AAC Blog
Retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Lee A. Archer, a Tuskegee Airman considered to be the only black ace pilot who also broke racial barriers as an executive at a major U.S. company and founder of a venture capital firm, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 90.
NEW YORK - Retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Lee A. Archer, a Tuskegee Airman considered to be the only black ace pilot who also broke racial barriers as an executive at a major U.S. company and founder of a venture capital firm, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 90.
His son, Roy Archer, said his father died at Cornell University Medical Center in Manhattan. A cause of death was not immediately determined.
The Tuskegee Airmen were America's first black fighter pilot group in World War II.
"It is generally conceded that Lee Archer was the first and only black ace pilot," credited with shooting down five enemy planes, Dr. Roscoe Brown Jr., a fellow Tuskegee Airman and friend, said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Archer was acknowledged to have shot down four planes, and he and another pilot both claimed victory for shooting down a fifth plane. An investigation revealed Archer had inflicted the damage that destroyed the plane, said Brown, and the Air Force eventually proclaimed him an ace pilot.
Archer, a resident of New Rochelle, N.Y., "lived a full life," said his son. "His last two or three years were amazing for him."
Six months after Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S commander in Afghanistan, issued a tactical directive urging troops to walk away from a fight rather than risk killing civilians, the Air Force is engaging in a campaign of restraint. Instead of airstrikes, Airmen are increasingly searching for places they can drop bombs that can be heard and felt, but where they're unlikely to damage buildings or hurt people.
NANGAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan — As his commander greeted a local leader in a district government building one day recently, Air Force Technical Sgt. Tyler Woodson, 20, scurried past them and ran up three flights of stairs to the roof.
There, Woodson, of Macon, Ga., surveyed the town. He saw children playing soccer in an adjacent field, trucks traveling on the main throughway and, several hundred yards away, a glorious range of mountains touching the sky.
He knew that was the best place to drop a bomb from an F-16 — where there was no chance of striking anyone or anything.
"See over there," he said, pointing. "It's flat, so there's no chance of debris falling on anyone."
This is the new U.S. air campaign in much of Afghanistan
January 30, 2010
Associated Press
The U.S. Defense Department starts the clock this week on what is expected to be a several-year process in lifting its ban on gays from serving openly in the military. A special investigation into how the ban can be repealed without hurting the morale or readiness of the troops was expected to be announced Tuesday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
While the review is likely to take the better part of this year to complete, and even more time to implement, its initiation will advance President Barack Obama's goal of repealing the ban and bring a divisive issue for the military back to the fore.
At the White House, officials continued reviewing options for the Clinton-era policy. The administration still believes that any repeal should start in Congress and have the backing of top military leaders.
To that end, Obama and Gates planned a meeting next week to discuss, among other topics, ending "don't ask, don't tell" policies. The president was also likely to speak with Mullen, who has signaled he would carry out a repeal if ordered by Obama and Congress.
Lifting the ban poses some emotional questions that go to the heart of the military's command structure and the trust relationships within military units. Among them: Will U.S. troops and leaders tolerate openly gay members in their midst? And if they don't, what should the Pentagon do about it?
Saturday February 20, 2010
North Carolina Black Leadership Caucus will host its annual Chairman’s Banquet. Durham Marriott Convention Center 102 Foster Street, Durham, NC 5:00 p.m, meet and greet, 5:30 Banquet The keynote speaker will be The Honorable State Senator Dan Blue.
We here at the State Caucus are excited at the thought of having so many of our members, friends, and supporters get together for this union and reunion. Please mark your calendar and make plans now to attend.
Please see the attached sheet for tickets and sponsor levels. In addition to the sponsor levels provided, you may be interested in purchasing a reserved table, which includes seating for
eight (8), a table sign, and one year’s annual membership to the NCBLC
Tcks. $50.00 Vendor rates $100.00 Bronze Leadership Level $150.00 Silver Leadership Level $250.00 Gold Leadership Level $500.00 Platinum Leadership Level $1000.00 Diamond Leadership Level 2500.00
Walter Rogers, Sr., Chairperson
(910) 280-0571
By Joby Warrick
Sunday, January 31, 2010
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES The Obama administration is quietly working with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to speed up arms sales and rapidly upgrade defenses for oil terminals and other key infrastructure in a bid to thwart future military attacks by Iran, according to former and current U.S. and Middle Eastern government officials.
