Friday, Feb 09, 2007
Opinion
Inside Jordan's war on Al-Qaeda http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/09/stories/2007020903471100.htm
Ian Black
Fear of secret police tempers popular support for anti-terrorism measures.
SULEIMAN AL-ANJADI died as he would have surely wished: fighting until he was cut down, a soldier in the army of jihad. But there is nothing heroic about the scene of his martyrdom, a one-storey house flanked by a small olive grove and piles of smashed breezeblocks bulldozed in the assault that took his life.
The 28-year-old died after a standoff with Jordanian security forces who surrounded his hiding place in the northern city of Irbid last month. Another man, Ramadan al-Mansi, was captured alive, along with weapons, explosives, and computers. It was a good day for Fursan al-Haq (the Knights of Justice), the shadowy counter-terrorist unit waging a ruthless campaign against the worst enemies of the West's favourite Arab ally.
"It was like a real war," said Husam al-Anjadi, a cousin of the dead man, surveying the rubble and the suspicious faces peering from nearby windows. "There were tanks and armoured cars. The shooting went on for hours." The official line is that the men were fugitive Al-Qaeda terrorists and that the raid had foiled yet another dangerous plot against the kingdom. Not everyone believes it. "Most people here think this happened because someone was organising a mourning session for Saddam Hussein," insisted Fadi, a 27-year-old builder. "I don't think it was about terrorism. Things like this don't happen in Irbid. In Amman maybe, but not here."
In November 2005, events provided proof that Jordan was not immune to the fallout of the war next door. Three Iraqi Al-Qaeda suicide bombers slaughtered 60 people, many of them wedding guests, in coordinated attacks on three hotels. It was the worst terrorist atrocity the country had ever suffered. A fourth Iraqi, a woman, was captured with her bomb's trigger mechanism jammed. She has been sentenced to death.
The Knights of Justice emerged soon afterwards, the Arabic name a clever piece of branding that combined the macho feel of a Hollywood action movie with a vaguely religious resonance.
Operating under the Mukhabarat intelligence service, the unit's brief is to penetrate, neutralise or wipe out jihadist or so-called takfiri groups. It was credited with helping the United States hunt down and kill the notorious Jordanian-born leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, last summer.
Shortly before that, its agents captured an Iraqi named Ziyad Qarbouli, who provided vital leads about Zarqawi's whereabouts. Qarbouli is awaiting trial for the murder of a Jordanian driver and two Moroccan diplomats.
Although the Mukhabarat may be less brutal than its counterparts in Ba'athist Iraq or Syria, it has been accused of abuses, harassment and torture. "Half the country is working for the Mukharabat," said Naim al-Haddad, a Palestinian mechanic. "People are afraid to talk." Thus the anxious faces at the sight of strangers asking questions in Irbid.
There are suspicions too, despite the bombings, that the terrorist threat is exaggerated. Jordanians and foreigners remain sceptical about the official version of an Al-Qaeda plot in 2004 to attack Mukhabarat and other government premises, and the U.S. embassy, with toxic chemicals.
Last year there was scepticism about an alleged plot by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas to mount attacks in Jordan just before a visit by its Foreign Minister, which was promptly cancelled. Nearly every week new cases come before the state security court, with defendants accused of belonging to banned organisations, planning to hit U.S. targets or fight in Iraq.
Confessions are often retracted on the grounds that they were extracted under duress.
It is a cliché to say that Jordan's position is exposed: its entire history has been forged by the Palestine problem next door, by wars and influxes of refugee in 1948 and 1967, and by signing a peace treaty with Israel. Its links with Washington are a fact of life for the political elite - the Mukhabarat works closely with the CIA and Mossad, as well as MI6 - though increasingly unpopular with ordinary people.
"Jordan's public space is just not open enough for the people to express their views about the occupation of Iraq and about Palestine," said Mohammed al-Masri of Jordan University. "Security is not enough."
Polling shows that some Jordanians admired Zarqawi for fighting the U.S. but changed their minds when he bombed the Amman hotels. "It was a mistake as well as a crime," said Abdel-Latif Arabiyat, of the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Three of the party's MPs were jailed after a condolence visit to the Zarqawi family home.
But Al-Qaeda might have won plaudits if it had succeeded in an earlier rocket attack on US warships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba. "I'm sure there would have been a huge amount of enthusiasm," admitted a Western diplomat. Jordan is better equipped to fight hardcore jihadis than Saudi Arabia or the Maghreb countries. It is a small country with strong tribal loyalties, a relatively cohesive society and a monarchy with religious legitimacy.
Most people want the terrorists crushed, as shown by the messages flooding the web after the Irbid shootout: "Let the killing of this criminal and the capture of his friend be a lesson to every misguided fool who is tempted to harm the security of our country," wrote one. "Let us strengthen the hands of the heroes of Fursan al-Haq."
- ;© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
Copyright © 2007, The Hindu.