Oula Farawati looks at the Jordanian government's dilemma over its hand-in-glove cooperation with the US against terror In March 2009, a story appeared in the Atlantic citing Jordan as part of the international forces in Afghanistan. This fact only surfaced after a NATO document was leaked by WikiLeaks. Not much attention was paid here in Jordan to what journalist Marc Ambinder wrote about Jordan wanting to keep its participation in the war on terror in Afghanistan a secret. "What's more interesting is that [the document] includes Jordan as being among the countries that are part of the international forces in Afghanistan, but it also includes the notice that Jordan doesn't want its name in the public domain, fearing the internal repercussions," Ambinder wrote. But such things don't stay secret for long, especially in a country that walks a tight rope between anti-US sentiment internally and its historical role as a staunchest ally and aid recipient of the US in the Middle East. On 30 December 2009, Jordanian physician Humam Balawai blew the authorities' cover. A double agent who was due to brief a meeting at the base on the whereabouts of Al-Qaeda Number 2 Ayman El-Zawahri, Balawi instead blew himself up, killing eight people, one of them a Jordanian intelligence officer related to the king. Since then, a major debate has ensued over Jordan's participation in the war in Afghanistan, reflecting the overwhelming anti-US sentiment vs the government's fear of Al-Qaeda. At the beginning, the government issued media statements, such as Prime Minister Samir Rifai's statement that "Jordan would continue to wage operations against terrorists outside the country in coordination with others. Our war against terrorism will continue, because we are part of this world and this requires coordination with others as well as an exchange of information." The issue was also raised in a CNN GPS interview with King Abdullah who told host Farid Zakaria that he made up his mind "that we were not going to be defensive. If we felt that people were going to target Jordan, we would target them." King Abdullah made clear in the interview that Jordanian participation in the war on Al-Qaeda didn't start with 9/11. "We were battling Al-Qaeda way before America had its 9/11. And we stand for tolerance, acceptance and humanity. And these people, who call themselves Muslims, are trying to hi-jack our religion. And this is not just a Jordanian problem; it is a problem throughout the Arab and Islamic world. And we will continue to fight," he said. But Jordanian authorities went on the attack, outraged by what has been termed the "78 Statement", where Jordan's Islamist-led opposition called on the government to stop cooperating with the CIA. "The American empire's war in Afghanistan is not our war. It's not in Jordan's interest," the statement by 78 opposition figures said, adding that "Jordanian policies should be reviewed. Jordan should stop cooperating with American and Zionist intelligence. It should pull out any troops in Afghanistan or any other place." Soon after the statement, Jordanian writers Muwaffaq Mahadin and Sufyan Al-Tal were charged with sedition and slandering the army after an interview on Al-Jazeera. They were held and then released in what seems like an attempt to silence the debate about this sensitive issue. The government was embarrassed by the level of support Al-Qaeda has among Jordanian, solely because it was against the US. The US is viewed here as a supporter to Israel. So in this complex formula, Jordanians support the enemy of their enemy. But the debate doesn't seem to be over. The government has now stopped talking about this issue altogether as it battles other internal issues related to taxes and a mammoth budget deficit. The debate is now between columnists trying to score goals as the authorities seal their lips about the issue, hoping it'll soon be forgotten. Fahed Khitan, a columnist at Al-Arab Al-Yom concedes that Jordan's fight with Al-Qaeda should remain "localised. Jordanian security has done well in the face of Al-Qaeda inside our borders and after the terrorist attacks on three Jordanian hotels [November 2005]. They were able to kill [Musaab] Al-Zarqawi and maintained constant vigilance against any attempt to penetrate our security," he stated. "In the meantime, the confrontation with Al-Qaeda is expanding and Al-Qaeda has bases in several countries but Jordan is not among them. The war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan is complicated and there, Al-Qaeda has special privileges. There, the war is with the US, which failed to eliminate Al-Qaeda. We will not be part of this failure," he added. But political analyst Jamil Nimri lashed out at the critics. He even accused them of being Al-Qaeda ideologists: "We should not at all feel embarrassed by our coordination with the US on terror. Those who criticise Jordan are most probably sympathisers with Al-Qaeda ideology." "Jordan has always been a friend and ally of the US and terrorism is now an international phenomenon that plagues the East and the West. Let's remember that we exported the [terror] phenomenon that was originally generated by the Arabs. We exported the stars of terrorism to Asian countries such as Afghanistan and Chechnia," he added. But as has always been the case in Jordan, big issues breed smaller, probably more painful issues. At this instance, they first relate to how the authorities handle the media. Yasser Abu Hilaleh, an Islamist writer maintained in a column recently that it was wrong to try to silence the media. "Writer are not required to identify with the official position in democratic countries, and those who defend Mahadin and Tal are not in favour of Al-Qaeda, but they are opposed to US policies in the region; they don't have to voice their national stance in every article they write." But media is only a small part of the issue. Why did Jordanians have to learn about the state cooperation with the US in Afghanistan from the media after a bombing? For many, this has to do with how the state deals with its citizens. It has to do with transparency and citizens' right to knowledge. This is best expressed by Jordanian blogger Rami Abdel-Rahman: "The gap remains unquestionably wide between a security system that has proved its excellence in maintaining Jordan an oasis of peace in a mad region, and the average citizen who distrusts his country's alliances," he said. "It is time we asked why, and found a way to build a friendly relationship between the state and the citizen, who needs to feel that a security officer is his friend, not the friend of his enemy," he wrote on his blog Rami's Wall. The war on terror seems to be far from over and Jordan's king has now publicly put his credibility on the line as a US ally against the elusive enemy. Does he have the ability to stand up to the people's tidal wave of empathy with America's foes? Does the government have what it takes to fight Al-Qaeda internationally? Questions like these plague Jordanians, and the authorities here will have their hands full to engage Jordanians and convince them that cooperating with the US in its war on terror is not collaborating with the real enemy.
