The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500



Dear Mr. President,

It is with great pleasure that on behalf of the American Council for Moroccan POWs (ACMP), I would like to extend to you Sir our heartfelt and most sincere expressions of gratitude and appreciation for the decisive action that you took on behalf of the Moroccan prisoners of war.
By your generous action, you have, Sir, freed 404 Moroccan POWs!
You have in the same breadth, alleviated the suffering and anguish of thousands of their relatives and friends and brought them much needed relief. You have also addressed the concerns of countless other justice and peace-loving persons in Morocco and around the globe.
For this Mr. President, we are grateful, and from the bottom of our hearts we thank you!

Mr. President,
Your actions were successful in freeing the prisoners whereas other world leaders and world organizations have failed for precisely one reason: You have addressed the right and most responsible party in the Moroccan Sahara conflict, namely Algeria. We thank you Mr. President for bringing moral clarity to this issue.

Since coming to existence more than two years ago in defense of the Moroccan POWs and other detainees in the camps of Tindouf, Algeria, the ACMP has always maintained that the international community’s repeated calls to free the prisoners should be addressed to the Algerian authorities and not to the powerless puppet Polisario band of criminals. The Polisario, as you know, is a creation of the cold war struggle between East and West and would not have seen the day of light without active financial, military, and diplomatic support by the enemies of western democracies and freedom such as Algeria, Libya, Cuba, Iran, and other former Soviet Union allied governments and satellite countries.

Mr. President,
As much as our hearts are filled with gladness at the release of the longest-held POWs in the world, our joy is still not complete while hundreds of their comrades are unaccounted for and disappeared. Our Joy is not complete while, according to human rights and refugee organizations, thousands of Moroccan Sahrawis are not free to leave the camps on Algerian soil and are held there for political reasons and not because of humanitarian motives.

Our joy is incomplete while Algerian security forces are imposing a siege around these camps and where any form of protest or rebellion against the terrible living conditions is severely repressed and put down by force. Our Joy is incomplete while the camps’ inhabitants are being terrorized by Polisario thugs under the watchful eye of Algerian security agents.

Our joy is incomplete while thousands of young children, boys and girls, are routinely and as a matter of policy separated from their mothers and fathers to be shipped off to Cuba for God knows what. Nothing can be crueler, immoral, and despicable than to separate a mother from her eight-year old, perhaps younger, son or daughter to be trafficked away across the ocean and seas to a country called Cuba thousands of miles away to an uncertain future and life in a completely alien country and culture. I cannot imagine a family voluntarily parting away with their young like that. Nothing justifies such an abhorrent practice!

On June 12, 1987, the late great U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, spoke at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany. President Reagan spoke of the duty of American Presidents to speak out for freedom. Addressing Secretary General Gorbachev across the Berlin wall President Reagan said: “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Mr. President,
Today, we appeal to you to call on Algeria’s President, Mr. Bouteflika, to work towards justice for the Tindouf camps’ victims, survivors and their families.
We appeal to you Sir to solemnly call upon the Algerian government to open the Tindouf camps up and to tear them down as befits the last remnants of the ‘Berlin wall’.
We appeal to you Sir to urge Mr. Bouteflika to free and allow the camps inhabitants to return to their homes and families and bring an end the last cold war conflict!

Thank you Mr. President for your consideration and May God Bless you and May God Bless the United States of America.

Sincerely,

Hassan El Farissi

President