Kenitra Central Prison is one of the highest security facilities in Morocco. But leading Al Qaida inmates get to call their wives and mothers every day — not to mention their terrorist commanders.
How do they do it? Simple. Moroccan prison guards are too scared to enter jail cells to look for stashes of cell phones. Family or the guards themselves looking for an extra buck smuggle many of the phones in.
The scene is similar in virtually every Middle East country. Authorities might catch the terrorists, but they remain in the network, communicate with their commanders, inform them of potential recruits and pass messages to field operatives.
Of course, a major benefit of having a cell phone is propaganda. Al Qaida operatives now call their favorite journalists and tell them of prison abuse or send audio messages to followers that are posted on the Internet.
With all those cell phones, terrorists in numerous prisons in the Middle East have been afforded the luxury of running veritable press centers. Each Al Qaida prison wing has its spokesman and the number most widely dialed is the newsroom of Al-Jazeera, where the entire Middle East can hear the latest pronouncements of jihad.
Some prison authorities have been examining special equipment to block cell phone calls. But intelligence services believe it would be a better idea to monitor the phone calls and find the liaisons of the inmates on the outside.
