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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - In 2006 and in the Ritz Carlton hotel in the Georgetown area of Washington D.C a senior Jordanian intelligence “ Mukhabarat” officer bragged that his agents kidnapped terrorists from around the world for the CIA. Then in 2010, then Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Al Rifai announced publically that Jordanian intelligence agents will pursue its enemies and terrorist anywhere in the world The Arab Daily News reported.

These two important statements shows without a doubt how powerful the Jordanian government perceives itself when it comes to intelligence and special forces commandos. To fully understand these two statements It is important, however, to put them in the context of the American CIA, September 11 and the war on terror that followed.

Jordan has been a key US ally in the war on terror and when the Jordanian intelligence officer bragged about his agents , he actually was referring to the many services the Jordanian General intelligence Department, GID , have performed for the CIA or on behalf of the CIA. Services that ranged from kidnapping and killing suspected Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq to holding terror suspects at the GID cells for interrogations that used “enhanced techniques” which is euphemism for torture that Americans were forbidden from doing by law. The Jordanians faced no such legal constraints and were happy to do it anything for the CIA .

Jordanian Special forces also played a special role in the American war on terror. It is helpful that King Abdullah II was the commander of the Jordanian Special Forces Command before he assumed the throne and became king in 1999, and personally commanded a commando operation in Amman against local criminals in an Amman area and was described in great details in his book “ Our Last Best Chance”.

But the key change in the Jordanian Special Forces came when the United States Central Command which covers the Middle East, Central Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan as its Area Of Responsibility , AOR, decided to build and invest in a state of the art facility, The King Abdullah Special Operation Training Center, KASOTC, to train its regional allies on hostage rescue and commando operations. Jordan, for that matter serves as key component of the US war on terror and to maintain regional stability by providing training programs on behalf of the US . Indeed, Jordan has trained the Palestinian elite police force, Iraqi army and police units, Afghanistan’s military. Jordanian special forces is currently training Syrian rebels in a secret US base in the South West of the country.

The abduction of the Jordanian ambassador by presumably Al Qaida affiliate in Libya will in effect put the Jordanian Mukhabarat and special forces to the test to prove that it is a capable striking force that can reach any terrorist group around the world as former Prime Minister Samir Al Rifai said in 2010 and that senior intelligence officer said as well. The Arab Daily News reported earlier that the Jordanian Special forces already in Egypt and ready to strike the hideouts of the kidnappers once they receive the green light from Amman, but sources in Amman and Tripoli told us that the Libyan government has asked the Jordanians and the Americans to wait until a Libyan solution can be made . The Libyan government is fearful that a joint Jordanian- American operation will cause its downfall and empower the militias who are in control in much of the capital.

As for the Jordanian government , it is imperative that it rescues its ambassador who is in poor health for several rea==sons. Humanitarian issues aside, the most important reasons for Jordan are business as well as political . Jordan wants to sell its special forces services of hostage rescues, commando raids, airplane hijacking rescues and others to the region in terms of training and support for other Arab militaries.

Jordan also wants to send a message to other terrorist groups that Jordanians are not an easy target to mess with and have the means and tools to reach them anywhere in the world. The CIA role here will be essential because it will provide signal and human intelligence, logistics airborne and on the ground and will stand ready just in case they are needed to step in the last minute.

A daring operation like this, will also be important for the American CIA and other Western intelligence services because it will solidify their political positions of not negotiating with the terrorists and will be helpful in striking an Al Qaida affiliate in Libya that killed its own ambassador in Libya in 2012.