Jordan: good secuirty, bad public relations

In 2001, when Jordan sent its troops to Afghanistan to participate in the ISAF force there in combatting terrorism, the government said its role consisted only of establishing and maintaining a field hospital to treat the wounded in the Afghani region of Mazar e Sharif.

In 2010, we got confirmation that this was not the whole truth.

A captain in the intelligence agency, General Intelligence Department (GID), was killed along with 6 CIA operatives in a suicide bombing at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan. The suicide bomber appeared to be a Jordanian double-agent who turned against his employer.

The CIA insists that despite this incident, Jordan's intelligence agency and personnel are the most effecient in the region and further abroad in combatting terrorism.

"The Jordanian intelligence service is the best intelligence service in the Middle East and South Asia, bar none... They are far more effective in working against jihadist groups like al Qaeda in Iraq like the al Qaeda core in Pakistan than any other intelligence service." - Bruce Reidel, a former CIA officer who has advised President Obama on al Qaeda.

The incident took place on 30 December 2009. Jordanian media wrote about it in brief, barely mentioning the story behind, until it was all over the international media - then Jordan found itself compelled to give an official answer.

“Jordan will not spare any effort to hunt and track down terrorists wherever they are and work to dry up their resources,” according to an unnamed official speaking to The Jordan Times. Finally, the government of Jordan admitted what every Jordanian suspected already, at least in broad lines.

Jordan has definately been taking part of the controversial rendition program (read article here), has recently completed all requisits to become a full NATO partner (read article here), and has contributed with personnel, infrastructure, and further aid to the war on terror and the war on Iraq (read article here), and not least, Jordan has been part of the 41 nation coallition engaged in operations in Afghanistan (read article here).

According to this unclassified NATO document, Jordan has insisted since day one, that all its NATO partners in Afghanistan refrain from mentioning its participation in the public domain. Now, every Jordanian knows what the government has been trying to keep secret for the past 9 years - the Jordanian presence in Afghanistan is not merely logistical or humanitarian, it involves intelligence and combat cooperation at the highest of levels.

Who ever was responsible for the decision not to tell the Jordanian public about the nature of the Jordanian participation in the war on terror did a grave mistake.

They lost 9 years of building confidence between the average Jordanian and the Jordanian security forces (which are seen amongst many Jordanians as "friends of enemies - being Israel, the US and other western powers involved in the Middle East conflict.)

Instead, the Jordanian government should have been working on a public relations campaign to convince Jordanians of its important role in the global security system - a backbone to defending the democratic world operating at the heart of the conflict. Jordanian officials should have been brave and convincing enough to persuade Jordanian people of all backgrounds (Palestinians, Jordanians and minorities) why it is better to sideline with the west against islamic fundamentalism.

When in 2005 Jordan suffered a terror attack killing more than 60 innocent citizens in Amman, Jordanians rallied in a united national tone behind the government, and many were glad to know that, a few months later, Jordan was able to track down and kill Al Qaedas leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi - a Jordanian national.

However, the government missed the chance then to open up to its citizens about the security cooperation that has been going for years and that was not going to end any time soon. Meanwhile, radical, anti-democratic Islamists (such as the Muslim Brotherhood) banked on their relatively democratic presence in the parliament to use these events, amongst other regional developments, as an "opportunity" to spread their anti-western sentiments in mostly impoverished regions of Palestinian majorities, such as refugee camps, as well as all over the country.

The average Jordanian citizen is connected to the world - almost every Jordanian household has access to satellite TV, a huge percentage of Jordanians has access to the internet, and more than 93% of Jordanians have completed at least high school education. Jordanians have access to alternative sources of news, they no longer wait for the 8 o'clock news bulletin on Jordanian state TV, in fact, barely a minority still tune in on state TV - it represents the stagnation of the state's public relations apparatus, barely in any competition with local, regional and international media advancement.

The gap remains unquestionably wide between a security system that has proved its excellence in maintaining Jordan an oasis of peace in a mad region, and the average citizen who distrusts his country's alliances. It is time we asked why, and found a way to build a friendly relationship between the state and the citizen, who needs to feel that a security officer is his friend, not the friend of his enemy.

A wide, far reaching and effective public relations strategy is needed to build a culture of constructive debate. Jordanians are not dumb, nor is their government, but the gap needs to be mended with a consistant, friendly and honest public relations rhetoric - which will in the end prove very helpful in the fight against terrorism.

Link between attacks on CIA base in Khost and Fort Hood base in Texas

In the past few months, the US security stronghold suffered two blows in a row, right in the very hearts of two maximum security facilities - by two entrusted doctors of Palestinian immigrant origins.

When Humam al-Balawi last week called his fellow Jordanian intelligence official to facilitate a meeting with 6 top CIA officers at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, he said he would release important information about Al Qaeda no.2, Ayman al Zawahiri. According to reports, he blew himself as they gathered around him when he said he'd show them some sort of a document or a map.

