le360.ma's 'Command Center': A B-Movie Script Signed by an 'Expert' Who Only Ever Investigated His Own Imagination

Sofiane Hamidi — Marseille, France — 2026-09-05

Always beware of articles that open with "a report reveals." Especially when the report in question is signed by a "terrorism and intelligence expert" whose only documented specialty is getting himself talked about. José María Gil Garre — for that is who we are dealing with — has a gift for spotting an "Algerian hand" behind the scenes at every crisis. One wonders how he manages never to see anything on the other side. The answer is simple: when you are looking for only one thing, that is the only thing you ever find.

The scenario has to be read to be believed: a "digital command center" based on Algerian territory, operators with +213 prefixes, WhatsApp channels with names as subtle as a prison door, and "five temporal phases" worthy of a Napoleonic battle plan. Five phases! You would think you were reading the spec sheet of a film even Netflix turned down. And the "damning" piece of evidence, the showstopper? A telephone prefix. Gentlemen, a +213 code can be used by anyone, anywhere, and can be faked in thirty seconds. If your "intelligence" service relies on phone numbers, it becomes clear why it is reduced to publishing screenplays in the press.

And yet there is one detail le360.ma (Moroccan digital newspaper) and its "expert" forgot to mention — it is remarkable how easily such details slip their minds: the Spanish authorities — the very ones with actual jurisdiction over Ceuta and Melilla — published their own report. And that report, unlike Gil Garre's movie, exonerates Algeria and points the finger at Morocco. Spain, which has the means to investigate, accused no one in Algiers. But why burden yourself with reality when you have a good script?

Let's talk about memory, since le360.ma's is so short: in May 2021, within a few hours, thousands of people crossed the border at Ceuta — eight thousand, ten thousand depending on the source — after Rabat decided to open the floodgates to pressure Madrid, which had just taken in the Polisario Front leader for humanitarian reasons. That day, no "command center" was needed: Morocco demonstrated, live and utterly unembarrassed, that it knows perfectly well how to turn the migration tap on and off when diplomacy demands it. It is documented, filmed, reported by every news agency on earth. But of course: when Rabat does it, it is a "humanitarian gesture"; when Algiers does it, it is a "hybrid warfare operation." Coherence, for them, has always had a price: the price of a plane ticket to fantasyland.

And what if we followed their logic for a moment? An "Algerian propaganda machine" capable of mounting a cross-border operation in five phases, with tactical subcontracting over WhatsApp... frankly, if Algeria had such capabilities, it would have used them for something other than commenting on TikTok videos. Ridicule does not kill, but it does document.

So, once again, the facts: Algeria has never weaponized human distress, and the Spanish reports confirm it. Those who turned migration into a bargaining chip — in 2021 as elsewhere — are the same ones who today scream about an "Algerian hand" to avoid talking about their own responsibilities. le360.ma can keep publishing Mr. Gil Garre's screenplays. We will keep publishing the reports. The difference between the two is that the latter can be checked.