponent of the monarchy.

As well as a great deal of others and amnesty for those previously convicted and sentenced. 

Check out Mamfakinch’s article (FR.) on the launch of their campaign to obtain amnesty for Morocco’s political prisoners.

For the afternoon crowd here on Tumblr, I wrote about imprisoned Moroccan revolutionary rapper El Haqed (The Indignant) for The Guardian’s Comment is free page this morning. 

Photograph: L7a9ed.com/Creative Commons

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.

• Violence is threatening the ceasefire in Syria, and the UN Security Council moved to authorize the deployment of unarmed monitors to try and preserve it.
• A new report from Human Rights Watch, “In Cold Blood,” details extra-judicial executions by Assad’s forces in Syria.
• This week, violence spilled over from Syria into Lebanon and Turkey.
• Bahraini journalist Ahmed Al Bosta was beaten and arrested in Manama.
• A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed that allows night raids in Afghanistan to continue, but under the auspices of Afghan forces.
• Afghanistan’s defense minister has announced plans to make personnel cuts to the Afghan security forces after NATO’s 2014 drawdown, amounting to a planned force reduction of about 230,000.
• Afghan president Hamid Karzai has brought up the idea of an early presidential election before the transition.
• Pakistan sets new conditions for re-engagement with the US, including and end to drone attacks and an end to the use of Pakistan as a land route for arms transport to Afghanistan.
• Myanmar and its Karen rebels are in peace negotiations made more favorable by the recent political wins for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party. 
• Awkward but predictable: North Korea’s much-hyped long-range rocket broke apart shortly after launch, probably not even reaching the first stage of separation. Here is the White House statement (as well as the NORAD/Northcom statement).
• The 20th anniversary of the war in Bosnia served as a reminder of wounds that have persisted over the past two decades.
• Rwanda also reflected on a painful anniversary, marking the 1994 genocide.
• Sudan breaks off talks with South Sudan.
• Two Marines were killed during a training exercise when their V-22 crashed in Morocco.
• London’s Metropolitan Police say that their Anti-Terrorism Hotline may have been hacked and conversations recorded. 
• About 110,000 active-duty service-members took prescription sedatives, anti-depressants, narcotics, anti-psychotics and anti-anxiety drugs last year. 8% of the active-duty Army is on sedatives; 6% are on anti-depressants. This marks an eightfold increase since 2005. The Battleland Blog calls this ”yet another mental IED planted by recycling troops back into combat.”
• The Army surveyed 40,000 of its members to check up on its own report card and gets an A for having pulled through the last decade. Three cheers for bending but not breaking.
• Active duty Army whistleblower LTC Daniel Davis was on Democracy Now!
• A new report from CNAS looks at veterans post-service and their transition into civilian life.
• Homelessness among female veterans is climbing, even as overall veteran homelessness declines.
• And, for some nerdy fun, a statistical analysis of The Hunger Games: “Hunger Games survival analysis: in a Cox proportional hazards model, which covariates are associated with the odds (or hazard ratios) being ever in your favor?”

Photo: An Afghan horseman rides beside Qargha Lake in Kabul at sunset. April 5. Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty.

Picture of the Day: Park de Ligue Arabe, Casablanca, Morocco. 28-year-old Rachid Ait Yahi, who is currently unemployed, like more than 30 percent of Morocco’s youth population, skateboards with friends.

Check out: TIME Lightbox’s photo slideshow by Yuri Kozyrev, “The New Islamists.”

Read: “The King and I: Freedom and Incarceration in Morocco,” which profiles El-Haked (The Indignant), a revolutionary rapper who has now been imprisoned by the monarchy for the second time.

Photo Credit:  Yuri Kozyrev/TIME . Via.

View more Picture of the Day posts. Submit a photo.

A solidarity poster en français supporting the Moroccan reform/revolutionary movement: “Long live the fight of the Moroccan people! Freedom for the revolutionary prisoners! Down with the reactionary Moroccan regime and with French imperialism! 

[via]

Three suspects arrested for connection to the Marrakech bombing.  A remotely detonated nail bomb that was set off on April 28th at the popular Argana Café in Marrakech, Morocco.  16 people were injured and 23 were killed. Counterterrorism experts sifting through the aftermath (pictured above) concluded that it was remotely detonated and not a suicide attack as first speculated.  The three suspects are all Moroccan, and their leader is reportedly “loyal to Al-Qaeda.”  Officials say he had tried to plan the attacks in Chechnya and Iraq before finally finding success in Morocco. The implication seems to be that this was somehow related to Al-Qaeda or Islamic fundamentalism, but that particular connection has yet to be well-established.  Read more at the Guardian. 

Photo Credit: Abdeljalil Bounhar/AP