False flag : Jordan bombings : Chossudovsky

2005-11-14

Richard Moore

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http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20051113&articleId=1238

November 14, 2005  

Did Israel have Prior Knowledge of the Amman 11/9 Terror
Attacks?

by  Michel  Chossudovsky 


November 13, 2005 

GlobalResearch.ca 

Did Israel have prior knowledge of the terror attacks on
three hotels in Amman, Jordan, which led to the death of
57 people?

According to an official Jordanian statement, the
casualties included 33 Jordanians, six Iraqis, two
Bahrainis, three Chinese, an Indonesian, a Syrian, a Saudi
and an American. 

Israeli Citizens evacuated prior to the Blast

At least two authoritative news sources cast doubt on the
official version of events.

According to Haaretz, Israel managed, with the cooperation
of the Jordanian security forces, to discreetly evacuate
several Israeli citizens prior to the blast, who were
staying at the Radisson SAS hotel: 

    "A number of Israelis staying yesterday at the Radisson
    SAS were evacuated before the bombing by Jordanian
    security forces, apparently due to a specific security
    alert. They were escorted back to Israel by security
    personnel.
    
    The Foreign Ministry stated yesterday that no Israeli
    tourists are known to have been injured in the blasts.
    Representatives of Israel's embassy in Amman were I
    contact with local authorities to examine any report of
    injured Israelis, but none were received."(Scores dead in
    three Amman hotel bombings; Israelis evacuated before
    attack, by Yoav Stern and Zohar Blumenkrantz, Haaretz, 9
    November 2005, italics added)

Moreover, a report published in The Los Angeles Times,
quoting an authoritative source, also suggests that
Israeli intelligence had prior knowledge of the attacks
and failed to intervene:

    "Amos N. Guiora, a former senior Israeli counter-terrorism
    official, said in a phone interview with The Times that
    sources in Israel had also told him about the pre-attack
    evacuations.
    
    "It means there was excellent intelligence that this thing
    was going to happen," said Guiora, a former leader of the
    Israel Defense Forces who now heads the Institute for
    Global Security Law and Policy at Case Western Reserve
    University in Cleveland.(LA Times, 11 November 2005)

According to Amos N. Guiora:

    "The question that needs to be answered is why weren't
    the Jordanians working at the hotel similarly removed?"
    (quoted in LA Times, op. cit)

Retraction

No doubt under pressure from both the Israeli and
Jordanian authorities, Yoav Stern and Zohar Blumenkrantz
who authored the first report in Haaretz on November 9,
retracted their statement to the effect that the Israeli
citizens had been evacuated prior to the blast:

    "There is no truth to reports that Israelis staying at the
    Radisson SAS hotel in Amman on Wednesday were evacuated by
    Jordanian security forces before the bombing that took
    place there. The Israelis were escorted back to Israel by
    Jordanian security personnel only after the attacks had
    taken place, contrary to earlier reports." (No truth to
    report of Israeli evacuations before Amman bombs, By Yoav
    Stern, Haaretz, 10 November 2005)

Ironically, the following day, in the November 11 issue of
Haaretz, the retraction had been retracted . The author's
of the November 9 article Yoav Stern and Zohar
Blumenkrantz had reaffirmed their earlier report:

    An Israeli Arab businessman was one of the casualties in
    the multi-pronged terror attacks, the Foreign Ministry in
    Jerusalem said Thursday. Two high-ranking Palestinian
    security officials were also said to be among the dead.
    ...It was still unclear whether there were any other
    Israeli casualties in the attack. (...)
    
    Hours before the bombings, many Israelis were evacuated
    from the Radisson SAS, one of the hotels hit in the
    attacks, apparently due to a specific security alert."
    (Haaretz, 11 November 2005, italics added).

Head of Palestinian Intelligence dies in Attacks

Three high-ranking Palestinian intelligence officials
including Maj.-Gen. Bashir Nafeh, head of the Palestinian
Authority's military intelligence and Col. Abed Allun, a
high-ranking Preventive Security forces official, who were
staying at the Hyatt Hotel were also killed in the blast.
.

In this regard, Russian analyst Shamil Sultanov of the
Russian Duma's International Affairs Committee has pointed
to an "Israeli connection". According to Sultanov, in a
radio interview, the death of Maj General Bashir Nafeh
"has furthered the chances of Muhammad Dahlan" (who
currently occupies the position of Minister of Civilian
Affairs), to replace Mahmud Abbas as leader of the
Palestinian National Authority. Sultanov suggests that
this change in leadership within the Palestinian Authority
would serve Israeli interests:

    "If you consider these blasts, there are two key points,
    from my point of view. First, Jordan is a key player here
    for the Americans. The stance of the new king, Abdallah
    II, who, by the way is half-English, is fairly complex
    because contradictions have arisen between the old
    Jordanian team and the king in the last six months, even
    the last year. And in principle what has just happened is
    a very good opportunity for Abdallah II to make certain
    changes, to put it mildly, to his team and to strengthen
    his personal authority, and so on.
    
