Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03AMMAN5940
2003-09-15 15:04:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Amman
Cable title:  

JORDANIAN AUTHORITIES CHARGE 15 IN ANOTHER

Tags:  PGOV PTER KISL ASEC PREL JO 
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UNCLAS AMMAN 005940 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PTER KISL ASEC PREL JO
SUBJECT: JORDANIAN AUTHORITIES CHARGE 15 IN ANOTHER
TERRORIST PLOT

UNCLAS AMMAN 005940

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PTER KISL ASEC PREL JO
SUBJECT: JORDANIAN AUTHORITIES CHARGE 15 IN ANOTHER
TERRORIST PLOT


1. (U) In the second indictment against alleged terrorist
plotters handed down in a month, Jordan's state security
court formally charged 15 individuals with conspiring to
carry out terrorist attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets
worldwide, according to press reports on September 13.
Military prosecutor Col. Mahmoud 'Ubaydat charged 13
Jordanians and two Iraqis affiliated with al-Qai'da and Ansar
al-Islam with plotting to attack "tourists, foreigners and
members of Jordan's security forces in the Kingdom," adding
that members of the group received weapons and explosives
training in Afghanistan and Iran.


2. (U) U.S. forces in northern Iraq on March 30 arrested one
of the plotters, Jordanian national Ahmad Mahmud Salih
al-Riyati, who was subsequently repatriated to Jordan.
According to the charges, al-Riyati hatched the plot during a
meeting in 1998 with Ra'ed Hijazi, a Jordanian American
extremist sentenced to death by the state security court in
February 2002 for "plotting to commit terrorist acts" against
"Jews and U.S. interests" in Jordan during the millennium
celebrations. Al-Riyati allegedly met Jordanian national and
al-Qa'ida official Ahmad Fadil Nazzal al-Khalaylah (aka Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi) in Afghanistan, who asked him to join Ansar
al-Islam and to plan attacks against foreign tourists and
Jordanian intelligence officials. Al-Riyati allegedly went
to Iran in August 2001 to train other cell members to make
explosives and poisons for attacks in Jordan.


3. (U) Reputed Ansar al-Islam leader Najmeddin Faraj Ahmad
(aka Mullah Krekar) also is named in the indictment for
allegedly agreeing to provide members of the group with
weapons and material to make explosives. He also is believed
to have met in mid-2002 with al-Zarqawi and Iraqi suspect
Riya Saleh Abdallah, who agreed to provide weapons and bomb
making materiel to the cell, according to the indictment.
Unlike the other suspects who are believed to be in Iran,
Krekar has had refugee status in Norway since 1991. Krekar is
currently in Norway fighting expulsion. Authorities in the
Netherlands arrested Krekar in September 2002 en route to
Norway.
HALE