JNM, Amman, Jordan (Wednesday, October 8, 2008): New York-based Human Rights Watch blasted King Abdullah II's brutal regime today for rampant human rights abuses conducted by Gesapo-like security forces, such as Mokhabrat or the General Intelligence Department (GID), Estikhbarat (Military Intelligence), Amen Wikai (Preventive Security) and Al-Darak security forces…Below is Human Rights Watch's grisly report…

The Jordan National Movement (JNM) will publish soon an executive report that supports Human Rights Watch’s findings and outline several recent corruption cases and human rights abuses conducted by King Abdullah II’s thuggish regime….this report is supported by pictures and documentations… please stay tuned…

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Jordan: Torture in Prisons

Routine and Widespread Reforms Fail to Tackle Abuse, Impunity Persists

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Human Rights Watch Letter to

Jordanian Prime Minister Dahabi on

the Draft NGO and Public Assembly

Laws

JNM, Amman, Jordan (Sunday, May 11, 2008): New York-based Human Rights Watch issued the following report re: the recent tragic crime committed by King Abdullah II’s brutal forces against prisoners housed in Al-Muwaqar prison:

Jordan: Prison Burning Deaths Need Independent Investigation

Police Investigation Ignores Evidence, Intimidates Witnesses

(New York, May 8, 2008) – King Abdullah should order an independent investigation into the events surrounding the deaths on April 14 of three prisoners at al-Muwaqqar prison east of Amman, Human Rights Watch said today. Despite ample evidence of misconduct, and potentially criminal acts by prison officials, police authorities told Human Rights Watch that their investigation into the incident will vindicate the prison officials, setting out that they acted correctly.  

“The police investigation is an attempt to whitewash the events leading up to the burning to death of three inmates in Jordan,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “It has lost all credibility.”  
 
Since the deaths of the three prisoners, the police have placed in solitary confinement many of those detainees in al-Muwaqqar who were eyewitnesses to the events. Security officials have prevented lawyers, family members and human rights investigators from visiting them. Witnesses report that police have intimidated them and have ignored accounts that at least two of the men burned to death had been seriously tortured just prior to the fire, shedding doubt on whether the men had in fact died accidentally. The governmental National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) issued a report on April 16, based on its investigation at al-Muwaqqar on April 15, confirming beatings and ill-treatment at the prison before the fire.  
 
It is not disputed that at around noon on April 14, approximately 28 prisoners in Cell 3 of Section A of the newly-built al-Muwaqqar prison set their foam mattresses alight as a protest to events at the prison. Prisoners occupying neighboring cells joined in the protest, shouting and inflicting harm on themselves with sharp objects. In response, the prison perimeter guards (Darak) entered the prison building to secure the burning cell. What happened next is contested, but ultimately, when the Civil Defense later extinguished the fire in the cell, they found the burned bodies of Firas al-‘Utti, Hazim Ziyada, and Ibrahim al-‘Ulayan.  
 
The police claim that the prisoners had barricaded the doors of the burning cell with beds to prevent the guards from opening them. However, one eyewitness denies this; he described in detail how prisoners were shouting for the Darak and prison guards to open the door of the burning cell, but that they idly stood by for around 10 minutes before opening the doors. Two other eyewitnesses also said that before opening the door, the Darak fired a gas container into the cell. Guards reportedly shot one prisoner in the chest with one or more rubber bullets. When the Darak opened the doors, the eyewitnesses claim that all 28 prisoners left the cell. The NCHR pointed out that the doors of the cell open to the outside, allowing the guards to open the doors regardless of any barricade inside the cells.  
 
Eyewitness accounts  
 
According to two eyewitnesses, the fire was almost extinguished by the time the doors were open to allow the prisoners to exit the cell. One eyewitness said that the Darak viciously beat those who exited, “splitting open their skulls.” The NCHR recorded blood stains in the rooms, corridors, and the exercise yard.  
 
Then, eyewitnesses said, the Darak pushed 18 people back into Cell 3. These 18 include the three whose bodies were found, as well as Majid Khatir, Abed al-Khaffash, Muhammad al-Tabbash, and Faisal al-‘Udwan, whose whereabouts are now unknown. After the cell door had been relocked with the 18 men inside, a second, much bigger fire started and it was that fire which the Civil Defense extinguished when they arrived about 15-20 minutes later, two eyewitnesses said. The NCHR report notes that a fire hose belonging to the prison was in place 4 meters from the burning cell.  
 
