Jordan broadcasts confessions of Hamas ‘plotters’

AMMAN: Three suspected members of Palestinian Islamic group Hamas confessed on Jordanian television yesterday of plotting to kill senior officers of Jordan’s intelligence service.

In a 14-minute segment that began with footage of a weapons cache a commentator said had been “seized over a period of time,” the detainees said they had been involved in surveillance operations and assassination plots.

The “leader of the group,” Ayman Naji Daraghmeh, 34, spoke of his links to Hamas, his “frequent trips to Syria” and his “surveillance on an intelligence officer at his home who was to be a target.”

Daraghmeh said he had been arrested on April 18 and that he had been the one who informed investigators of a weapons cache in northern Jordan.

He was among 20 people arrested in a recent sweep that also turned up caches of Iranian-made Katyusha rockets, as well as other weapons.

A second suspect, Ahmad Abu Rabieh, 27, said he had been arrested on May 6.
Rabieh said Daraghmeh had told him they were going to attack a bus carrying members of the intelligence service.

He said he had monitored the bus “three or four times and I told Daraghmeh the schedules.”

Rabieh also said Daraghmeh had told him to carry out surveillance on tourists in the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba, with the aim of carrying out attacks there.
A third suspect, an imam named Ahmed Abu Diab whose age was not given, said he was arrested April 18 and had been involved in a plot to assassinate a Jordanian Christian he identified as Sami George.

“I worked harvesting olives on his farm, and Ayman Daraghmeh derided me for not having told him about (George). He said (George) was not a Christian but a Jew, and he was a target for us.”

A top Jordanian official who spoke on condition of anonymity said before the airing that the three planned to “carry out attacks against Jordanian intelligence service officers and attack a bus carrying members of the services.”

He said their confessions would “prove to Islamic sceptics and to Hamas the truth of the Jordanian accusations.

“We are also going to show the seized arms, among which are type 107 Katyusha rockets, made in Iran, Grad rockets, Lau rocket launchers and mines.”
The official stressed that “Jordan is not accusing Iran of implication in this affair, nor is it accusing Syria.

“We have established that the Hamas elements who were arrested came from Syria and that certain arms were of Iranian make, but our accusations centre on Hamas, on which we place full responsibility for these attempts to destabilise Jordan.

Even so, government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh said Wednesday investigations had revealed “attempts to recruit individuals in Jordan on behalf of (Hamas) and to bring recruits from the Palestinian territories to send them to Syria and Iran for training”.

Last month, Amman announced the arrest of Hamas members who allegedly received orders from a Syria-based leader to attack officials in the kingdom.

Subsequently, Jordan scrapped a planned visit to Amman by Mahmoud al-Zahar, the foreign minister in the Hamas-run Palestinian government.

Palestinian intelligence chief Tareq Abu Rajab and senior aides are currently in Jordan to discuss the claims.

The Jordanian official said “secret documents proving the implication of Hamas were presented to the delegation, as well as proof of Hamas attempts in Jordan since 1991.”

Hamas has denied Jordan’s allegations and refused to send representatives to the Amman talks.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya denied Hamas had any involvement in the alleged plots.

“We are surprised by this media escalation in Jordan. There has been no change in Hamas’s policies toward Jordan and what is going on in the media is not acceptable to us,” he told reporters in Gaza City.

Hamas spokesman Musr al-Masri said the matter was “fabricated.”

The Jordanian government is “trying to exaggerate the situation by causing an uproar but this will have only minimal consequences,” he said, adding he regretted the “means used” by Amman.

He also said he was astonished at the timing of the confessions, given the “sensitive time when our people are under siege” after international aid was halted to the Hamas-led government, which Washington and Europe consider a terrorist group.

On Wednesday, Jawdeh said “Jordanian intelligence services are convinced that there are still weapons hidden in the country that represent a big threat to national security.”

He stressed that the weapons were brought to Jordan after Hamas formed its government earlier this year.

Yesterday, the official said “we know Hamas has moved (arms) caches, which is why we want (Hamas supremo) Khalid Mishal and Ismail Haniya to send a team to lead us” to those still not found.

He added that “we are not going to reveal everything so as not to increase tensions, but if Hamas does not co-operate, we will change our stance.” – AFP