"Jordanian intelligence services work closely with the country's security forces, as in this March 2016 raid in downtown Irbid, which targeted extremists planning attacks on military and civilian targets."

"Jordanian intelligence services work closely with the country's security forces, as in this March 2016 raid in downtown Irbid, which targeted extremists planning attacks on military and civilian targets." Raad Adayleh

America’s Best Partner in Middle East HUMINT Needs Help

Jordan’s spies set the standard for the boots-on-the-ground intelligence sharing that is crucial to U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

U.S. cooperation with Middle Eastern intelligence services made a brief appearance in the headlines last month, thanks to President Donald Trump’s loose-lipped revelations to Russian officials in the Oval Office, and his subsequent statements (“I never mentioned the word 'Israel”) during a Middle East trip. Though early reporting indicated that Israel provided the intelligence in question, a former CIA case officer and multiple Jordanian officials familiar with IS operations later said the source was more likely Jordanian.     

The episode underlines the strategic import of U.S. foreign intelligence liaison relationships in the Middle East, and Jordan specifically. While allies, such Israel and Saudi Arabia, lead in the military and technological surveillance fronts of the war on terror, Amman is America’s foremost partner in human intelligence, or HUMINT, operations. 

Jordan’s intel directorate has long been described as the model foreign intelligence liaison service. “The ultimate example of this type of relationship is that between the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) and the CIA,” Charles Faddis, a former CIA operations officer and head of the WMD terrorism unit, wrote in 2011. “In many ways, this relationship has become the template against which all others are measured.”

An early example of CIA-GID cooperation against terror groups was the 1990s effort to uncover and foil several planned attacks on Jordanian sites frequented by Westerners, such as the SAS Radisson Hotel, and on U.S. soil, such as the LAX airport – a string of events that became known as the Millennium Plots. In late 1999, Jordanian intelligence intercepted correspondence between Abu Zubaydah, a known ally of Osama Bin Laden, and Khadr Abu Hoshar. When Abu Zubaydah said, “The time for training is over,” the GID arrested 16 members of the Millennium Plot cell, including Raed Hijazi, architect of the LAX bombing plot. These arrests also led to the extradition from Pakistan of Khalil Deek, designer of the Encyclopedia of Jihad.    

The U.S.-Jordan intelligence relationship has had its pitfalls. The GID failed to prevent the rise of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian thug-turned-warlord credited as a founder of IS. (Al-Zarqawi fell to a drone strike in 2006 after joining the SAS Radisson Hotel plot, training Al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, and unleashing immeasurable sectarian bloodshed in Iraq.) More infamous was the 2009 attack on a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, by Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal Al-Balawi, the al-Qaeda mole endorsed by the Jordanian intelligence service. The CIA took GID’s word on al-Balawi, and paid the price when he killed 10 people, including seven U.S. operatives, with a 30-pound suicide vest.

Beyond the intelligence quid pro quo, the major benefit to engaging an Arab liaison intelligence service is less red tape. Undemocratic, highly centralized governments require little to no public consent for their law enforcement and intelligence actions, which widen their reach and increases their success rate. Yuri Zhukov’s study of Soviet-era counter-insurgency models notes that “authoritarian regimes can employ, among other things, relatively extensive population control measures and invasive intelligence collection methods, can readily obtain information superiority, and are under relatively little pressure to use minimum force.”

This is especially the case in Jordan, where the GID outranks other institutions, sometimes at the expense of human rights, and whose secretive omnipresence pervades society. Rumors abound of GID spies blending in at social venues, such as local cafes or clubs, to eavesdrop on conversations. Some Jordanians even blame mundane inconveniences, such as traffic jams, on the ostensibly unfettered intrusions of the intelligence service.         

Taking a Turn for the Worse

Over the past two years, Jordan has come under increasing attack. After a Jordanian pilot was shot down, captured, and burned alive during an airstrike against IS forces in Syria in February 2015, IS launched a series of attacks that put the Jordanian security apparatus under pressure it had not experienced since the 2005 hotel bombings. In March 2016, Jordanian security forces exchanged fire with seven IS militants in the northern city of Irbid, losing one officer in the 11-hour firefight. Three months later, three alleged terrorists assaulted a GID office in the Baqaa refugee camp of northern Amman, killing five, three of whom were GID officers. And in December, a group of IS gunmen launched a rampage in Karak, a tourist destination just south of Amman, killing seven Jordanian security officers, two Jordanian civilians, and a Canadian. These attacks were likely reponses to Jordan’s participation in the anti-IS coalition and its air and land campaigns in Raqqa and Mosul.

The U.S. can improve Jordan’s counterterrorism efforts by taking a few concrete steps:

First, send Amman more money. Former President Obama broke ground when he signed a five-year, non-binding deal in 2008 to send an annual $660 million to King Abdullah II from the State Department and Foreign Operations accounts. In each of those five years, Congress approved an average of $290.6 million above the originally appropriated amounts. Then in 2015, a three-year agreement boosted annual U.S. aid to Jordan to $1 billion. Most recently, President Trump in May signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act into law, cementing $1.279 billion in funding to Jordan through September 30. Yet Trump’s 2018 budget proposal suggests U.S. aid should revert to $1 billion.

On top of that, the Defense Department-managed 2282 Authority to Build Partner Capacity, Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund, and Operations and Maintenance Funds accounts send Jordan about $680 million for border security and armed forces support. According to the Congressional Research Service, U.S. security assistance to Jordan is increasingly being routed through DOD, having provided $909 million in military funding above the original budget ceiling since 2014. Thus,    U.S. lawmakers have two avenues to send Jordan enough money to meet its threats: raise the State and Foreign Operations account baseline to $1.3 billion while maintaining the same DOD appropriations; or, if State accounts roll back to $1 billion in 2018, boost DOD’s accounts to a combined $980 million.  

Secondly, build up Jordan’s drone program. In 2015, then-U.S. President Barack Obama rejected plans to market Predator drones to Jordan. Under the new administration, however, a bipartisan group of 20 U.S. lawmakers have urged Trump to approve the export of drones to the Hashemite Kingdom, among other Arab allies. Fitted with state-of-the-art lasers and cameras, such drones could help track terrorists and mark targets for strikes — and open the Middle Eastern market to U.S. supplies before China corners it.

Finally, improve intelligence sharing. The CIA should continue to work more closely with the GID by embedding more regionally savvy technicians and operatives. This practice can reduce source-handling errors, such as miscommunication or incomplete vetting, and keeps open feedback channels. Most importantly, protect the agents who infiltrate terror networks by ensuring that intelligence is shared with utmost discretion and the identities of sources carefully masked.

During his recent trip to key allies in the Middle East, Trump underscored the necessity of liaison intelligence relationships. But Jordan is still the tip of the spear where U.S. reach is the weakest: HUMINT. By providing resources and support to boost the intelligence capabilities of trusted allies, the U.S. guarantees a comparative advantage in the war on terror. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.