One day before the incident, Human Rights Watch met with the director of the Public Security Directorate (PSD), Brig.-Gen. Mazin al-Qadi, who promised that the PSD (which includes the police and the prison service) would be fully transparent in its dealing with Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch also spoke with police officials on April 15, April 20, and May 5. A Human Rights Watch researcher visited the outside of the prison on April 15 and witnessed a large presence of security guards. The officials insisted that there was no wrongdoing by any security forces, including both Darak and prison guards, in connection with the April 14 fire, and that the police investigation would conclude soon.  
 
Families left in the dark  
 
The families of the three dead prisoners and eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that all three who died had complained during visits days before the fire about ill-treatment, in particular by a Captain ‘Amir Qutaish, who they claim insulted and beat them. An eyewitness alleges that on April 13 this officer suspended Firas al-‘Utti and Hazim Ziyada, two of the men later burned in the fire, for four to five hours from a wall with their hands shackled behind their back (the shabah torture position) while beating them. This was in response to the fact that some 100 prisoners had started a hunger strike that day protesting ill-treatment. Families and eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that Qutaish had bad relations with al-‘Utti and Ziyada dating back to a period that the men had spent in a different prison. Al-‘Utti also reportedly tried to warn a visitor to the prison that Qutaish had allegedly made threats against them just five days before the fire. One eyewitness said that Qutaish threatened al-‘Utti, Ziyada and another two prisoners with ill-treatment again only hours before the fire on April 14. Three eyewitnesses spoke of the frequent morning searches, beatings, and insults by prison guards and the shabah-style torture of prisoners who resisted the searches.  
 
After the fire, the prison administration placed all surviving prisoners from Cell 3, Section A and the roughly 100 other prisoners who had witnessed the events either into solitary confinement or separate from the remaining prison population after they had briefly been treated for smoke inhalation, burns, or injuries from beatings. At dawn on April 15, they transferred between 15 and 60 prisoners to other prisons. Their families and lawyers have been unable to visit the isolated prisoners, “by order of the Ministry of Interior,” one family member told Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch knows of at least five families unable to visit their loved ones in prison since the incident. The prison also prohibited the visiting NCHR representatives from seeing these prisoners.  
 
Eyewitnesses also said that the police put pressure on the transferred prisoners to exonerate the security forces of the deaths and warned them not to mention that complaints about torture had given rise to the protest.  
 
On April 20, four days after issuing its critical findings on al-Muwaqqar, the executive director of the NCHR, Shaher Bak, resigned.  
 
“King Abdullah has an obligation under human rights law to set up an independent commission with judicial powers to investigate the torture, protests and response to the fire in al-Muwaqqar prison, as the police authorities have clearly shown themselves incapable of holding their own members to account,” said Whitson.  
 
Human Rights Watch is concerned that, even with evidence of criminal culpability on the part of the members of the Public Security Directorate, there are significant obstacles in the way of prosecution. In Jordan, a police court has jurisdiction over all cases in which members of the PSD stand accused of crimes. The PSD director appoints police officers as judges of the police court as well as the police prosecutors, and he retains the right to reduce sentences. Such a tribunal fails to meet any standard of independent judicial scrutiny.  
 
The police court has a poor record of holding police to account for abuses. In March 2008, the police court sentenced two officers who beat an inmate to death in Aqaba prison to two-and-a-half years in prison, but only after private efforts by the family of the deceased, the US embassy, and Human Rights Watch to bring the perpetrators to justice. Before these efforts, the police court merely charged the men with “abuse of authority” and “violating orders and directives.” In December 2007, the police court sentenced the director of Swaqa prison to two months in prison for “exercising unlawful authority resulting in harm,” then commuted the sentence to a fine of JOD120, or about US$170. The prison director had beaten, and forcibly shaved the heads and beards, of almost all 2,100 inmates at Swaqa prison, Jordan’s largest, on his first day as director there.

Jordan: Clarifications on World Report Chapter 2008

Human Rights Watch Response to Ministry of Foreign

Affairs Critique

New York-based Human Rights Watch issued the following press release in response to awful articles written by pro-absolute monarchy columnists and printed in state-run newspapers against Human Rights Watch and its successful and unrelenting campaign against rampant human rights abuses in the Kingdom of corruption. In this press release, Human Rights Watch highlighted the name of and briefly outlined ill-founded accusations made by Tariq Masarwa, a former Senator appointed by King Abdullah II and a paid agent (columnist) of the General Intelligence Department (GID), who in one of his recent absurd articles asked the unelected government and its omni-security apparatus to jail anyone who reads and supports reports issued by Human Rights Watch! In fact, Tariq Masarwa (known in Jordan as Abu Ali) has received large sums of money and hush bribes from the thuggish dictator Saddam Hussein to defend and sell his antagonistic policies in Jordan and the Arab press.

