Jordan has thwarted a terrorist plot by a group linked to Al Qaeda; the plans were for a combined terrorist attack to bomb shopping centers in Amman as well as assassination attempts on Western diplomats.
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There is an old saying that "if you really want to know what the weather is don’t listen to the weatherman, stick your head out the window". When it comes to predicting the Arab Spring all one has to do is look at what it has accomplished.
What started with the self–immolation of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia on December 18, 2010 has led to rulers being forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Uprisings have occurred in Bahrain with major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Sudan and most recently Lebanon. Minor protests have occurred in Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Western Sahara.
In May of last year I wrote,
What we are dealing with is not the "Arab Spring", but rather the "Perfect Storm".
The governments of Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iran, just to name a few, are murdering their own people and where those uprisings have been successful at toppling the governments, the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood or Iran’s hands are taking over.
Now we have Jordan. In my article last week I explained the connections between The Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda,
Muhammad Qutb is an Islamist author and teacher best known as the younger brother of the Egyptian Islamist thinker Sayyid Qutb. He is a supporter and promoter of his Sayyid''s ideas. Sayyid was leading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and ''60s until his execution by the Egyptian government in 1966. He still is the MB ideological influence.
Muhammad Qutb fled to Saudi Arabia and became a well-known and respected teacher; two of his students were Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. In a 2004 video Osama bin Laden recommends one of Muhammad Qutb''s books to Muslims, "Concepts that should be corrected".
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the "Mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks" according to the 9/11 Commission, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood at the age of 16.
On September 25, Debka reported,
Jordan''s Muslim Brotherhood has given King Abdullah II notice that he has until October to bow to their demand to transform the Hashemite Kingdom into a constitutional monarchy or face Arab Spring street pressure for his abdication.
Now on October 21, Jordanians foil what would have been a massive Islamist attack and arrest 11 men. The Daily Mail reported that government spokesman Sameeh Maaytah told an impromptu press conference that the suspects are all Jordanian and are in police custody.
"They were plotting deadly terror attacks on vital institutions, shopping centers and diplomatic missions," he said. "They sought to destabilize Jordan," he said. "They plotted against Jordan''s national security."
A statement by Jordanian intelligence said an investigation showed that the group ''adopts the ideology of al-Qaida'' and that it nicknamed its terror plot as ''9/11 the second'' - a reference to the Amman hotel blasts, which happened on Nov. 9, 2005.
According to a statement from the Jordan News Agency Petra,
The terrorist group made comprehensive preparations to carry out their crimes against selected targets. They performed surveillance and casing of these potential targets and laid plans for execution using explosives, booby-trapped cars as well as submachine guns and mortars.
The report explains that weapons and explosives from Syria were to be used,
Their objective was to create a highly destructive explosive that would cause the highest number of casualties and extensive physical damage. They had planned to bring TNT explosives and mortar shells from Syria, exploiting the ongoing crisis there.
This was no small ''home grown cell''; this would have been a well-planned large scale attack in multiple areas,
The early plans of the group were to target diplomats from hotels and public areas followed by the bombing of two major shopping malls in order to draw the attention of the security services away from these selected targets, thus clearing the way for them to target their main objectives in Abdoun, in West Amman.
The plan was for the main attack to be carried out by suicide bombers using explosive belts and devices as well as booby-trapped cars and machine guns.
Subsequently, mortar shells would be fired at the entire neighborhood.
The statement also explained the help the group was receiving from Al-Qaeda in Iraq,
The group, under constant surveillance at every stage by General Intelligence Department (GID), experimented with explosives after procuring basic material and consulting with senior explosives'' experts from Al Qaeda in Iraq through terrorist websites.
Jordan, like Saudi Arabia, has thus far been able to keep their ruling families in power throughout the so called ''Arab Spring'', but given the unstable situation all around these countries it is unlikely to last forever.
Jordan is still at peace with Israel and as pointed out by Israel National News,
Jordan has been and remains the most stable of Israel''s neighbors and a key U.S. ally in the Middle East. The Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist cells linked to Al-Qaeda have called recently for the destabilization of Jordan, following successful campaigns to overthrow the governments of Egypt and Libya, and continuing efforts to overthrow the government of Syria.
According to all reports, had this plan been carried out the death toll would have numbered in the thousands and destabilized Jordan’s security and possibly the government.
Each time the so called ''Arab Spring'' ousts a leader or topples an existing government, what we see in the aftermath is worse. I stated and wrote over and over again that this would happen before Mubarak was ousted in Egypt; I said the same with Qaddafi and Libya. As I explained in an article from February last year,
The Muslim Brotherhood has been waiting for an opportunity like this for over 60 years and it is not something they are going to let slip by.
The changes taking place in all these Arab countries is not just a tragedy to those people that live there, it is an upcoming tragedy for Israel as she faces enemies once again from those she had made peace with in the past.
Anyone who is in Europe or the U.S. and thinks to themselves that this doesn’t matter or it is too far away to affect them had better think again.
The Muslim Brotherhood and all it’s off shoot organizations have one goal and once they feel they have the Middle East back in their Mohammed following hands the West is next.
If you don’t believe that you need not worry, you not only don’t know history, you don’t follow what is going on in the present. Listen to their words,
"It is in the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet." —Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna.
Look at their actions, is it really just a coincidence that each and every place the Arab Spring has occurred the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda come out on top, and those countries that have yet to experience the ‘Spring’ or don’t bow down to the Muslim Brotherhood end up dealing with terror threats like Jordan now faces?
I have looked out the window and the weather doesn’t look any better for any of us as long as this ''Spring'' continues.
Gadi Adelman is a freelance writer and lecturer on the history of terrorism and counterterrorism. He grew up in Israel, studying terrorism and Islam for 35 years after surviving a terrorist bomb in Jerusalem in which 7 children were killed. Since returning to the U. S., Gadi teaches and lectures to law enforcement agencies as well as high schools and colleges. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, Frontpage Mag, Family Security Matters and dozens of other sites. He can be heard every Thursday night at 8PM est. on his own radio show “American Akbar” on Blog Talk Radio. He can be reached through his website gadiadelman.com.