On Jordan/US Intel Cooperation

I avoided talking about this for a bit because of the obvious link with the terror bombings, but the LATimes had a very interesting piece on Friday about the close US/Jordanian intel efforts. I feel enough time has passed to look at the potential whys. Just information, no conclusions.

Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate, or GID, has surpassed Israel's Mossad as America's most effective allied counter-terrorism agency in the Middle East. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, its cooperation with the CIA has grown even closer.....

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey called Jordan "a natural target for Al Qaeda" and Iraqi insurgents. "It's a little surprising there haven't been more attacks" against Jordan, he said. ....

Most recently, Jordan has emerged as a hub for "extraordinary renditions," the controversial, covert transfer of suspected extremists from U.S. custody to foreign intelligence agencies. ....

But in two previously undisclosed cases, citizens of Yemen say they were detained in Pakistan and Afghanistan, then transported to Jordan and held by the GID, their lawyers said. One of the detainees said he was tortured by the Jordanian service and then handed back to American authorities.

The State Department praised Jordan for combating terrorism in one report this year and accused it of human rights abuses in another. .....

According to a State Department report released this year, Jordanian security agents "sometimes abuse detainees physically and verbally during detention and interrogation, and allegedly also use torture."

It said Jordan's reported torture methods include sleep deprivation, beatings on the soles of the feet, prolonged suspension with ropes in contorted positions and extended solitary confinement. ...

Scheuer emphasized that renditions require approval by senior White House officials and are vetted by government attorneys.