VZCZCXRO2520
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHAM #2765/01 3560752
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 220752Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6563
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 002765 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
S/CT FOR RSHORE; NEA/ELA FOR MGREGONIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
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 
 
AMMAN 00002765  002 OF 003 
 
 
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 
 
AMMAN 00002765  003 OF 003 
 
 
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