The initiatives, including a U.S.-backed plan to triple the size of a 10,000-man protection force in Saudi Arabia, are part of a broader push that includes unprecedented coordination of air defenses and expanded joint exercises between the U.S. and Arab militaries, the officials said. All appear to be aimed at increasing pressure on Tehran.
The efforts build on commitments by the George W. Bush administration to sell warplanes and antimissile systems to friendly Arab states to counter Iran's growing conventional arsenal. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are leading a regionwide military buildup that has resulted in more than $25 billion in U.S. arms purchases in the past two years alone.
Middle Eastern military and intelligence officials said Gulf states are embracing the expansion as Iran reacts increasingly defiantly to international censure over its nuclear program. Gulf states fear retaliatory strikes by Iran or allied groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah in the event of a preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States or Israel.
For the Obama administration, the cooperation represents tangible progress against Iran at a time when the White House is struggling to build international support for stronger diplomatic measures, including tough new economic sanctions, a senior official said in an interview.
"We're developing a truly regional defensive capability, with missile systems, air defense and a hardening up of critical infrastructure," said the official, who is involved in strategic planning with Gulf states and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "All of these have progressed significantly over the past year."
U.S. support for the buildup has been kept low-key to avoid fueling concerns in Israel and elsewhere about an accelerating conventional-arms race in the region. Iran, which has made steady advances in developing medium-range missiles, is seeking to acquire modern air-defense systems from Russia while also expanding its navy.
Gulf officials say their defensive improvements would be undertaken regardless of U.S. support, but some said they were encouraged by the supportive signals from the Obama administration, which regional leaders initially feared would be more accommodating of Iran than the Bush White House.
"It's a tough neighborhood, and we have to make sure we are protected," said a senior government official in a U.S.-allied Arab state. The official, who also spoke on the condition that his name and country not be revealed, called Iran the "number one threat in the region."
Major arms buildups
The expanded cooperation includes new U.S. agreements with Saudi Arabia to help establish a facilities-protection force under the country's Interior Ministry to harden defenses for oil facilities, ports and water desalination plants. The new force is expected to grow to 30,000 personnel and will be used to deter attacks by al-Qaeda, as well as possible strikes by Iran or Iranian-inspired terrorist groups, according to current and former officials familiar with the initiative. Washington is providing access to technology and equipment for the defense upgrade, the officials said.
Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are also undertaking multibillion-dollar purchases of U.S.-made defensive systems. In the past two years, Abu Dhabi has topped the list of foreign customers for U.S. arms, buying $17 billion worth of hardware, including Patriot antimissile batteries and an advanced antimissile system known as Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD. Three other Middle Eastern countries are considering buying the same systems.
The UAE, which recently bought 80 American-made F-16 fighter jets, last year was invited for the first time to participate in the U.S. Air Force's Red Flag exercises at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The small Gulf country is in the process of negotiating a purchase of French Rafale fighter jets.
A senior Emirati official familiar with the military exercises said UAE leaders want to enhance "interoperability" with U.S. defensive systems, as well as high-quality weapons.
"We don't measure ourselves by what our neighbors are doing," the official said. "We're interested in sophisticated training and the best and most capable platforms" available.
The country's buildup has impressed U.S. military officials, who say the U.S.-allied Emirates have emerged as a military power in their own right. In a speech in Bahrain last year, U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David H. Petraeus said the UAE air force alone "could take out the entire Iranian air force, I believe."
Although Gulf states are generally loath to publicly antagonize Tehran, the military expansion is occurring against a backdrop of anxiety over the growing dominance of Iran's hard-liners in the wake of last year's disputed presidential election. Like Washington, Arab capitals see Iran's nuclear program as dangerous and destabilizing, even if Iranian leaders stop short of building a nuclear warhead.
