Frank Viviano Writes Jordan anxious to avoid fallout from
terrorism war
Volatile neighbors, politics make country vulnerable
- Al-Baka’a, Jordan — Silence descends on the marketplace
at Al-Baka’a the moment a foreigner begins asking questions,
and the words “American reporter” ripple through the
crowd in a collective whisper.- Al-Baka’a, set in an arid valley 14 miles from the Jordanian
capital, Amman,- is one of the world’s largest refugee camps, the squalid
home to 120,000 people who fled the West Bank of the Jordan River
after the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. Since Sept. 11, its residents
have been ordered not to speak with journalists — especially
those from the United States.- “Do you have a permit from the Ministry of Information
to visit this place, sir?” a policeman asks. “If not,
you must leave immediately.”- The government, an official later explains off the record,
is traumatized by the possibility that Palestinians in Jordan
might be seen celebrating the terrorist assault, as some did
in the West Bank.- “The whole nation is under stress, thanks to the events
of Sept. 11,” wrote Dureid Mahasneh, a prominent Jordanian
intellectual and newspaper columnist. “People are increasingly
worried and pessimistic.”- The anxiety is born of circumstances that make Jordan deeply
vulnerable to the aftereffects of the terrorist attacks on New
York and the Pentagon — and to the fear of what may come next.- No Arab leader moved faster to condemn the attacks than King
Abdullah, Jordan’s young ruler, who rushed to Washington last
week, offering President Bush his country’s “full, unequivocal
support to you and to the people of America.”- But the political and military fallout from a U.S.-led war
on terrorism — should it spread to Iraq, for example — could
destroy the fragile Jordanian economy, upset the country’s delicate
internal political balancing act and fatally weaken the king’s
authority.- More than any other Arab state, Jordan has opened its doors
to Israel, welcoming tens of thousands of Israeli businesspeople
and tourists per year. But with a population that is more than
60 percent Palestinian, it has also openly supported the current
uprising on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, an uprising
that Israel calls “terrorism.”- In addition to Israel and Iraq, Jordan is surrounded by other
volatile neighbors who could be caught up in America’s declared
“war on terrorism.” It shares borders with Syria –
the headquarters of several organizations the U.S.- State Department has labeled as terrorist — and Saudi Arabia,
Osama bin Laden’s birthplace and his principal financial base.- The cloud of fear in Jordan has produced some improbable
conspiracy theories. The real culprits, according to some Jordanians,
were Israeli agents of Arab origin, determined to force the United
States into a war with Islam. Others say that Washington itself
orchestrated the hijackings to set the scene for a takeover of
the Persian Gulf oil fields.- “Hardly anyone really believes these things, but almost
everyone wants, desperately, to believe that someone else must
be responsible,” said Michel Nayim, a taxi driver.- That some Arabs might indeed have been capable of such acts
was clearly recognized by the hordes of missing vacationers who
usually turn up by the planeload in the balmy Jordanian autumn.- The Amman Intercontinental, the capital’s most luxurious
hotel, has reduced its room rate from $275 per night to $125
in an attempt to attract clients. The Oriental, a favorite restaurant
of foreign residents in the chic Jebel Amman district, had exactly
six diners interspersed in its several hundred seats Sunday night.- However, Jordanians have shown far more sympathy than hostility
toward Westerners since the attacks. A much-publicized fatwa,
or decree, from a small group of extremist clerics declaring
holy war on Americans in the event Afghanistan is invaded produced
furious public criticism and embarrassment.- But the fatwa underscored the most troubling of Jordan’s
nightmares: that like the West Bank and Gaza, Saudi Arabia and
nearby Lebanon, it too might be caught up in the extremist religious
fervor that cast a pall of death on the United States and may
bring catastrophe to Afghanistan.- Among the things the police were anxious for Americans not
to see in Al- Baka’a were large, hand-scrawled banners in Arabic
exhorting residents to immerse themselves in the Koran. Virtually
all of the women in the marketplace are now veiled.- The growing religious fervor has seldom crossed the line
into violent extremism. A near exception was a plot to bomb Jordanian
tourist sites on New Year’s Eve, allegedly coordinated by Osama
bin Laden but detected and crushed in advance by the Jordanian
secret service.- The government has imposed draconian “emergency measures”
on legal opposition groups, demanding several days’ notice for
all protests and assigning them to sites that make large gatherings
impossible.- “Instead of seeing thousands go out to the streets in
solidarity with the (Palestinian uprising), we find ourselves
confined to this small area,” said Abdul Latif Arabiyat,
secretary general of the Islamic Action Front, an opposition
political party.- “I am being oppressed, not from America, but from my
own government officials,” said Bahjat Abu Gharbiyeh, another
militant leader. “Is it right at such a time when the U.S.
declares war against Arabs and Muslims that we be cornered here?
For the sake of Allah, we won’t give up the struggle and martyrdom.”
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