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The DGED (acronym of Direction générale des études et de la documentation) or the General Directorate for Studies and Documentation is the external intelligence agency of Morocco, which also has some diplomatic prerogatives. It is presided by Yassine Mansouri, one of the influential classmates of king Mohammed VI.
Contents
History
The DGED was modeled after Charles de Gaulle's Direction générale des études et recherches and its successor Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage, both of which are now defunct.
The agency was created in 1973 in the aftermath of the two failed coups of 1971 and 1972. It was first directed by Ahmed Dlimi until his death in 1983. In the same year, general Abdelhak el Kadiri, a close collaborator of the Moroccan Gendarmerie and its powerful professional head, Housni Benslimane, became director of the agency until 2003.
Past directors
Activities
Historically the agency was tasked with monitoring potentially subversive external activities. Before the official creation of the agency, its activities were carried by a political police unit called "Cab1", which now exists as the DST. When the Cab1 was headed by Ahmed Dlimi under the supervision of Mohamed Oufkir, it was responsible for the kidnapping and subsequent murder of political opponent Mehdi Benbarka. Later when the DGED was created, it took over covert diplomatic duties, such as the arrest of a leftist opposition group headed by Fqih Basri who had taken refuge in Algeria, in a deal between Houari Boumediene and Hassan II brokered by Dlimi.
The agency also monitors Moroccans living abroad for political and economic activities. It collaborates with foreign services in security and terrorism-related affairs, including exchange of information regarding specific Moroccans targeted by foreign services. The DGED also has some diplomatic prerogatives; it has in the past negotiated the Western Sahara status with the Polisario front and Moroccan relations with Mauritania were largely run by the DGED.
Diplomatic prerogatives
The DGED maintains staff in all Moroccan embassies and consulates. Additionally Maghreb Arabe Presse (Moroccan state news agency) employees are also tasked with sending uncensored confidential notes to the agency.