In interviews in three Middle Eastern countries, political leaders and analysts said they fear that a nuclear-capable Iran will become the dominant regional power, able to intimidate its neighbors without fear of retaliation. Nearly all the Gulf countries have sizable Shiite Muslim populations with ties to Iran, and some analysts warned that Tehran may try to use these to stir up unrest and possibly even topple pro-Western governments.
"Nuclear weapons are probably most useful to Iran as a deterrent against attack by others, but beyond that, it's all about the swagger and mystique rather than the weapons system," said Nabil Fahmy, a former Egyptian ambassador to the United States. "I can't see Iran using such weapons, but they could become much more provocative."
Regional nuclear fears
The concern over Iran has partly eclipsed long-standing concerns about Israel, a military powerhouse with an undeclared nuclear arsenal that includes scores of warheads that can be delivered by aircraft, submarines or long-range ballistic missiles, some regional analysts said.
Iran's apparent progress toward nuclear-weapons capability has also heightened fears of a regional arms race that will expand to include atomic bombs. Driving the concerns are new initiatives by several oil- and gas-rich Arab states to build nuclear reactors or power plants, ostensibly to augment domestic energy supplies. The UAE, with heavy U.S. support, recently signed deals to build its first nuclear power reactors. Among other countries taking or considering similar steps are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan and Yemen.
Western and Middle Eastern analysts say it is unlikely that any of those countries will openly pursue nuclear weapons, a move that would probably prompt a suspension of Western aid. The UAE has taken pains to design a nuclear energy program that it says is proliferation-proof, eliminating parts of the nuclear-fuel cycle that could be exploited to obtain material for bombs.
But if Iran were to test a nuclear device, all of the countries would reconsider their options, government officials and analysts said.
"Every country in the region will open their files and decide again what to do," said a retired Arab general who asked for anonymity so he could speak freely about the subject. "If nuclear weapons appears to be the road to becoming a world power, why shouldn't that be us?"
Friday, January 29, 2010 | Newsweek | Isikoff & Hosenball's 'DEclassified' blog
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/29/holder-under-fire.aspx
By Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman
For weeks, the right has heckled Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. for his plans to try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in New York City and his handling of the Christmas bombing plot suspect. Now the left is going to be upset: an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.
While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.
The report, which is still going through declassification, will provide many new details about how waterboarding was adopted and the role that top White House officials played in the process, say two sources who have read the report but asked for anonymity to describe a sensitive document. Two of the most controversial sections of the 2002 memo—including one contending that the president, as commander in chief, can override a federal law banning torture—were not in the original draft of the memo, say the sources. But when Michael Chertoff, then-chief of Justice’s criminal division, refused the CIA’s request for a blanket pledge not to prosecute its officers for torture, Yoo met at the White House with David Addington, Dick Cheney’s chief counsel, and then–White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. After that, Yoo inserted a section about the commander in chief’s wartime powers and another saying that agency officers accused of torturing Qaeda suspects could claim they were acting in “self-defense” to prevent future terror attacks, the sources say. Both legal claims have long since been rejected by Justice officials as overly broad and unsupported by legal precedent.
A Justice official declined to explain why David Margolis softened the original finding, but noted that he is a highly respected career lawyer who acted without input from Holder. Yoo and Bybee (through his lawyer) declined requests for comment.
Jake Tapper reports that, when confronted with this very question, Bush explained his logic to Ari Fleischer:
“And as the president said when he created the military tribunals, he wanted to have the option of a military tribunal for those limited number of cases where the national security of the United States or our ability to continue to obtain intelligence information without compromising sources or methods would be achieved as a result of going to a military court as opposed to a civilian court.
In other words, Bush specifically created the military tribunals system in order to deal with cases that posed an immediate, imminent threat to national security or would compromise the intelligence community's information-gathering methods. And, if a case presented neither unique challenge, the suspect should go to civilian court.
Cheney agreed with Bush's assessment, adding that part of the calculus for him was whether there was a strong change of conviction.
“There's a good, strong case against him,” Cheney told the Times.