    And the second theory I adhere to is the Israeli
    connection. Abu-Mazin [Mahmud Abbas], the leader of the
    Palestinian National Authority, is seriously ill. And many
    believe that his Fatah party may not win with such a
    leader, that it will definitely not win the parliamentary
    elections scheduled to take place in the next few months.
    So for a very large number of players - for the Americans,
    for Israel, for Sharon, for the Egyptians - [Palestinian
    Minister of Civilian Affairs Muhammad] Dahlan would be the
    optimal player and politician to replace Abu-Mazin. In
    that sense, these explosions, and in particular the
    murder, as a result of one of the blasts, of Bashir Nafi,
    the Palestinian National Authority's military intelligence
    chief in the West Bank, is, from my point of view, a
    clearing of the way for Dahlan." ( Radio Mayak, Moscow, in
    Russian, 1214 gmt 11 Nov 05, BBC Monitoring)

This Russian viewpoint is consistent with other
assessments on the role of Dahlan, who actively
collaborated from 1994 to 2001 with the Israeli IDF and
Shin Bet in the crackdown and arrest of Hamas leaders.
According to GlobalSecurity.org:

    "Both Israel and the US [have] groomed Dahlan as a
    successor to Arafat" .

Chinese Defense Delegation

According to CNN, there were three Chinese "students"
among the dead. The official reports, however, confirm
that the three Chinese were in fact members of a Chinese
Defense delegation to Jordan from China's National Defense
University. Beijing has rushed a high level investigative
team integrated by China's ministries of Foreign Affairs
and Defense to Amman with a view to investigating the
deaths of the three Chinese military personnel.

Moreover, Dr Ghalib Abd-al-Mahdi, a senior Iraqi economic
official and brother of Iraqi Vice-President Adil
Abd-al-Mahdi, was also killed in the blasts

Joint Intelligence Agreement between Israel and Jordan

According to an Israeli radio report, the attacks have
open the way towardsthe signing of a joint intelligence
agreement between Israel and Jordan.

    "Jordan is in the process of signing a joint security
    agreement and the establishment of an operations room for
    combating terrorism in cooperation with Egypt, Saudi
    Arabia and the Palestinian National Authority."
    (Journalist quoted in Jordanian foreign minister's news
    conference, 13 November 2005)

Media Disinformation

The attacks were immediately described by the Western
media, without corroborating evidence and prior to the
conduct of an investigation, " as bearing the hallmarks of
Al Qaeda."

A statement allegedly written by "Al Qaeda in Iraq" was
posted on a mysterious Islamist website. The web posting,
which claimed responsibility for the attacks,. stated that
the attacks were in response to "the conspiracy against
the Sunnis whose blood and honor were shed by Crusaders
and the Shiites".

Aired on network TV around the World, the attacks were
followed by organized mass rallies and demonstrations
across Amman directed against terrorist mastermind Al
Zarqawi.

What the Western media, however, has failed to report, is
the atmosphere of disbelief and skepticism which
characterizes Jordanian public opinion. Openly discussed
and debated on the streets of Amman, as confirmed by a
recent article in the New York Times (November 12, 2005),
many Jordanians believe that Israel is behind the
bombings.

ANNEX:PRIOR EVACUATION OFISRAELI CITIZENS, HAARETZ, NOV
11, 2005

This article appeared on November 11, one day after
Haaretz retracted the story in its November 10 issue. For
the record we are reproducing below both articles. We
have highlighted the relevant paragraphs in bold-italics

King Abdullah cancels trip to Israel after Amman triple
suicide bombing

By Yoav Stern and Zohar Blumenkrantz , Haaretz
Correspondents, and News Agencies

Friday, November 11, 2005

[link to original article
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/643639.html ]

Israel on Thursday evening says Jordan's King Abdullah II
has canceled a planned trip to Israel after at least 57
people were killed in simultaneous suicide bombings at
three hotels the Jordanian capital of Amman on Wednesday
night.

An Israeli Arab businessman was one of the casualties in
the multi-pronged terror attacks, the Foreign Ministry in
Jerusalem said Thursday. Two high-ranking Palestinian
security officials were also said to be among the dead.

