qualified to discuss the issue since his nation assisted the US in its rendition and torture program. And apparently was rewarded for it.
Renditions vs. Rights
Jordan's apparent willingness to participate in transfers of suspects trumps poor record on human rights
By Marina Walker Guevara
WASHINGTON — Jordan, according to a U.S. State Department request that Congress appropriate the country nearly $500 million in 2007 military aid, continues "to lead the way as a regional model for democracy, good governance, economic reform, and tolerance."
Jordan, according to the State Department's 2005 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, has police and security forces that "allegedly abused detainees during detention and interrogation and reportedly also used torture." The U.N. special rapporteur on torture said in June 2006 that torture is "systematically practiced" at prisons run by the Jordanian intelligence agency.
Jordan, according to Amnesty International, is a "key hub" in the United States' secret program of "extraordinary rendition," in which terrorism suspects are kidnapped and flown to secret prisons or to countries known for torture.
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ICIJ's database of U.S. military assistance, compiled from data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, shows that in the three years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Jordan received $2.7 billion in military aid from the U.S. government, a 170 percent increase from the roughly $1 billion it received in the three years prior to the attacks; it is now the fourth-largest recipient of U.S. military aid, after Israel, Egypt and Pakistan. Jordan was also one of the countries that the United States reimbursed, with little congressional oversight, for its help in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While some countries in the post-9/11 era have relied on high-paid lobbyists to secure American largesse, Jordan's close relationship with the United States on security issues has paid significant dividends. In a June 2005 visit to the constitutional monarchy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the United States has "no better friend than Jordan."
Its loyalty in the war on terror continues to be generously compensated by U.S. taxpayers. As the State Department's own budget justification for 2007 aid to Jordan put it, "Jordan is on the forefront of the war on terrorism, providing intelligence, diplomatic, military and security cooperation to the United States and our allies in the region."
http://projects.publicintegrity.org/militaryaid/report.aspx?aid=869 From Amnesty UK:
Jordan: Renditions - New report says Jordan is key hub in secret CIA programme
Posted: 24 July 2006
Country's notorious security agency's use of torture instrumental in 'war on terror'
Jordan is a key 'hub' in the USA's secret 'renditions' programme, said Amnesty International today (24 July), as it published a new report revealing the extent of illegal detention and torture in the country.
The 51-page report, 'Your confessions are ready for you to sign', describes the cases of dozens of individuals subjected to torture in Jordan, ten of whom appear to be rendition victims. These latter men had been taken to Jordan from a variety of countries - including Afghanistan, Pakistan, the USA and Indonesia - and were in several cases held and tortured for months before being further moved to places like Guantánamo Bay, the notorious 'Prison of Darkness'' in Afghanistan, and even apparently to totally secret 'black site' prisons.
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17043 From Human Rights Watch:
From 2001 until at least 2004, Jordan's General Intelligence Department (GID) served as a proxy jailer for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), holding prisoners that the CIA apparently wanted kept out of circulation, and later handing some of them back to the CIA. More than just warehousing these men, the GID interrogated them using methods that were even more brutal than those in which the CIA has been implicated to date. The prisoners were typically held for several months in GID custody-and in at least one case, for nearly two years.
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/04/07/double-jeopardy Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen the US stopped during a layover at JFK airport and rendered to Syria for "interrogation," was first sent to Jordan and then handed over to Syria.
http://www.amnesty.ca/human_rights_issues/maher_arar_overview.php
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