JORDAN: 2009 COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM (CORRECTED COPY)

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 002765

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

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TAGS: PTER PINS PREL ASEC EFIN KCRM KHLS AEMR JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN: 2009 COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM (CORRECTED COPY)

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.


1. (SBU) Through both its public statements and its actions, the
Jordanian Government continues to demonstrate a solid commitment to
combat terrorist groups and extremist ideologies.


2. (SBU) Despite the government's steadfast support, however,
extremist messages still find a receptive audience with a small, but
steady, proportion of the total population. According to polling
data compiled by the Pew Research Center Global Attitudes survey for
2009, the percentage of Jordanians expressing "confidence" in Usama
bin Laden crept upwards to 28% from 19% in 2008. According to
WorldPublicOpinion.org (affiliated with the University of Maryland)
roughly 27% of Jordanians stated that they had "positive" feelings
toward bin Laden, and another 27% expressed mixed feelings toward
him.


3. (SBU) Following personnel changes within the government,
Jordanian discontinued an incipient engagement with HAMAS which had
begun in 2008. The abortive dialogue with HAMAS was considered
surprising in light of Jordan's hostile stance toward the group.
Although the King permitted HAMAS leader Khaled Meshaal into the
country briefly for the funeral of his father, Jordanian security
remained vigilant against any effort to establish cells or use
Jordanian territory as a base of operations against Israel.


4. (SBU) The Jordanian government continued its solid political and
material support for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and for PA
President Mahmoud Abbas. The King routinely expresses unqualified
support for the peace process and for a negotiated settlement of the
Israel-Palestine dispute. Jordan has facilitated the regional peace
process by training five battalion-sized elements of the Palestine
Security Forces at the Jordan International Police Training Center
(JIPTC) outside of Amman, including two such training rotations in

2009. JIPTC-trained forces have since been deployed throughout the
West Bank, where their motivation and professionalism have earned
praise from the different regional parties.


5. (SBU) Despite the government's antipathy toward HAMAS, popular
support for the organization continued to run high in Jordan,
particularly in the aftermath of the Israeli incursion into the Gaza
Strip in December 2008. Numerous street demonstrations took place
throughout Jordan in protest of the Israeli operation. Polling data
from previous years has revealed that a majority of Jordanians view
HAMAS as a legitimate resistance organization.


6. (SBU) Jordan continues to place a strong emphasis upon countering
extremist propaganda, fighting radicalization, and strengthening
interfaith coexistence and dialogue. Building upon the foundations
of the 2005 Amman Message, Jordanian officials, including King
Abdullah II, strongly condemned extremist violence and the takfiri
ideology that promotes it. The Royal Aal-al Bayt Instutute for
Islamic Thought under the leadership of Prince Ghazi bin-Talal
continued its sponsorship of the "Common Word" series of ecumenical
and interfaith conferences and lectures in the U.S., the UK, and
elsewhere. The "Common Word" program began as a response to the
controversy caused by Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 address in
Regensburg. In May, 2009 Jordan hosted a successful papal visit.
Jordanian government officials and media routinely reinforce the
importance of interfaith dialogue and tolerance.


7. (SBU) At the same time the government undertook concrete measures
to address the threat of takfiri ideology in the country.
Recognizing the key role that incarceration has played in the
radicalization of many terrorists (including the Jordanian-born Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi),Jordanian authorities continued their 2008
program of theological engagement of suspected takfirists and other
radical inmates. This program employs carefully selected and vetted
religious scholars and jurists to introduce or reinforce more
balanced and moderate views, based upon established Islamic
jurisprudence and teachings. In the summer of 2009, Jordanian
correctional authorities introduced a classification system for
prisoners that allowed authorities to more readily identify and
segregate adherents of violent extremist ideologies.


8. (SBU) Jordan's security forces continue robust programs to
prevent terror attacks in the country and to deny terrorists the use
of its territory to launch attacks against its neighbors. For
example, the first phase of the Joint Border Security Program (JBSP)
was completed in September 2009, including the installation of a
suite of monitoring and communications equipment along a 50km
stretch of Jordan's border with Syria, and associated training.
This border area has historically presented the highest risk of
illicit infiltration and smuggling across Jordan's border and it
accounted for the greatest number of interdictions by Jordanian law
enforcement. The completion of this portion of the JSBP program
significantly enhances Jordan's detection capabilities and allows
Jordan to respond to incidents more quickly.


