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U.S.
Embassy in Amman heavily guarded
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AMMAN,
October 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – While Washington
officials concluded that the murder of a Jordan-based U.S. diplomat was
politically motivated, a well-known British writer blamed the spread of
"anti-Bush feeling" for the killing.
"Amman
is burning with anger at the United States and its threats against
Iraq," Robert Fisk wrote in the British daily, The Independent.
"More
than half of Jordan's population is Palestinian and America's
unconditional support for [Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon's Israeli
government has embittered many of them; demonstrators have often called
for the end of Jordan's 1994 peace treaty with Israel," he added.
"Why
should ordinary people get killed and punished for the crimes of their
leaders?" Fisk quoted a female Jordanian neighbor as saying.
"And therein lies a clue to this murder. Jordanians – ‘our’
Arabs, friends of the West – now find it natural to refer to the
‘crimes’ of President Bush," charged the famous British writer.
The
62-year-old Laurence Foley, in the U.S. Agency for International
Development mission, was walking to his car in a middle-class suburb of
the Jordanian capital Monday, October 28, when someone fired eight
bullets into him from a 7mm gun.
Foley's
murder came at a time when Jordanians have been angered by a death
sentence passed in Qatar on Firas Majali, a Jordanian media man accused
of spying and passing information on U.S. troop movements in the Gulf
emirate, where Washington maintains a massive and ever-enlarging air
base for use in a possible war against Iraq, according to Fisk.
Protests
at the sentence have been staged in Amman by Majali's family, but the
most remarkable element of the case is that the Qatar court sentenced
the local television employee for sending the intelligence information
not to Al-Qaeda, but to Jordan's own intelligence service.
"If
that is true, why would Jordan want information on the build-up of U.S.
troops in Qatar? And – more to the point – with whom would it wish
to share such information? Or was this merely a little bit of
intimidation after Jordan recalled its ambassador to Qatar following a
program on [Qatar-based] Al-Jazeera television which offended Jordan's
Hashemite monarchy?
"Most
sensitive of all right now is this same monarchy, and the widespread
rumors that the Americans would like a Hashemite to become ‘king of
Iraq’ after a U.S. invasion. ‘King’ Hassan, the former crown
prince, perhaps? After all, the British originally placed the Hashemites
on the Iraqi throne after the First World War had ended," said
Fisk.
Concluding
his article, he said, "So, the innocent Foley has become another
victim of the Middle East's earthquake. Jordan is a gentle country with
a gentle people and – believe it or not – a gentle monarchy. But it
lives in dangerous times and violence is a symptom of that danger."
In
Washington, the same result was echoed clearly in statements by U.S.
officials about the killing.
Two
U.S. officials said Monday, October 28, that the circumstances of the
murder of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan suggests the killer had a political
motive, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the absence of
signs of a random shooting or a robbery pointed to a possible political
motive.
"It's
too early to say for sure, but the facts we have at the moment suggest
he was targeted because of who he was," one official said, quoted
by AFP.
Sources
close to the investigation told AFP in Amman that the killer probably
used a silencer, indicating a professional job.
The
U.S. officials said the killer had approached Foley outside his house in
an upscale residential area of western Amman and fired at him from a
range of between five and 20 feet (1.5-6.0 meters).
"The
person approached him as he was walking to his car, shot him at close
range and then fled," the second official said. "There is
nothing that I have seen that would lead anyone to believe that this was
a robbery."
Foley's
wife heard gunshots and rushed outside where she found her husband's
bullet-riddled body lying in a pool of blood near the vehicle as an
"individual fled on foot," one source told AFP in Amman.
Foley
is the first U.S. diplomat to be killed in Jordan, and the first in the
volatile Middle East since the September 11 attacks on the U.S. last
year.
Jordan
has branded the killing a "treacherous assassination," and the
U.S. Embassy in Amman has called it an "incomprehensible act".
The
Embassy issued a statement urging U.S. citizens in Jordan to be
vigilant. A second statement called for U.S. nationals in Jordan to use
particular care when leaving or arriving at their homes.
"U.S.
citizens should exercise caution, be aware of their surroundings and
vary travel routes and times," said the notice.
"The
level of alertness should be particularly high during arrival
at/departure from residences," it added.
Agents
from the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security were working
with Jordanian authorities investigating the case, the U.S. officials
said.