Husam Fathi Mahajna, 40, from the nothern town of Umm
al-Fahm, was a guest at a wedding held at the Radisson
Hotel and his body was taken to the Jordan University
Hospital in Amman, where it was identified by a local
friend.

The family of Mahajna headed to Amman on Thursday morning.
Mahajna was to be buried in his hometown on Thursday at 7
P.M.

It was still unclear whether there were any other Israeli
casualties in the attack. Hours before the bombings, many
Israelis were evacuated from the Radisson SAS, one of the
hotels hit in the attacks, apparently due to a specific
security alert.

More than 115 people were wounded in the bombings at the
Radisson, Days Inn and Grand Hyatt, where the bomber is
believed to have blown up in a banquet hall where a
wedding reception was underway. The Radisson is known to
be popular with Israeli tourists.

"There were three terrorist attacks on the Grand Hyatt,
Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels and it is believed that
the blasts were suicide bombings," police spokesman Major
Bashir al-Da'aja told The Associated Press. He declined to
elaborate.

Most of the victims of the attacks were Jordanian, said
Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muashar said.

Al-Qaida in Iraq posted a statement in an Arabic Internet
site in which it claimed responsibility for the bombings.

The claim of responsibility, signed in the name of the
spokesman for the group Al-Qaida in Iraq, said that "after
studying and watching the targets, places were chosen to
carry out an attack on some hotels that the tyrant of
Jordan has made the backyard garden for the enemy of the
religion - Jews and crusaders."

Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied Thursday outside one
of the three U.S.-based hotels attacked by suicide
bombers, shouting, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!"
after the terrorist's group claimed responsibility for the
blasts that killed at least 56 people, including an
American.

Protesters - including women and children - gathered
outside a bombed hotels, shouting, "Death to al-Zarqawi,
the villain and the traitor!" Drivers honked the horns of
vehicles decorated with Jordanian flags and posters of the
king. A helicopter hovered overhead.

Jordan rounds up first suspects 

Jordan's King Abdullah II chaired a meeting with his
security chiefs, just hours after returning home from a
trip abroad and inspecting the still-smoldering sites.

Jordanian security forces snared a group of Iraqi suspects
in the triple hotel bombings that killed at least 56
people, and officials said Thursday one of the bombers
spoke Iraqi-accented Arabic before he exploded his suicide
belt in the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

A senior security official linked the bombings to Jordan's
war-ravaged eastern neighbor, saying the Hyatt bomber
spoke with an Iraqi accent and several other Iraqis have
been detained.

Security staff patrolling the Hyatt stopped the
middle-aged terrorist as he was wandering the lobby. He
spoke briefly to the guards before detonating the
explosives strapped underneath his Western-style suit, the
official said on condition of anonymity because he was
unauthorized to speak to the media.

"Among those arrested there were different nationalities,
including Iraqis and other Arabs, and not only
Jordanians," the official added.

Another official, insisting on anonymity because he is not
allowed to speak to the press, said that DNA tests were
being carried out to determine the identity of the
perpetrators, including two suicide bombers who blew
themselves up in two of the separate hotel attacks. A
third suicide attacker used a car to attack the third
hotel.

Palestinian officials among dead

Two high-ranking Palestinian security officials, a senior
Palestinian banker and the commercial attache at the
Palestinian embassy in Cairo died in the bombings in
Jordan, the Palestinian envoy to Amman said on Thursday.

Maj.-Gen. Bashir Nafeh, the head of military intelligence
in the West Bank, and Col. Abed Allun, a high-ranking
Preventive Security forces official, were killed in the
attack at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Ambassador Attala Kheri
told The AP in a telephone interview.

Jihad Fatouh, the commercial attache at the Palestinian
Embassy in Cairo, and Mosab Khorma, deputy Chairman of
Cairo-Amman Bank in the Palestinian territories, were also
killed in the three nearly simultaneous suicide bombings
on American-owned hotels in the Jordanian capital on
Wednesday night, Kheri said.

The Palestinian Authority ordered Palestinian flags
lowered to half-staff for one day, and declared a
three-day mourning period.

"It's a very sad day for Palestinians, and we extend our
condolences to King Abdullah and the Jordanian people,"
Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told reporters. "We condemn
this attack vehemently. It's a criminal attack that
targeted innocent civilians."

International condemnation

Jordan's King Abdullah II condemned the attacks as
"criminal acts committed by a deviant and misleading
bunch" and said they would not sway Jordan from continuing
its battle against terrorism. He cut short his official
visit to Kazakhstan to return home.