9. (SBU) In August 2009, Jordan, with USG support, hosted a

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conference establishing the Regional Biometric Partnership
Initiative, bringing together law enforcement, security, and
forensic experts from twelve Middle Eastern countries. Jordan
presented a tailored biometric software package and proposed the
creation of a regional biometric database for known and suspected
terrorists in the region to allow the efficient sharing of data
between governments. The proposal won an endorsement in principal
from other participants and could potentially do much to thwart
terrorist travel and deny them safe havens.


10. Jordan welcomed U.S. training and assistance designed to
strengthen security at its ports of entry. In December 2008, the
U.S. and Jordan signed a memorandum of understanding for the
Megaports Initiative, an agreement under which the U.S. National
Nuclear Safety Administration works collaboratively with its
Jordanian counterparts to equip seaports and other ports of entry
with radiation detection equipment to prevent terrorists from
acquiring, smuggling and using dangerous nuclear materials to
develop a weapon of mass destruction or radiological dispersal
devices. Similarly, Jordan has striven to develop a comprehensive
strategic trade control program to better manage the transit and
transshipment of items of proliferation concern. In support of this
effort Jordan issued regulations governing the import and transit of
dual-use items, established the interagency "Export Committee for
Dual-Use Items," and participated in almost one dozen conferences
and capacity-building activities.


11. (SBU) Jordan's security services remained intensely engaged
against terrorist threats. As a result of their vigilance, several
planned attacks were disrupted prior to execution. The State
Security Court (SSC) has primary jurisdiction for terrorism cases
and it maintained a substantial caseload during 2009. For example:

-- In March, three Jordanians were convicted and sentenced to 22
years for plotting a suicide car bombing against a Roman Catholic
Church. The plotters had originally wanted to strike police
facilities but shifted their focus to a Christian target after their
surveillances revealed the difficulty of striking the police.
-- In April, four men were arrested and charged with plotting
attacks in Israel in retaliation for the Israeli incursion into
Gaza. The men were reportedly in possession of firearms at the time
of their apprehension. The alleged leader of the cell, Usama Abu
Kabir, had been released from U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay in
November 2007, after nearly six years of imprisonment.
-- In April, the SSC sentenced three men to five years'
imprisonment for plotting and preparing attacks against Israeli
targets on behalf of HAMAS. Potential targets included the Israeli
Embassy in Amman and border posts in Jordan Valley.
-- In October, the SSC imposed sentences of 15 to 20 years on
twelve Jordanian Al Qa'ida sympathizers for attempting to attack a
Christian church in the northern city of Irbid, as well as a
Christian cemetery in the same city. This group was also reportedly
affiliated with an individual who fired upon a visiting Lebanese
Christian choir in Amman in 2008.


12. (SBU) In November, the Court of Cassation reduced the sentence
of Muamar Yusef al-Jaghbir to 15 years incarceration for his role in
the 2002 assassination of USAID Officer Thomas Foley. Al Jaghbir
was convicted of playing a secondary role in the killing, and had
been previously convicted and sentenced to death in July in the SSC,
but the Court of Cassation reviewed the case and reduced the
sentence on appeal. He was also credited with the six years al
Jaghbir had already served in U.S. or Jordanian custody following
his 2003 apprehension in Iraq. This ruling, however, is unlikely to
result in al-Jaghbir's release in the future: he is also awaiting
execution for his role in the August 2003 car bombing of the
Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad that killed at least 14 people.


13. (SBU) Jordan has been intensely targeted by Al Qa'ida in the
past and Al Qa'ida's leadership has repeatedly called for attacks
against the Hashemite Government and Western interests in the
country. In March 2009, for example, Al Qa'ida deputy Ayman
Zawahiri called for extremists to "move into Jordan" from secure
bases in Iraq in order to attack Jerusalem.


14. (SBU) Jordan is a strong partner in the struggle against
terrorists, but its financial sector remains vulnerable to
money-laundering and terrorism finance. Jordan has an Anti-Money
Laundering (AML) law and in 2008, the Jordanian Securities
Commission Board of Commissioners issued AML regulations for
securities activities, a positive step toward defining obligated
entities falling under the regulatory purview of the Commission.
Furthermore, in 2009, Jordan began steps to implement a cross-border
currency declaration form. Despite these measures, however, a
Middle East North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF)
review identified deficiencies in 14 of 16 core and key FATF
recommendations for combating money laundering and terrorist
financing. Among the issues identified in the report are the
absence of some predicate offenses in the existing AML statute,
inadequate criminalization of terrorist financing, and the lack of

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legal procedures for freezing funds and assets of persons named
pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1267 (for those suspected
of funding Al-Qaeda or the Taliban).


BEECROFT