Last update - 13:26 12/11/2005            
Report: Jordanian spy agency replaces Mossad as key CIA ally
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate has become the CIA's most
important and effective counter-terrorism ally in the Middle East, 
a standing once held by the Mossad, the Los Angeles Times reported 
in its Friday editions.

The newspaper reported that Jordan and the U.S. have cooperated in 
the interrogation of suspected terrorists, the methods of which have 
been subject to widespread media criticism due to the alleged use of
torture.

The report added that the GID's ties with the CIA have grown
intimately closer since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

[...]

The Times also reported that in addition to the CIA's funding of a
significant portion of the Hashemite Kingdom's intelligence budget,
the agency runs technologically-trained intelligence officers in GID
headquarters in Amman.

Jordan is also a partner to the controversial American policy of
"extraordinary renditions," the extradition of terror suspects 
from U.S. custody to foreign intelligence agencies.

The CIA transfers the suspects to Jordan, where they are covertly
interrogated by local intelligence to the point where they are
"softened up" before being returned to American custody.

[...]

Jordan receives annual military and economic aid from the U.S.
totalling $450 million. Analysts believe the sum does not include 
the U.S. financing of Jordanian intelligence.


Full article at "Haaretz" ...
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/644451.html


Cheers, Steve..

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