Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09AMMAN2217
2009-10-01 15:27:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Amman
Cable title:  

JORDAN: U.S. ARREST OF JORDANIAN WIDELY VIEWED AS

Tags:  PREL KISL JO 
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VZCZCXRO9308
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHAM #2217 2741527
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 011527Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6051
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 002217 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2019
TAGS: PREL KISL JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN: U.S. ARREST OF JORDANIAN WIDELY VIEWED AS
ENTRAPMENT

Classified By: Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft for reasons 1.4 b and d

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 002217

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2019
TAGS: PREL KISL JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN: U.S. ARREST OF JORDANIAN WIDELY VIEWED AS
ENTRAPMENT

Classified By: Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft for reasons 1.4 b and d


1. (C) Most Jordanians believe that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation encouraged and enabled 19-year-old Jordanian
Hossam Smadi to plot a terrorist act against the United
States before arresting him on September 24 in Dallas,
according to media reports and our contacts, including the
Chief of the Royal Court Nasser Lozi in a meeting with
Ambassador. Even the head of Jordan's General Intelligence
Directorate Mohammed Raqqad "showed a rare human side"
wondering aloud why U.S. authorities didn't contact their
Jordanian counterparts and then just deport the disturbed
teenager, according to Lozi. Some Jordanians speculate that
Smadi's arrest was part of a U.S. intelligence conspiracy to
exert pressure on Jordan for concessions as part of an
eventual Israeli-Arab peace deal, according to the editor of
Jordan's leading online news site Ammonnews, Basil Okour.


2. (SBU) Smadi was arrested in Dallas and charged in a
federal criminal complaint with attempting to use a weapon of
mass destruction to blow up a Dallas skyscraper, according to
the FBI. Smadi was initially identified when he made contact
with an undercover FBI agent posing as an Al Qaeda operative.



3. (SBU Media coverage of the Smadi arrest has focused on
Smadi's alleged entrapment, fueled by a wide round of
interviews in Jordan by Smadi's father, Maher Smadi. The
headline of the September 27 issue of the Jordan Times read,
"Jordanian arrested in US was manipulated by FBI--Father."
Jordan's leading cartoonist Emad Hajjaj published a sketch
September 28 in Al Ghad daily, which showed an FBI agent
holding Smadi by the scruff of the neck, saying, "A reckless
young man! We fooled him, entrapped him and detained him
before he carried out a terrorist operation." A
U.S.-Jordanian reporter from a small Jordanian satellite
station contacted Embassy Spokesperson on September 27 to
request an interview with a U.S. official to clarify the
arrest of Smadi, "a mere teenager from a troubled family."


4. (SBU) A Dallas-based reporter is currently in Jordan and
is interviewing Maher Smadi and others about the case, prior
to Smadi's next scheduled appearance on Oct. 5, according to
Okour. In line with Department guidance, the Embassy is
referring media queries to the Public Defender's Office.
Beecroft