Monday, February 25, 2008

Jordan Charges 5 With Spying For Hamas


Hamas is feeling pretty confident nowadays. They successfully busted into Egypt and came away with some concessions, they have bombarded southern Israel with daily missiles without serious consequences, and of course, big brother in Iran is due to have an all protective nuclear arsenal in a year or so. So, with that kind of "teflon" mentality, Hamas has been busy recruiting spies in Jordan. Bad thing for Hamas is that the Jordanians caught their spies and have charged them and the link to Hamas is clear.
The five charged with spying are said to have been monitoring the Jordan border with Israel as well as the Israeli embassy in Amman.
It will be interesting to see what the Jordanians do with this - I suspect they will definitely lock up the spies but what will they do with Hamas? Every country in the Middle East is a bit squeamish right now in enciting the wrath (nuclear) of Iran so my guess is that Jordan will treat this as an internal problem.
Problem for Jordan is that this is just the start. Jordan is more than likely on the "country we would like to take over" list of both Hamas and al Qaeda, so Jordan may want to shore up some alliances with the West promptly.

Here's the full story.


Jordan charges 5 with spying for Hamas

Jordan's military prosecutor on Monday charged five men with acquiring secret information that could jeopardize the safety of the kingdom.

According to the indictment sheet, the five men, who were in police custody, were allegedly trained in military and security matters in an unidentified neighboring country.
The five were accused of taking courses on information security, tracing, resisting investigations and telecommunications, the indictment, which was made available to The Associated Press, said.
Hamas members who were residing in the neighboring country allegedly appointed the men to recruit new members in Jordan, monitor military installations along its borders and surveil the Israeli embassy in Amman, the indictment said.
It said that the men allegedly succeeded in monitoring military sites on Jordan's borders with Israel and Syria and the Israeli embassy in the capital.
It also added that this information was recorded on a flash memory stick and sent to the Hamas members. The indictment did not provide other details.

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