Here is the press release issued by Human Rights Watch:

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Deflecting Attention from Jordan’s Repressive Laws

NEW YORK – Tariq Masarwa (“Watching Human Rights in the Prisons for Iraqi Women … and in Jordan!”, December 25) makes several unsubstantiated accusations against Human Rights Watch in an attempt to discredit our latest report on the Jordanian government’s use of repressive laws to restrict civil society’s fundamental rights to expression, association and assembly “Shutting Out the Critics,” published December 17 in Amman). Instead of addressing the issues raised by the report, he tries to distract the reader with mischaracterizations about our reporting on other countries and about methods of operation.

JNM, Amman-Jordan (Sunday, December 30, 2007): King Abdullah II of Jordan endorsed and ratified, by royal decree, draconian and unjust decisions by his appointed government to strip Jordanian citizenship from several political and human rights activists: So far, six cases have been reported this year and 12 occurred in 2006. All of these particular cases have been reported by the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA). In a letter addressed to the unelected Prime Minister of Jordan Nader Dahabi, whose brother is the current Director of the General Intelligence Department (GID), on Sunday, December 30, 2007, the Head of JEA, Engineer Wael Al-Saqa, demanded that “citizenship must be restored to Engineers Raed Ismail Baryoush and Ahmad Khalid Al-Ashqar.”

According to Al-Saqa, “Baryoush was born in Aqaba, Jordan, in 1962, bears Jordanian Citizenship Certificate, National Number and previously served in the Jordanian army. His father is the former Head of JEA. Al-Ashqar was born in Amman, Jordan, in 1972, and his citizenship was withdrawn from him on Sunday, September 23, 2007.”

All of these inhuman actions by King Abdullah II’s corrupt and dictatorial regime aim to spread fear amongst the large Palestinian-Jordanian community in Jordan to prevent it from participating in political activities and practicing their rights as full Jordanian citizens.

The families of these Engineers and the great majority of the Jordanian people beseech you: The U.S. Congress, World Human Rights organizations, and other political and humanitarian associations to press the dictator King Abdullah II of Jordan, during his upcoming visits to the U.S. and other countries, to withdraw this decision and release all political prisoners in Jordan.

Do not let the corrupt king or his officials seduce you or sidetrack you. You must call for, and sharply censure, the king’s current policy of detaining, abusing, and torturing his Jordanian political foes because of their basic political ideology. King Abdullah II’s current political stratagem may be zealously pursued but those acts are causing skepticism, cacophony, and repudiation within Jordan and throughout the civilized world.

Fahad Al-Rimawi                King Abdullah II

JNM, Amman, Jordan (Sunday, 12/2/2007):  In a workshop held in Amman, in October 2007, the Chairman of the Judicial Council, one of the highest judicial authorities in the country, Judge Mohammad Raqad, made it very clear that the judicial system in Jordan is dependent on, and a tool in the hands of the royal family and their unelected governments.

Judge Raqad made the following astonishing statements:

1.     “Courts and judges are totally dependent on financial support from the [appointed] governments…if I need to buy refreshments, office supplies, hire or replace a staff member, I must get the approval of the appointed Minister of Justice…”

2.     “Instead of appearing before a court of law, public prosecutors are being summoned and coerced by [appointed] Ministers at their official offices to take their statements in lawsuits filed by these Ministers against journalists and other respected citizens who have accused these [blatant] officials of being abusive and corrupt…”

3.     “Establishing the State Security [Military] Court or other special courts to prosecute citizens, civil ones or military personnel, is absolutely an unjustified course of action…”

4.     “I have told [corrupt] judges that Ministers or high-level decision makers will not help them on the Day of Judgment…”

Judge Raqad’s statements are consistent with and reflect the deteriorating state of affairs and crisis of trust between the Hashemite leadership and the Jordanian citizenry. For instance, Saber Al-Rawashdah, Amman’s former Public Prosecutor and an agent for the General Intelligence Department (GID), collaborated with the royal court and GID to arrest and jail Dr. Al-Abbadi on Wednesday, May 2, 2007. His award: Appointed, just a few days ago, to a high level position in the government, General Inspector of Businesses at the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Today, King Abdullah II told the new parliament whose 40-50 percent of its members won their seats via illegitimate means, such as vote-buying and transferring votes from one electoral district to another, “…the constitution has guaranteed freedom of expression, and therefore it is unacceptable that a journalist gets jailed due to a difference in opinion re: a public cause as long as this difference in opinion does not infringe on people’s rights, freedom or honors…” So now we have an absolute king who tells us what is right and what is wrong, how to behave and how we should interpret the terms of this constitution…it is an absurd monarchy that we are dealing with in Jordan…On the other hand, the State TV did not carry live the king's speech due to his embarrasing and broken Arabic language.