Of course, both those men said the above about Zacarious Moussaoui, who was part of a successful plot to use four airplanes to destroy buildings in New York and D.C.. And, obviously, their calculus about British shoe-bomber Richard Reid was similar: he was arrested after a failed plot for which there was plenty of evidence, he held little intelligence value in terms of (other) imminent threats against the United States and his trial required no intelligence-gathering techniques or sources be revealed.
Why, then, do so many conservatives seemingly believe with zero evidence that a 23-year-old spoiled rich kid from Nigeria with mediocre Arabic language skills is a rich source of intelligence information about an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen headed by hardened Saudi and Yemenese terrorists, many of whom served together at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay? Especially when said terrorists would be intimately familiar with U.S. interrogation techniques and torturous proclivities--and how to use those two things to supply the United States with false intelligence.
In fact, conservatives probably don't believe anything of the sort. They want to torture him because they can, because it makes them feel big and manly and in control of their destinies, because they are scared of the truth. And the truth that scares them is that who terrorists (and garden-variety criminals, for that matter) manage to hurt is, as often as not, a crap-shoot.
Torturing the Underpants Bomber, or tossing him in the brig and throwing away the key has a sense of finality about it that they believe is a substitute for feeling safe or made-whole again. And it doesn't hurt that they can accuse the President--whom many conservatives, not so long ago, called a terrorist himself--of being soft on terrorism by "resorting" to U.S. law to punish a terrorist.
It doesn't matter that we have Captain Underpants dead-to-rights, that he'll never get out of prison (if he isn't sentenced to death), or that this incident is over and the terrorists will, as they always do, try something different next time of which even Abdulmuttalab is currently unaware. Some conservatives won't get their sweet release unless, in their mind's eye, they can see Abduluttalab suffer privations of which they've only dreamed of witnessing.
After 10 years, Tavis Smiley is ending his annual State of the Black Union conference, which spawned best-selling books and his critical stance toward Barack Obama.
The activist and PBS host said Wednesday that he needs time to focus on other projects, such as his four prime-time specials this year and his book company, which recently announced plans to publish the musician R. Kelly’s memoir.
Smiley also said that, unlike a decade ago, black issues now are being addressed by numerous other media outlets, commentators and bloggers.
The State of the Black Union “doesn’t have the premium that it used to have - and that’s a good thing,” Smiley told The Associated Press.
Smiley, who hosts a nightly half-hour talk show on PBS, said he was inspired to start the conference because black issues were rarely addressed in the president’s State of the Union speech or the national media.
The conference, which took place each February, was broadcast on C-SPAN and averaged 7,000 to 10,000 participants each year as it traveled to various cities. It drew almost 20,000 people in Jamestown, Va., in 2007, when it marked the 400th anniversary of the first arrival of African slaves in North America.
Smiley said money was not a factor in ending the series - which cost “well over seven figures” each year and was free to the public - because Exxon Mobil and Nationwide Insurance had committed to major sponsorship deals in 2010.
Wells Fargo was a major sponsor last year, which led to some criticism of Smiley after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed a lawsuit accusing Wells Fargo of pushing blacks into high-interest mortgage loans while whites with the same qualifications got lower rates. Smiley said he ended his deal with Wells Fargo as soon as the lawsuit was filed.
Wells Fargo & Co. has denied race played any role in how it did business.
Over the years, the State of the Black Union conference became a major event, drawing a wide range of influential speakers such as Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louis Farrakhan, Johnnie Cochran, Nikki Giovanni, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Magic Johnson.
The 2005 conference generated the idea for the book “Covenant with Black America,” about issues facing the black community. One of Smiley’s fondest State of the Black Union memories is holding the book aloft at the 2006 event and watching thousands of people in the audience do the same - “just the fact that we did what we said we were going to do.”
The book became a No. 1 New York Times best-seller. Smiley published two more books in the series, which focused on putting the “Covenant” into action and then on holding politicians accountable.
That led to Smiley’s critical stance toward Obama because of the presidential candidate’s insistence that the best way to help blacks was improving the entire economy, rather than specific policies targeting black problems.
Obama said he was too busy campaigning to attend the 2008 State of the Black Union event. Clinton was the only presidential candidate there.