"The hand of justice will get to the criminals who
targeted innocent secure civilians with their cowardly
acts," he said in a statement carried by the official
Petra news agency.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called King Abdullah and
expressed his condolences. He told the Jordanian King the
entire world must unite in the war against terror.

U.S. President George W. Bush condemned the bombings and
offered U.S. assistance in the investigation.

"The president condemns in the strongest possible terms
the vicious terrorist attacks against innocent civilians
in Amman, Jordan," said a statement by White House
spokesman Scott McClellan.

"Jordan is a close friend of the United States, and we
will offer every possible form of cooperation in
investigating these attacks and assisting in efforts to
bring these terrorists to justice," he added.

Israelis allowed to return

A Jordanian police official said the attacks hit minutes
before 9 P.M. in two districts in the Jordanian capital,
including the commercial areas of Jebel Amman and
al-Rabiyeh, which houses the Israeli Embassy.

The Allenby border crossing between Israel and Jordan was
opened to allow Israelis to leave the Hashemite Kingdom
immediately.

The first bomber struck the Grand Hyatt, completely
shattering the stone entrance.

Police said a second explosion hit the nearby Radisson SAS
hotel where about 250 people were attending a wedding
reception.

The Radisson in particular is popular with Israeli
tourists and was a target of several foiled Al-Qaida plots
in the past.

"The attacks carry the hallmark of Al-Qaida," one police
official said on condition of anonymity in line with
police regulations. "However it is not certain. We are
investigating."

Ayman al-Safadi, editor of Jordan's Al-Ghad newspaper,
told Al-Arabiya satellite network that it was a "terrorist
operation."

"Finally, the terrorists succeeded in breaking the
security in Jordan," he said, referring to past success in
foiling many terror plots.

The Grand Hyatt and Radisson SAS hotels, in the Jebel
Amman district, are located about one kilometer apart and
are frequented by American and European businessmen and
diplomats. The Days Inn is located three kilometers away.

An American businessman who was at the Grand Hyatt when
the explosion occurred, said that it was caused by a "bomb
that went off in the lobby." He declined to identify
himself.

"It was a miracle that we made it out with a scratch,"
said a British guest at the Grand Hyatt.

"We thought it was fireworks for the wedding but I saw
people falling to the ground," said Ahmed, a wedding guest
at the Radisson who did not give his surname. "I saw
blood. There were people killed. It was ugly."

Security was beefed up across the capital, especially
around hotels and diplomatic missions, police said.
Several armed policemen and cars were patrolling the
streets of Amman, where Jordanian Prime Minister Adnan
Badran declared Thursday a national holiday - apparently
in order to allow tightened security measures to take
hold.

Jordan, a key ally of both the United States and Israel,
had largely escaped the terror attacks that have hit other
parts of the Middle East, and its sleepy capital, Amman,
is viewed as a haven of stability in the region.

But Jordan has not been entirely immune: On August 19,
militants fired three Katyusha rockets at a Navy ship
docked at the Red Sea resort of Aqaba, narrowly missing it
and killing a Jordanian soldier.

Jordanian officials blamed that attack on Al-Qaida in
Iraq, and there have been growing worries that the
violence in Iraq could spill over into Jordan, where many
Iraqi exiles have taken refuge from the violence.

Jordan has arrested scores of Islamic militants for
plotting to carry out attacks in the moderate Arab
kingdom. It has also sentenced numerous militants to death
in absentia, including the Jordanian-born leader of
al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

copyright Haaretz, 2005. Emphasis added

No truth to report of Israeli evacuations before Amman
bombs

By Yoav Stern , Haaretz Correspondent

November 10 2005

[link to original article
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/643661.html ]

There is no truth to reports that Israelis staying at the
Radisson SAS hotel in Amman on Wednesday were evacuated by
Jordanian security forces before the bombing that took
place there.

The Israelis were escorted back to Israel by Jordanian
security personnel only after the attacks had taken place,
contrary to earlier reports.

Al Qaida said Thursday that it had carried out the triple
suicide bombings at the Radisson, Grand Hyatt and Days Inn
hotels in downtown Amman, in which at least 57 people,
including an Israeli, were killed.

Representatives of Israel's embassy in Amman were in
contact with local authorities to examine any report of
injured Israelis, but none were received. There are often
a number of Israeli businessman and tourists in Amman,
including in the hotels hit Wednesday.

Israel's counter-terror headquarters on Wednesday
recommended Israeli citizens not travel in Jordan. Travel
warnings regarding Jordan were tightened a few months ago,
but many Israelis still visit the country. Many also visit
other regions such as the Jordanian Arava and the ancient
city of Petra.

Copyright Haaretz 2005.Emphasis added.

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