The alleged double-agent was allowed inside the base without a body search, apparently, as he wore an explosive belt somewhere under his clothes. The bomb exploded killing himself, the Jordanian intelligence official (claimed to have barely passed high school education) and 6 CIA experts.

Several months before, Nidal Malik Hasan, a Psychologist working at Fort Hood US military base in Texas, opened fire inside the base, killing 13 military personnel.

The similarities are quite obvious. Both Nidal and Humam were granted access to the heart of these military bases. Both are doctors. And both are of the same origin, Palestinian.

Humam was born in Kuwait, and had to flee during the first Gulf War to Jordan where he worked serving Palestinian refugee camps - impoverished areas that prove to be an easy recruiting point for terrorists and where the majority of votes tend to support the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas in its extension.

Nidal was the son of Palestinian immigrants who fled the West Bank city to chase the American dream. Both had similar upbringing - Middle class Palestinian refugee families with access to relatively good educational institutes. Both believed in the Arab fight against Israel, and both decided to execute their terrorist actions when deployed in (or were on the way to) Afghanistan. They bit the hand that fed them, the minute it pointed towards "fellow muslims."

Both had also access to strategic information.

While Humam was allegedly a double agent, he was able to convince both the Jordanian intelligence and the CIA of his good deeds, meanwhile, he was likely giving sensetive information to Taliban and in extension, Al Qaeda. Whereas Nidal was in charge of receiving soliders coming back from Afghanistan in psychiatric sessions where they reveiled their experiences and fears.

Both were also active on internet forums. Humam allegedly was a blogger, and maintained a blog under a fake name that was "anti-western" in its content. Whereas Nidal was contacting Yemeni religious personalities on internet forums. The CIA knew of these contacts.

Lessons learned: terrorism is not organizational, it is a mentality. To defeat Islamic terrorism, one has to eliminate anti-westernism in Islamic discourse, and not least, eliminate anti-islamic sentiments that leaves muslims with radical tendencies as "outsiders" in secular societies.

It is no doubt that this is a long term process, which initiation has never really got off the ground. Meanwhile, western powers find themselves more and more in need of people of muslim background to help them in the fight against terrorism.

The trust circle is scratched, but not totally broken.

Jordanian - Al Qaeda double agent behind CIA attack in Afghanistan

A confirmation to Jordan's cooperation with the CIA in the war on terrorism is finally made available by an unfortunate twist of events, not by official announcement. Jordan was actually doing intelligence work, not merely operating a humanitarian hospital in the Afghanistani region of Mazar e Sharif as the Jordanian official story claimed, year after year.

This provides yet another proof to the results of my research (read here):

Jordanian military forces in Afghanistan
NATO (un)classified doc proves jordan has troops in afghanistan
Jordan becomes a full NATO partner
Jordanian captain killed in Afghanistan

Jordan to this day does not discuss its participation in afghanistan openly, briefly mentioning the recent attack where a Jordanian captain (a relative of the king) died in a meeting with CIA agents and Canadian operatives (who were killed too).

Now the fact that this news comes a few days after the burials were done means one thing: This is the story the CIA and Jordan want to stick with. As one learns from monitoring this line of work, there are lies, double stabbings, fake press releases, and not least, fake bomb attacks.

I am not saying that the Washington Posts report, NY Times or the BBC or Swedish SVD are based on falsifications, what I am saying is that these media are sticking to the official story, whether true or not, and without regards to what purpose this story serves.

The story claims that it was Al Qaeda, not the CIA, that announced the name of the attacker, who was apparently, driven into the Khust CIA headquarters by its agents as a trusted collegue. According to the New York Times:

"In a telephone interview, a person associated with the Pakistani Taliban identified the bomber as Humam Khalil Mohammed, a Jordanian physician. Western officials said that Mr. Mohammed had been in a Jordanian prison and that he was recruited by the Jordanian spy service.

The bomber was not closely searched because of his perceived value as someone who could lead American forces to senior Qaeda leaders, and because the Jordanian intelligence officer had identified him as a potentially valuable informant, the Western officials said."

This means that this man had access, and he must have provided critical information to Al Qaeda. This may require a change of tactics and strategies in counter-terrorism, intelligence efforts in Afghanistan.

However, the above mentioned reports do not provide any answers as to what was King Abdullah's relative, Captain Ali ben Zaid, doing at the meeting. Was he charged with leading the Jordanian intelligence team there, and by that his death serves as a blow to the Jordanian efforts in Afghanistan? Was he responsible for facilitating the meeting with the attacker so smoothly, that the attacker was able to smuggle in explosives too? Such are the questions that Jordanians are asking, and I know of their questions because this is what they look after in Google when they reach this blog.

Too many questions - one thing certian, in matters of life and death, answers may yet arise to questions we have never asked before.