No escape from al-Qaeda for
Jordan By Kathleen Ridolfo
Jordan is one of the United States'
staunchest allies in the region, and it is also
the "new" Iraq's closest Arab ally, having done
more than any other Arab state to help facilitate
Iraq's transition in the post-Saddam Hussein era.
This and the global "war on terror" have
left Jordan in a precarious position, highlighted
by last week's bombing of three hotels in Amman,
the capital, in which nearly 60 people died.
Fugitive Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying
that his Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad
al-Rafidayn (Al-Qaeda Organization of Jihad in the
Land of the Two Rivers) was behind the deadly
blasts.
Wedged between the Palestinian
West Bank, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria,
the kingdom has tried to balance Arab
loyalties and Western
alliances - particularly with the US and Israel -
that are not accepted in much of the Arab world.
Jordan quietly lent support to the US
during the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom and
King Abdallah II offered safe haven to two of
Saddam's daughters, giving them and their children
homes and monthly allowances on the stipulation
that they did not become politically active in the
kingdom.
In the post-war era, Jordan has
played a crucial role in the rebuilding of Iraq,
by facilitating everything from summits to
workshops for various US and Iraqi government
agencies and non-governmental organizations.
Moreover, Iraq has become Jordan's second most
important trading partner, accounting for 16%, or
US$42.4 million, of Jordanian exports.
While Jordan has not been immune to
terrorism, it has gone largely unscathed in recent
years. But as an August 19 attack on a Jordanian
naval ship docked in the port of Aqaba showed, the
country is increasingly having to deal with the
wrath of al-Qaeda. Insurgents purportedly linked
to Zarqawi fired three Katyusha rockets at the
ship but missed, though one Jordanian sailor was
killed in the attack.
That attack and the
subsequent discovery of an Iraqi criminal ring
that produced counterfeit passports and documents
operating in Amman, prompted the Jordanian
government to announce that it would invest $85
million to improve security along its border with
Iraq. At the time of the announcement, Jordanian
officials said that the border authorities were
working at 10 times their normal capacity,
checking some 1,500 vehicles and 5,000 passengers
daily.
In June, Jordanian Colonel Isam
Hijazin, director of the al-Karamah border
crossing between Jordan and Iraq, estimated that
150 forged Iraqi passports were discovered among
travelers crossing into Jordan every day. Hijazin
said that despite the large amount of traffic,
people tended to pass through the border quickly,
spending an average of five minutes to complete
their transactions.
Zarqawi wanted for
other attacks Zarqawi served seven years in
a Jordanian prison from 1992-99 on charges of
trying to overthrow the monarchy. Soon after his
release, he was charged with plotting to blow up
the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman just before New
Year's Day 2000. Zarqawi fled the country and
Jordan has been pursuing him ever since.
The Jordanian government sentenced Zarqawi
to death in absentia in early 2004 for his alleged
involvement in the October 2002 murder of US
diplomat Lawrence Foley in Amman.
In
October 2004, he was indicted along with 12 others
on charges related to a planned chemical attack
against the Jordanian General Intelligence
Department.
In October this year, the US
National Intelligence Directorate released a
translation of a letter intercepted in Iraq and
dated July 9 from al-Qaeda mastermind Ayman
al-Zawahiri to Zarqawi, advising him to "extend
the jihad wave to the secular countries
neighboring Iraq".
Jordan has no choice
but to deal with al-Qaeda head on. The kingdom has
a strong security apparatus, but it will also need
to deal with the national mindset. A Pew Global
Attitudes survey released in July found that
support for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has
risen over the past two years from 55% to 60%.
Twenty-five percent of respondents said they had
"a lot of confidence" in bin Laden. Fifty-seven
percent of respondents said violence against
civilian targets was "often/sometimes justified",
up from 43% in the summer of 2002. Surprisingly,
87% of respondents said Islamic terrorism was not
a threat to their country.
Zarqawi
claims responsibility In a November 10
Internet statement, Zarqawi said the
organization's al-Bara' Ibn-Malik Brigade carried
out the Amman hotel bombings, which the statement
referred to as "a new conquest".
"It was
decided to carry out the attacks against some
hotels which were transformed by the tyrant of
Jordan into a backyard for the enemies of the
faith, from the Jews and the Crusaders, a dirty
pasture for the traitors of the nation, the
apostates, a safe haven for the intelligence of
the infidels who run their plots against the
Muslims ... and a center for whoredom and
immorality, fighting against God," the statement
claimed.
Addressing King Abdallah II, it
added: "Let the tyrant of Amman know that the
protection wall for the Jews, which was built in
east Jordan, and the backup military camp to the
armies of the Crusaders and [Iraq's Shi'ite-led
government], is now a target for the mujahideen
and their conquests."
In the attacks, at
the Radisson SAS a bomb detonated in the hotel's
ballroom, where a 300-guest wedding was under way.
The bomb at the Grand Hyatt was detonated in the
hotel lobby. Officials said they believed the Days
Inn attack was the result of a car bomb.
Amman's al-Ghadd newspaper reported that
the majority of the victims were Jordanian
nationals. Three Iraqi nationals were also killed
and five others were wounded. Bethlehem's Ma'an
news agency reported that three Palestinian
officials were among those killed at the Hyatt:
Brigadier General Bashir Nafi, the head of
Palestinian Intelligence in the West Bank; Jihad
Fattuh, commercial attache at the Palestinian
Embassy in Egypt; and Abed Allun, director general
of the Palestinian Interior Ministry. The former
director general of the Palestinian Communications
Ministry, Musab Ahmad Khurma, was also killed.
In a dramatic development, millions of
viewers across Jordan and the region watched as
Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi made a televised
confession hours after she was arrested on Sunday.
Al-Rishawi explained how her husband
helped plan last Wednesday's attacks, fitted her
suicide bomb belt and blew himself up with his own
bomb at the Radisson SAS.
"My husband [Ali
Hussein Ali al-Shamari] detonated [his bomb] and I
tried to explode [mine] but it wouldn't," said the
35-year-old Rishawi.
"People fled running
and I left running with them," she said during a
three-minute segment that showed her handling
several pieces of the faulty trigger equipment
that failed to set off about 22 pounds of
explosives and hundreds of ball-bearings.
Rishawi's brother was once a deputy of
Zarqawi.
Meanwhile, Jordan's state-run
news agency Petra cited a source from the
Jordanian Public Security Department as saying
that a number of suspects had been apprehended and
several vehicles seized in connection with the
attacks. The source said that the suspects
remained under interrogation.
Kathleen Ridolfo is the Iraq
analyst for RFE/RL Online.
Copyright (c) 2005, RFE/RL Inc.
Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW,
Washington DC 20036
