Jordan Hunts U.S. Diplomat's Killer, Tightens Security

29/10/2002| IslamWeb

Jordan, backed by a U.S. counter- terrorism team, hunted on Tuesday for the killer of a senior U.S. diplomat and imposed tough new security measures to protect Western embassies in the country, a regional Washington ally. A gunman shot Laurence Foley, 60, a senior administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), three times in the chest outside his Amman home on Monday.

It was the first killing of a Western diplomat in Jordan and came amid rising anti-American sentiment in the region, fueled by perceived U.S. bias toward Israel and threats by Washington of a military campaign against neighboring Iraq.

"We are closely working with the Jordanian authorities to apprehend the person or persons responsible for this crime and we will not rest until they are found," said U.S. ambassador to Jordan, Edward Gnehm.

The U.S. embassy could not confirm when Foley's body, lying in a state morgue, would be flown back with his wife Virginia to the United States.

No one has claimed responsibility for the slaying.

Investigators involved in the manhunt have not ruled out the work of either fringe Muslim extremist groups or an individual with a grudge, diplomats and officials said.

Jordanian security officials said they were focusing on underground extremist groups, in particular Muslim fundamentalists.

"All the organized groups operating in Jordan are on the radar screen of the security apparatus ... I have no doubt if one of them was behind this operation they would be tracked down speedily," said one security official.

Police and paramilitary units in the capital Amman set up roadblocks on main city roads after the shooting. Security was stepped up at state institutions and ministries, and Western embassies posted extra guards and beefed up patrols.

Strict new security measures were imposed at the fortress-like U.S. embassy.

"Jordanians have made absolutely clear that they are taking extraordinary steps and precautions that include changing what they have done before," Gnehm added without elaborating.

PRESSURE ON KING

The slaying has rocked the political establishment in the security conscious country, seen by many in the West as a model of stability in a volatile region.

"We are not an arena for assassinations," one official said.

Foley's murder has increased pressure on Jordan's King Abdullah, who has been trying to maintain good relations with the United States ahead of a possible conflict in Iraq, while damping down public dissent from a fervently pro-Iraq population over his steps toward Washington.

Many Jordanians are angered by U.S. policies and what they see as double standards in its dealing with Iraq and Israel.

There is sympathy for Iraq, a main trading partner and oil supplier.

Jordan, wedged between Israel and Iraq, has grown increasingly dependent on U.S. economic and political support, in marked contrast to the 1991 Gulf War when Amman opposed the U.S.-led military coalition that drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Monday his government did not know who was responsible and could not be sure the killing was politically motivated.

But he said tighter security worldwide was pushing attackers in "international terrorism" toward softer targets such as the Bali nightclub bombing and Moscow theater hostage taking.

Over the last two years, Jordan has banned pro-Palestinian and pro-Iraqi demonstrations, with officials saying the new laws were needed to stop radicals such as Islamic militant Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group from destabilizing the country.

Opposition politicians say the laws violate constitutional rights and encourage extremists to resort to acts of violence.

PHOTO CAPTION
Lawrence Foley (C), a senior administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was gunned down with three bullets to the chest outside his Amman, Jordan home on October 28, 2002. Foley is shown receiving an achievement award from U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Edward Gnehm and Toni Christiansen-Wagner, USAID-Jordan Mission Director on Oct. 27. (State Dept. via Reuter