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Jordan Internal Security
Violence and political murder were hallmarks of the early years
of the Hashimite (also seen as Hashemite) Kingdom. Hussein was
present and was himself a target when his grandfather, King
Abdullah ibn Hussein Al Hashimi, was shot to death in Jerusalem in
1951. Two prime ministers were murdered, one in 1960 and the other
in 1971. As of 1989, Hussein had survived at least nine attempted
assassinations that could be documented; numerous other plots had
been rumored but denied by the Jordanian authorities. The monarchy
was beset by attempts at subversion, conspiracy, and assassination
and by smoldering tensions in many parts of the society. The
principal sources of these threats to overthrow or discredit
Hashimite rule were Arab militants openly hostile to the king's
position as a pro-Western moderate in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Hussein's pragmatic change of attitude in the late 1970s, when he
joined other Arab states in rejecting the Egyptian-Israeli peace
treaty, ended his estrangement and diminished Arab hostility to his
regime. Since that time, the internal security risk has assumed two
forms--leftist, anti-Hashimite factions of the PLO and extremist
groups associated with the Islamic revival. Most of these movements
were small and scattered and, as of 1989, appeared to be
effectively controlled and contained by the efficient Jordanian
security apparatus
(see Jordan - General Intelligence Department
, this ch.).
Military support was so integral to the monarchy that the
stability of the regime was assumed to be in no danger unless the
armed forces themselves were to be subverted. Although episodes of
discontent over conditions of service had occurred from time to
time, the bedouin-dominated army as a whole was one of the most
stable institutions in the kingdom. The only open insurrection in
the army occurred early in Hussein's reign, in 1957, when a group
calling itself the Free Officers (possibly in imitation of the
Egyptian 1952 movement by that name) attempted to wrest the throne
from the king. The loyalty of most officers and enlisted personnel,
together with Hussein's own decisive action, defeated the plot and
ushered in much stricter security precautions
(see Jordan - Hussein's Early Reign
, ch. 1). The last known conspiracy to involve military
personnel occurred in 1972 when 300 army and civilian personnel
were arrested after Palestinian militants bribed the acting
commander of an armored car unit to stage a coup d'état.
The Islamic revival was growing in strength in Jordan as in
other Arab countries but, as a security problem, appeared to be
under control as of 1989. The Muslim Brotherhood, the most
important of the politico-religious movements, had appeared in
Jordan as early as 1946. It was officially recognized by the
government and had rights of expression denied to other groups. It
was believed to have many thousands of members as of 1988, enjoying
the support of perhaps 10 percent of the population. The Muslim
Brotherhood had gained a foothold in certain government ministries
and was also believed to have insinuated itself into the police and
intelligence organizations. Proselytizing had occurred in the armed
forces. Although hitherto not a source of antigovernment protests
and disturbances (as in Egypt and elsewhere), the Muslim
Brotherhood had adopted an increasingly activist and critical tone
in its pronouncements by the mid-1980s. Other, more militant,
Islamic groups remained small and fragmented. Jordanians were
uncertain of the potential danger of the Islamic movement to the
stability of the monarchy and whether its adherents might make a
bid for power should the regime falter.
In late 1985, the government cracked down on the Muslim
Brotherhood as a warning against its growing stridency and
political involvement. The action was also linked to Hussein's
efforts to normalize relations with Syria. Syrian members of the
Muslim Brotherhood who had been forced to flee to camps in Jordan
were accused by the king of subversion aimed against the Damascus
government. They were rounded up and extradited to Syria. A new law
enacted in the same year prohibited political incitement and
accusations by imams and speakers in the mosques. The Ministry of
Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs was designated to review
Friday sermons and religious education in the mosques.
Since Jordan's population adhered overwhelmingly to the
mainstream
Sunni (see Glossary)
form of Islam, the militancy of the
Shia (see Glossary)
branch emanating from Iran had made no inroads.
Unlike most neighboring Arab countries, Jordan had no significant
minority groups that were perceived as problems for the security
forces. The 25,000 Circassians, whose forebears had migrated from
the Caucasus region of southern Russia, were Sunni Muslims and
traditionally loyal supporters of the monarchy
(see Jordan - Ethnicity and Language
, ch. 2). Many Circassians served in the higher ranks of
the military or were engaged in security work.
Student activism was carefully controlled through restrictions
on political organizations, demonstrations, and meetings. At the
two major institutions of higher learning, the University of Jordan
in Amman and Yarmuk University in Irbid, the student groups were
segmented into small organizations, generally associated with some
form of Islamic fundamentalism. Student protest rallies occurred at
Yarmuk University in 1986, a few days after the United States
bombing of installations in Libya. The students rallied against
rising tuition costs, dismissals for low grades, and King Hussein's
relationship with the United States. The protests were put down
violently by government forces, with a number of student deaths and
many injuries.
Concerned over the possible ideological indoctrination of the
several thousand Jordanian students attending universities in
Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the People's Democratic
Republic of Yemen (South Yemen), the government followed a policy
of strict passport controls and withdrawal of passports from
students believed to have questionable contacts abroad.
In April 1989, young people in several southern towns rioted
for five days over the sharp price rises on gasoline, cigarettes,
and other consumer goods attendant upon certain economic measures
agreed to between Jordan and the
International Monetary Fund (see Glossary).
The demonstrations were aimed at the prime minister and
the cabinet but there was apprehension that the resulting political
disequilibrium could escalate into attacks on the monarchy itself.
The Palestinian population did not join the protesters, who
consisted primarily of bedouins (normally considered the base of
the king's support). Observers claimed that Islamic fundamentalists
exerted some influence over the young demonstrators.
Various small underground groups that formed the core of
leftist opposition to the Hashimite regime were carefully watched
by the security services. They included the Soviet-oriented
Communist Party of Jordan (Al Hizb ash Shuyui al Urduni) and the
Jordanian Baath Party (Arab Socialist Resurrection Party), linked
to the socialist movement of Syria. These movements in turn backed
other groups that opposed Jordan's association with the West and
with the United States, and called for closer relations with Syria
and other Arab leftist elements. In addition to supporting some of
these groups, Syria had been linked to a number of assassination
attempts on Jordanian diplomats abroad, rocket attacks on Jordanian
airliners, and grenade and bomb attacks within Jordan between 1983
and 1985. The attacks by Black September, Abu Nidal, or other
terrorist groups under Syrian control apparently were calculated to
intimidate Jordan into abandoning its Middle East peace
initiatives, which ran contrary to Syria's policies. Although the
attacks ceased as relations with Syria improved in 1985, the
government remained alert to the danger of renewed destabilizing
attempts by radical Arab groups.
The Communist Party of Jordan, led by General Secretary Yaqub
Zayadin, had been illegal since 1957, although the organization
enjoyed periods of toleration by the regime, interspersed with
periods of repression. A tightly organized network of small cells,
its membership was believed to be about 500, but through the
party's organ it published steady attacks on the government's
Middle East policies and restrictions on civil rights. In an effort
to fix blame for the 1986 riots at Yarmuk University, the
government arrested the entire seventeen-member politburo. They
were released several months later, but the party remained banned.
During the April 1989 protests against the government's price
increases for many consumer goods, 120 members of the Communist
Party were detained after circulating leaflets calling for general
strikes.
Data as of December 1989
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