Jordan Gets 2nd Chance to Prove Bin Laden Link

To listen to the Jordanian government, Raed Hijazi was a member of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorism network and was planning to wreak havoc in this moderate Arab nation during the millennium celebrations.

To listen to the chief judge who heard the government’s evidence, Hijazi may have been intent on blowing up landmarks--even a hotel--but there is no proof linking him to Bin Laden.

“There was not enough court evidence presented through the legal system to connect this to Al Qaeda,” Chief Judge Tayel Raqqad said in an interview.

The Hijazi case in Jordan has important implications for the probe into last week’s terror attacks in the United States. For the U.S., which needs to present credible evidence before retaliating, the case illustrates how difficult it can be to draw tangible links between individuals and the amorphous Bin Laden network.

Working in their own region and presenting their evidence in a state Security Court, Jordanian intelligence officials were embarrassed when they failed to meet their own standard of proof.

At the same time, if Jordan could prove that Hijazi, 32, is linked to Al Qaeda, it would add credibility, particularly in this sensitive region, to the U.S. allegation of a link between the recent attacks and Bin Laden.

U.S. authorities this week took into custody Nabil Al-Marabh, who investigators say has ties to Hijazi and, separately, to two of the alleged hijackers--relationships that, if conclusively linked to Al Qaeda, could help bolster the U.S. case.

“To prove this you are going to have to have something very, very credible,” said Radwan Abdullah, an Amman-based political scientist. “From the very beginning, there is a problem with credibility.”

The United States will need more than circumstantial evidence in order to ensure that a military attack on Bin Laden is not viewed throughout the Arab world as a case of scapegoating Muslims.

Bin Laden’s name surfaced so quickly that many people here believe his targeting was based more on anti-Arab sentiment than on credible evidence. That perception grew as questions arose about some initial reports, including those concerning the identities of some of the hijackers.

Suspicion of U.S. motives has fueled conspiracy theories, chief among them that Israel was behind the attacks as a way to improve its hand in dealing with the Palestinians.

Syria’s government-controlled Al Baath newspaper claimed in a front-page story Thursday, “The attacks were executed with the cooperation of advisors from the Mossad [Israeli intelligence], so the United States and its allies should not rush before making sure of the responsible parties.”

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has consistently cautioned about the need for America to make its case before attacking.

“We have to reach the bottom of it; we should not rush to prejudge things,” said Nabil Osman, director of the Egyptian State Information Service. “We don’t want anyone to give ammunition to those fanatics.”

In September 2000, Hijazi was sentenced in absentia to death along with five others for his role in plotting to kill American and Israeli tourists on New Year’s Eve 1999 by blowing up religious sites and a tourist hotel.

Some terrorism experts said the case was a perfect example of the way in which the Bin Laden network operated, with local militants coming up with an initiative that was then supported by the Al Qaeda infrastructure.

After a five-month trial, 22 defendants were convicted of possessing explosives and plotting terrorist acts, but all were acquitted on charges that they were linked to Al Qaeda.

Jordanian authorities now have a second chance in the Hijazi case.

Hijazi subsequently was captured in Syria and extradited. Jordanian law guarantees a retrial to anyone convicted in absentia if they are subsequently captured, and that trial began this week.

Prosecutors are appealing the verdict in the first trial that Hijazi was not a member of Bin Laden’s group.

“I believe Raed Hijazi is part of Al Qaeda,” said Mahmoud Awwad Kharabsheh, a former intelligence agent who headed Jordan’s terrorism investigations until 1992 and now is a member of parliament. “He had the relationship in Afghanistan and went back and forth.”

But, he added, it is one thing for an intelligence agency to believe something and another thing to prove it in court.

“Through investigation and surveillance, they had information this was Al Qaeda,” he said of the so-called millennium plot. “But it was not provable.”

In the complaint filed against Hijazi, prosecutors said he had been recruited to the Jordanian cell in Syria in 1995 and attended training at a Bin Laden camp in Afghanistan in 1996.

The prosecution said he then went to Boston, where he worked as a cabdriver to earn money to help finance the New Year’s Eve strike. In 1999 he allegedly returned to Afghanistan for additional training. Authorities allege that he planned to return to Jordan, but fled when the cell was discovered and its participants arrested.

Authorities said he confessed, but at a hearing in July he maintained his innocence and denied ever visiting Afghanistan or having any connection to Bin Laden.

“I did not plan to carry out terrorist attacks,” he testified, accusing authorities of forcing a confession through torture.