Smiley endured much criticism as a result of his position on Obama, but the new president spoke to Smiley’s gathering by satellite from the White House in February 2009.
That was Smiley’s other favorite memory.
“That the president of the United States felt compelled to join us live to acknowledge the power of this symposium over 10 years, and what it had accomplished, raising the kind of issues that helped him get elected - that was significant,” Smiley said.
Jesse Washington, AP
When are BOYS going to learn that carring a gun does not make you a MAN?
Jan 06 2010 05:27PM EST
By BRIAN MAHONEY - AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK— Gilbert Arenas was suspended without pay Wednesday by NBA commissioner David Stern, who determined the player's behavior made him "not currently fit to take the court."
A day after the WashingtonWashington Wizardsashington Wizards guard was photographed before a game in Philadelphia pointing his index fingers, as if they were guns, at his teammates, Stern warned the former All-Star that his conduct will "ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse."
Arenas is under investigation by federal and local authorities after admittedly bringing guns to the locker room. Stern originally planned to wait to take action, but he tired of Arenas' behavior.
Arenas met with law enforcement officials Monday and said the next day that he feared Stern more than the authorities because the commissioner was "mean."
"Although it is clear that the actions of Mr. Arenas will ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse, his ongoing conduct has led me to conclude that he is not currently fit to take the court in an NBA game," Stern said in a statement. "Accordingly, I am suspending Mr. Arenas indefinitely, without pay, effective immediately pending the completion of the investigation by the NBA."
With each game he misses, Arenas will lose about $147,200 of the $16.2 million he will earn this season in the second of a six-year, $111 million contract. The punishment came on his 28th birthday.
A Wizards spokesman said Arenas left the team, which is playing in Cleveland, earlier Wednesday but didn't know where he was going.
"It's sad," Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson said. "You don't want to see a player go down like that. We're a family, and it hurts."
The Wizards supported Stern's decision in a statement attributed to president Ernie Grunfeld and the Pollin family, which owns the team. The late Abe Pollin changed the team's name from the Bullets because of the violent connotation.
"Strictly legal issues aside, Gilbert's recent behavior and statements, including his actions and statements last night in Philadelphia, are unacceptable," the statement said. "Some of our other players appeared to find Gilbert's behavior in Philadelphia amusing. This is also unacceptable. Under Abe Pollin's leadership, our organization never tolerated such behavior, and we have no intention of ever doing so."
A lawyer who has been representing Arenas in the gun matter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Arenas does not have a traditional player agent.
Since the firearms language was strengthened in the 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement, NBA players are subject to discipline if they bring guns to the arena or practice facility, or even an offsite promotional appearance.
Arenas originally said he brought four guns to the Verizon Center because he wanted them out of his house after his daughter was born. But two officials within the league who have been briefed on the investigation have told The Associated Press that the incident stemmed from a dispute over card-playing gambling debts and a heated discussion in the locker room with teammate Javaris Crittenton. The New York Post, however, reported that the two teammates drew weapons on each other.
In a statement he released after meeting with authorities Monday, Arenas said he took unloaded guns from his locker in a "misguided effort to play a joke" on a teammate.
"Joke or not, I now recognize that what I did was a mistake and was wrong," Arenas said. "I should not have brought the guns to DC in the first place, and I now realize that there's no such thing as joking around when it comes to guns _ even if unloaded."
Stern said members of the Wizards organization are still being interviewed by law enforcement authorities.
"Some are scheduled for appearance before the grand jury and the investigation is proceeding with the intensity that one would expect for such a serious incident," Stern said.
___
AP Sports Writers Howard Fendrich and Joseph White in Washington contributed to this report.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 4, 2010
Hours after last week's deadly attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan, a revision was made in official accounts of the number of intelligence operatives killed in the suicide bombing. Instead of eight deaths, as initially reported, the CIA acknowledged only seven.
The eighth victim resurfaced over the weekend when his flag-draped coffin arrived in his native country, Jordan. The man, a captain in the Jordanian intelligence service, was given full military honors at a ceremony that referred only to his "humanitarian work" in war-torn Afghanistan.
