4 - 10 October 2001
Issue No.554
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 4 - 10 October 2001 Issue No.554 |
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All the expedient moves
Jordan, the target of numerous plots during the last decade alleged to have been hatched by Osama Bin Laden's followers, has thrown its weight behind the US war against terrorism. Al-Ahram Weekly's special corespondent in Amman reports
During the past two weeks, Jordan has handed over to the US its intelligence on Osama Bin Laden and his followers, the chief suspects in the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington.
Jordanian King Abdullah and Queen Rania's visit to the US on Friday reaffirmed the kingdom's support for the US campaign, and helped to alleviate anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment sweeping the US, officials say.
Supporting the US campaign against terrorism is not without risks for the Jordanian regime, which has had to contend with hard-liners and militant Islamist groups that are staunchly anti-American.
To pre-empt any transformation of these sentiments into violence, the government has issued a warning to militant activists that it will not tolerate any opposition to its support for the US-led campaign against terrorism.
The point was made by Prime Minister Ali Abul-Ragheb in a series of meetings with the country's professional unions -- hotbeds of support for Islamists -- and political parties.
"Jordan... reaffirms its support for international efforts to contain terrorism in a manner that would benefit the interests of Arabs and Muslims," Abul-Ragheb said at the meetings.
He also warned the country's 28 political parties that the government would not hesitate to take measures against "counter-productive, extreme reactions aimed at undermining Jordan's security and stability."
The issue is particularly sensitive in Jordan on many counts. There have been dozens of cases since the early 1990s when alleged followers of Bin Laden were tried by military courts and found guilty of plotting and carrying out acts of sabotage.
These cases included assassination plots against then Prime Minister Abdel-Salam Al-Majali, other ministers and senior officials as well as foreign diplomats. Other cases involved plots to bomb night-clubs, liquor stores and establishments that "represented the infidel's decadence," as some of the accused described them.
Such attacks and plots dealt a heavy blow to tourism in Jordan, one of its main sources of hard currency. Tour operators say it would take a massive effort to lure tourists back to the kingdom.
There were many Jordanians and Palestinians who fought alongside Bin Laden as part of the "Arab Afghan" movement comprising Arab volunteers who went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Osama Bin Laden's ideological mentor, Abdallah Azzam, was a Jordanian who fought in Kabul as head of the International Islamic Brigade before being assassinated mysteriously in Pakistan. Following Afghanistan's liberation from the Soviet Union, some Jordanians stayed on and became members of Bin Laden's Al-Qa'ida [The Base] group, while others returned home.
Most of those tried and found guilty of sabotage were either "Arab Afghans" or had received training in Bin Laden camps or had other ties to Bin Laden's followers.
"Jordan has collected extensive information on Bin Laden's activities not only in Afghanistan but in Arab countries, including the refugee camps here. This data has already been passed to the concerned US agencies," said a highly placed source.
In his talks with US President George W Bush at the White House last week, King Abdullah affirmed his country's commitment to fight terrorism but also pressed the president to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and suspend air strikes on Iraq.
According to a Jordanian official, King Abdullah, who was the first Arab head of state to meet with Bush after the 11 September New York and Washington attacks, made it clear that "the whole campaign against international terrorism will fail if they [the Americans] do not solve the Palestinian- Israeli problem." The official also said, "The other bottom line for Jordan is 'No attacks on Iraq'."
During their visit to the US, the king and queen appeared on American television networks at least eight times, not only reaffirming Jordan's alliance with the US against terrorism, but also explaining that Arabs and Muslims should not be blamed en masse for the attacks. They visited Islamic centres and met social activists and senior officials from the departments involved in the rescue and salvage efforts at the World Trade Center site.
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