[meteorite-list] Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, and Safety or Terrorism Concerns

From: Raremeteorites <raremeteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 17:58:19 -0700
Message-ID: <8221F79D1B224C62B9ACC2A20FFA628F_at_HPDESKTOP>

The entire world appears to be in chaos and international relationships are
at the worst since World War II but I would still feel safe gong to Morocco.

Adam

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne Black via Meteorite-list" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
To: <john at meteoriteusa.com>; <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 5:46 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, and Safety or
Terrorism Concerns


> Yes, but...........
>
> Tunisia is one country I would have felt perfectly safe going back to. The
> Bardo Museum is one of the top museums for archaeology and mosaics.
> And look what happened.
>
>
> Anne M. Black
> www.IMPACTIKA.com
> IMPACTIKA at aol.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: J Sinclair via Meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> To: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
> Cc: Meteorite List <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Mon, Mar 23, 2015 6:38 pm
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, and Safety or
> Terrorism Concerns
>
>
> Mike,
>
> Morocco is where the concentration of the meteorite trading with
> our
> Country, the US, is taking place. There are many Moroccans that visit
> this
> country to sell at the two biggest gem, mineral and fossil shows
> here, Tucson
> and Denver. They have been coming for years, long before
> the large increase in
> the number of meteorites that are being found in
> the Sahara. With a passport
> and visa, there is free travel between our
> country and theirs. There are a lot
> of Americans that travel there.
> The country's abundance of minerals, fossils
> and meteorites make it a
> popular place for people that have an interest in
> natural history to
> travel to.
>
> A quick look at the list from the State
> Department doesn't list
> Morocco as a country with travel
> warnings.
>
> http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/alertswarnings.html
>
> In
> fact, the Meteoritical Society held its annual meeting in
> Casablanca just six
> months ago. It was attended by scientists and
> meteorite enthusiasts from around
> the world.
>
> Desert borders can be blurry though. Americans haven't been safe
> along
> some of those borders for decades.
>
> Is Morocco a place you would be
> afraid to go to?
>
> Morocco shouldn't be grouped with the countries that have
> travel
> warnings just because Morocco is on the same continent with them
> and
> because of theories about social tolerance and the opinion of it being
> a
> good place to strike Western interests. There are many places that
> fit that
> criteria.
>
> The US State Department does warn us about travel to Mexico,
> the
> Ukraine, Iraq, Haiti, Honduras, Columbia and many other places
> including
> some that you mention. Morocco isn't one of them.
>
> Terrorist events over the
> last few decades have shown us that we may
> not be safe in places like Boston,
> New York, Oklahoma City, Paris and
> many others.
>
> Traveling anywhere including
> just down the street isn't as safe as it
> used to be. Morocco is one place I
> would feel comfortable traveling
> to. Paris and Boston too.
>
> Best regards,
> John
>
> On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 6:19 PM, Galactic Stone & Ironworks
> via
> Meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
>> Hi
> List,
>>
>> Let me preface this - I do not want this to get political and I
> want
>> to stick to how this situation impacts the meteorite world. I do not
>>
> want to engage or ignite a discussion about religion or politics.
>>
>> I have
> been reading stories on the news wires about the operation of
>> terrorist cells
> and training camps in the remotest regions of the
>> Saharan Desert. It is no
> surprise that parts of Egypt, Libya,
>> Algeria, and Mali are used as havens or
> hideouts for terrorists -
>> these countries have had widely publicized problems
> with terrorist
>> activity, especially in the remote areas that are far from the
> central
>> government's control.
>>
>> However, up until recently (the last
> several months), we have not
>> heard much about terrorist activity in Morocco
> and Mauritania. While
>> Morocco is still considered mostly safe for
> Westerners, neighboring
>> Mauritania keeps popping up in the media stories
> about Al-Qaeda and/or
>> ISIS activity. A few known higher-level terrorists
> being tracked by
>> Western intelligence services are known to have spent
> considerable
>> time in Mauritania (ostensibly at training camps in the remote
> desert)
>> before going abroad to carry out attacks.
>>
>> Morocco has a
> long-standing history of cooperation and honorable
>> relations with the USA and
> that cooperation extends into the realm of
>> military black ops and
> intelligence. Indeed, Morocco hosted a CIA
>> "black site" for the "rendition"
> of terrorist suspects during the
>> years after the 9/11 attacks.
> Theoretically, this close relationship
>> with the West and social tolerance of
> Moroccan culture in general may
>> make Morocco a very tempting target for
> terrorist cells looking to
>> strike at Western interests, Western tourists, or
> secular/moderate
>> Islamic regimes that the terrorist hardliners consider to
> be
>> heretical.
>>
>> While Mauritania has been mostly safe in recent years,
> there are
>> isolated incidents of violence against Westerners by
> Al-Qaeda-linked
>> cells. Given the recent high-profile museum attack in
> Tunisia, does
>> this situation make any Western meteorite hunters nervous? Are
> the
>> more-remote regions of Morocco and/or Mauritania still safe for
>>
> Westerners?
>>
>> Are there any US or European hunters who have canceled plans
> to hunt
>> for meteorites in Morocco, Mauritania, or Tunisia because of the
>>
> recent security concerns? And lastly, have there ever (or recently)
>> been any
> terrorist-type attacks or kidnappings against Western
>> meteorite hunters in
> the remote areas of Morocco or Mauritania?
>>
>> Best regards and Happy Safe
> Huntings,
>>
>> MikeG
>>
>> --
>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
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Received on Mon 23 Mar 2015 08:58:19 PM PDT