In fact, the man's death offered a rare window into a partnership that U.S. officials describe as crucial to their counterterrorism strategy. Although its participation is rarely acknowledged publicly, Jordan is playing an increasingly vital role in the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, sometimes in countries far beyond the Middle East, according to current and former government officials from both countries.
Traditionally close ties between the CIA and the Jordanian spy agency -- known as the General Intelligence Department -- strengthened after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, occasionally prompting allegations by human rights groups that Jordan was serving as a surrogate jailer and interrogator for the U.S. intelligence agency. In the past two years, in the face of new threats in Afghanistan and Yemen, the United States has again called on its ally for help, current and former officials from both countries said.
"They know the bad guy's . . . culture, his associates, and more [than anyone] about the network to which he belongs," said Jamie Smith, a former CIA officer who worked in the border region in the years immediately after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. Jordanians were particularly prized for their skill in both in interrogating captives and cultivating informants, owing to an unrivaled "expertise with radicalized militant groups and Shia/Sunni culture," said Smith, who now heads a private security company known as SCG International.
Yet, despite Jordan's critical role, officials from both countries have insisted that its participation remain virtually invisible, in part to avoid damaging Amman's standing among other Muslim nations in the region, former intelligence officials said.
U.S. intelligence officials declined to comment on the death of the Jordanian officer or to specify the role GID agents were playing in the region. "We have a close partnership with the Jordanians on counterterrorism matters," acknowledged a U.S. counterterrorism official, who agreed to discuss the sensitive relationship on the condition of anonymity. "Having suffered serious losses from terrorist attacks on their own soil, they are keenly aware of the significant threat posed by extremists."
The slain officer, identified in Jordanian press accounts as Sharif Ali bin Zeid, was on one of the CIA's most sensitive listening posts in eastern Afghanistan, Forward Operating Base Chapman, when a suicide attacker exploded a bomb in the middle of a group of CIA officers and contractors. The blast killed seven Americans, including the base chief
The base, in Afghanistan's eastern province, is at the heart of the CIA's operations along the Afghan-Pakistan border. It provides critical intelligence for strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban positions, including targeting information for CIA unmanned aircraft, which carried out more than 50 strikes in Pakistan's autonomous tribal region in the past year. The base also is frequently a setting for debriefing of informants, current and former officials said.
Jordan's official news agency, Petra, said bin Zeid was killed "on Wednesday evening as a martyr while performing the sacred duty of the Jordanian forces in Afghanistan" and provided no further details about his death. Local news reports quoted family members as saying bin Zeid had been in Afghanistan for 20 days and had been scheduled to travel home on the day of the bombing.
His coffin's arrival in Amman on Saturday was handled with unusual pomp, with Jordan's King Abdullah II and his wife, Rania, personally presiding over a funeral and burial in a military cemetery.
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said the special relationship with Jordan dates back at least three decades and has recently progressed to the point that the CIA liaison officer in Amman enjoys full, unescorted access to the GID's fortress-like headquarters. The close ties helped disrupt several known terrorist plots, including the thwarted 2000 "millennium" conspiracy to attack tourists at hotels and other sites. Jordanians also provided U.S. officials with communications intercepts in summer 2001 that warned of terrorist plans to carry out a major attack on the United States.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Jordan agreed to create a bilateral operations center with the CIA and helped in interrogations of non-Jordanian suspects captured by the CIA and transferred to Jordan in now-famous "rendition" flights. Jordan's role was criticized at the time by human rights groups, and a United Nations inquiry in 2007 concluded that security officials had committed acts of torture, an accusation denied by Jordan.
Critics of the country's pro-U.S. policy say the closeness stems in part from Jordan's receipt of about $500 million worth of economic and military aid from the United States each year and from Jordan's status as one of only two Arab states to have signed a peace agreement with Israel. But Jordanian officials say the cooperation with the CIA is motivated by a mutual understanding of the danger posed by al-Qaeda and the religious extremism and violence it espouses.
"If al-Qaeda targets America, it also targets our stability and the peace of this region," a Jordanian intelligence said in a recent interview. "Based on this stance, we have had many successes countering terrorism."
Staff writer Dana Priest and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report
