SHAKR AL-ABSI'S DEATH BARELY NOTED IN JORDAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 003732 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR NEA/ELA E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/05/2017 TAGS: PGOV KISL JO SUBJECT: SHAKR AL-ABSI'S DEATH BARELY NOTED IN JORDAN REF: A. BEIRUT 1346 ¶B. AMMAN 2206 ¶C. 06 AMMAN 5907 ¶D. 06 AMMAN 4245 ¶E. 04 AMMAN 2645 Classified By: Ambassador David Hale for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) Routine Condolences to al-Absi Family, but Little Interest Otherwise -------------- ¶1. (SBU) The reported death of Fatah Al-Islam (FAI) leader and Jordanian national Shakr al-Absi in the fighting at Nahr al-Barid camp in Lebanon (ref A) has prompted a limited degree of media attention in Jordan, but with the focus on familial reaction rather than any political implications. ¶2. (SBU) Shakr al-Absi's younger brother, Abd-al-Razzaq al-Absi, on September 3 announced the death of his brother in the latest clashes with the Lebanese Army, stating that Shakr al-Absi's wife and daughter identified his body in the Tripoli morgue. He also said that he requested on September 3 that the Jordanian Foreign Ministry assist the family in receiving the body for burial in Jordan because Shakr al-Absi was a Jordanian citizen. The brother was quoted by Al-Jazeera Net saying, "I think of my brother as a martyr for the sake of God." ¶3. (SBU) Ammun News (a privately-owned news agency providing independent coverage of domestic issues) reported September 3 that hundreds of people visited Absi's family in Amman to offer condolences. According to the unconfirmed report, former MPs as well as some candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections also paid condolence calls. Comment -------------- ¶4. (C) The death of Absi has resulted in little press commentary. The attention to the number of condolence calls echoes, slightly, the attention given the aftermath of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's 2006 death, after which two MPs from the Islamic Action Front were sentenced to prison for "fueling national discord and inciting sectarianism" after making condolence calls on Zarqawi's family, refs C and D. Yet Absi had neither the notoriety nor following of Zarqawi, and in Jordan's tribal culture, family and geographic linkages dictate the paying of condolence calls and expressing of sympathies - particularly to a large, well-known family like Absi's - without necessarily implying any political backing or terrorist sympathies. A quick, informal survey both of key political contacts and a handful of "man on the street" inquiries has failed to indicate much interest in Absi's role or demise. Note on al-Absi's background -------------- ¶5. (SBU) According to press accounts, Shakr al-Absi was born in Ayn al-Sultan Camp near the city of Jericho in the West Bank in 1955. He grew up in the Wihdat Palestinian refugee camp located in Amman. In 2004 he was tried and convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for his part in the OCTOBER 28, 2002 assassination in Amman of USAID diplomat Lawrence Foley (ref E). Visit Amman's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman/ Hale