How is Jordan supporting the war on terrorism?
Jordan has been an important intelligence partner to the United States for years and has pledged to help America track down Osama bin Laden and other members of his al-Qaeda terrorist network. In December 1999, U.S.-Jordanian intelligence cooperation uncovered a major plot—apparently linked to al-Qaeda—to murder American and Israeli tourists in Jordan on the eve of the millennium. Several suspects in the plot have since been tried in Jordan, including Raed Hijazi, a Jordanian-American sentenced to death in February 2002. Soon after the Hijazi trial, a top Jordanian terrorism investigator involved in the case against the millennium-plot terrorists survived a car bomb attack in Amman, the Jordanian capital.

What type of country is Jordan?
With the West Bank and Israel to its west and Iraq to its east, the kingdom is a pivotal Middle East player. Sixty percent or more of Jordan’s population of five million are Palestinian, including many refugees who fled Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. The ruling royal family, the Hashemites, has a power base within the army and within Jordan’s Bedouin minority. Jordan’s semi-independent parliament includes an Islamist opposition bloc determined to establish conservative social mores and block “normalization” with Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994.

Do terrorist groups operate in Jordan?
Yes. Experts say al-Qaeda has several cells in Jordan. In April 2002, the Russian military said it had killed a mysterious Jordanian-born terrorist named Khattab, who led Islamist rebels in Chechnya and allegedly had ties to al-Qaeda.

In 1999, the Jordanian government raided and closed down the Amman headquarters of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. The bulk of the office relocated to Damascus, Syria, but experts say the group remains active in Jordan and enjoys a strong following among the country’s Palestinians. Jordan is also home to members of other anti-Israel terrorist organizations, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia. The kingdom remains a popular route for terrorists trying to smuggle weapons into the neighboring West Bank. Many Jordanians see attacks on Israelis as legitimate resistance, not terrorism.

Does Jordan have a history of dealing with terrorism?
Yes. In the 1950s and 1960s, the country’s long border with Israel made it a major base for Palestinian raids against Israel. In 1970, a leftist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) faction hijacked three passenger planes and took them to airfields in Jordan; after the planes were emptied, the hijackers blew them up. This led King Hussein—father of the current king—to forcibly eject the PLO from the kingdom. In 1971, PLO-linked terrorists assassinated Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal.

How has Jordan reacted to rising Israeli-Palestinian tensions?
King Abdullah has warned U.S. officials that the Israeli-Palestinian crisis could trigger serious domestic unrest in Jordan and has urged the Bush administration to pressure Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories. Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, but Jordan recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv after the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) in 2000. At the March 2002 Arab League summit, Jordan backed a Saudi peace proposal to have the Arab states exchange “normal relations” with Israel for an Israeli pullback to its 1967 borders, the creation of a Palestinian state, and a return of Palestinian refugees. In May, King Abdullah warned that widespread Arab anger over Israel’s incursion into the West Bank was helping al-Qaeda win support in the Arab world: “If I were Osama bin Laden now and I originally thought I’d lost, I’d be coming out of my cave and thinking, ‘Ah, maybe I have a chance now.’”