Jordan Times
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Jordanians reassured after Iraqi 'bomber' paraded
AMMAN (AFP) — The speedy arrest and televised
confession of an alleged would-be Iraqi suicide bomber has bolstered the image
of the Kingdom's intelligence services but risks stoking tension with Iraqi
expatriates, officials said Monday.
Sajida Mubarak Atrous Al Rishawi was composed as she spoke of her role in what
authorities say was a four-person mission targeting three hotels, an operation
that killed 57 people and wounded close to 100 on Wednesday.
The decision to air her confession was taken to give the Jordanian people some
“relief” and “reassure them of the efficiency of the (intelligence) services,”
Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher told AFP.
He stressed, however, that Rishawi's arrest on Sunday in a west Amman
residential neighbourhood, where the quartet had rented a furnished apartment,
did not mean the end of the investigation.
“The investigation is not over with the arrest of this woman. We must be sure
that all leads have been examined,” Muasher said.
A senior government official told AFP the speed with which the security services
arrested Rishawi and unmasked the identity of the three Iraqis who bombed the
hotels was remarkable.
“Clearly the intelligence services, which took a blow as a result of the suicide
attacks, have been able to reguild their coat of arms by quickly arresting a key
witness,” the official said.
Rishawi appeared on Jordanian television with an explosives belt that she had
been expected to use to blow herself up at the Radisson SAS Hotel, with her
husband. He succeeded but her device malfunctioned.
“The investigation is now focusing on whether other accomplices could still be
in Jordan ready to carry out new attacks,” the official said on condition of
anonymity.
His Majesty King Abdullah has led a chorus of praise for the intelligence
services but warned against any harm being done to hundreds of thousands of
Iraqi expatriates, insisting that Jordan was no “police state.”
“The Kingdom's motto is law, openness and security but these crimes will not
force Jordan to become a police state because the Jordanians do not want to live
in a police state,” the King said.
Jordan “will seek a balance between freedom and security that reassures both
Jordanians and their guests,” he told state-run Jordan News Agency, Petra, on
Saturday.
“No one should exploit Wednesday's terrorist acts to harm Jordanian-Iraqi
relations. Jordan will continue to be a safe haven for every Iraqi who is
forced, by circumstances, to come and live in Jordan,” the King said.
The authorities have insisted that all the assailants were Iraqi and that no
Jordanians were arrested or suspected of involvement.
This has already spurred some Jordanians to hit back.
“Due to the pain and shock, the Jordanians reacted angrily against Iraqi
nationals although there were no serious incidents,” a security source told AFP.
Fewer cars with Iraqi licence plates have ventured onto Amman streets following
the attacks after several were the target of verbal abuse by Jordanians,
witnesses said.
“These are only isolated incidents,” the government official insisted,
reiterating that the Jordanian Monarch and other officials have described the
Iraqi expatriates as “dear brothers.”
Wednesday's attacks were claimed by the Iraqi-based Al Qaeda branch of Abu
Mussab Zarqawi, a Jordanian fugitive sentenced to death in Amman for the murder
of a US diplomat and accused by the US of leading the insurgency in Iraq.
Zarqawi was released from jail in 1999 under a general amnesty issued by King
Abdullah.