While he was delivering his stumpy speech, Fahad Al-Rimawi, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Majd weekly newspaper, appeared before a judge at Amman Court of Conciliation (ACC) for a lawsuit filed by the government’s Department of Publications against Al-Rimawi. The lawsuit focuses on an article published by the newspaper that criticized the former appointed government of Marrouf Al-Bakhit of being comic and carbon copies of previous corrupt and hand-picked governments.

This is another example of the double-face policy that King Abdullah II is trying very hard to execute before the watching eyes of the local audience and international community: Saying something good at the podium and on the international stage while ordering and pushing his security forces, behind closed doors, to terrorize local journalists, human rights and political activists.

King Abdullah II’s flat lies and revolving door policies have produced very little positive results on the tracks of economic and political reforms. According to recent official data, published by the Ministry of Finance, the internal and foreign debt rose at the rate of 15.1%, reaching a record high of $10.34 billion, since he assumed power in February 1999. Scientific polls released on Monday, April 18, 2005 by the Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Jordan, indicates that 79.5 per cent of citizens say they have not felt any positive impact upon their living standards over the past three years despite the fact that official statistics indicate an economic growth of 4-7 per cent of the gross domestic product. On December 1, 2007, Jameel Al-Nimri, a columnist in Al Arab Al Yawm daily newspaper, said “after [recent] parliament elections, defenders of political reforms need to sit and rest in the bleachers, intertwine their hands and cross their legs, watching the outcome of the process of jettisoning political reforms…”

King Abdullah is ruling with the iron fist and has become careless of what the international community thinks of his poor leadership and increasing lack of popularity amongest the Jordanian citizens. The king promotes and keeps corrupt fat cats and shuns intellectuals and opposition figures from taking part in the decision-making process. Daily and weekly publications have reported continuously that he firmly believes in the popular expression, “My way or the highway.” For instance, most of the appointed members of government and senate are spouses, siblings, close relatives and cronies of other high-level decision makers in the government and royal court. In fact, the new Chief of the Royal Court, Bassem Awadallah, is the son of a convicted felon in a U.S. Federal court.

People of Jordan are now changing directions of loyalty and news from Amman gives the signal that the Jordanian Army is very unhappy with the monarch’s negative behavior. Further, the international community must take bold, practical and courageous measures against the corrupt absolute monarchical regime of King Abdullah II. We need to work together to curb this regime’s double-faced local and foreign policies that deceive the global civilized community regarding daily dictatorial activities against the people of Jordan. 

Former MP Tawjan Faisal prevented from running for elections by King Abdullah II

JNM, Amman-Jordan (Tuesday, November 13, 2007): The thuggish and erratic dictator King Abdullah II and his thieves and military dictatorship in Amman have lost their honor. Indeed, they have lost their face and must be speechless as these very embarrassing pictures (see above) flash and news stories unfold before the watching eyes of the civilized world.  

King Abdullah II is calling for impartial Parliamentarian elections? What a joke? Who is he deceiving here? Are the United States Government and Congress watching what this man is doing back home? This is King Abdullah II’s version of democracy: bribery, forgery and flat lies. The United States must do something to stop this massacre of democracy…We must stop this liar and thief from spending millions of dollars in foreign aid to hold his grip on power in Amman….The United States must stop supporting such a rogue regime…The Jordanian people do not deserve this…we do not deserve this brutal regime…   

Leading critics of King Abdullah II’s repressive regime, such as Dr. Al-Abbadi, Tawjan Faisal and Laith Shubeilat, have all spent time in jail simply because they have called for greater freedom and constitutional monarchy…In fact, the scholar Dr. Al-Abbadi is still in jail after he simply called for freedom of speech and full eradication of corruption in the Hashemite Royal Court and the unelected government, as well as immediate stop to human rights abuses in the country.

Now, the tribal-based Parliament elections will be held on Tuesday, November 20, 2007….People in the street are selling their votes…Tribal fights have erupted all over the corrupt Kingdom of King Abdullah II…The headquarters of tribal candidates have been burned by supporters of other opposing candidates from the same clan (see above picture). And massive vote-buying is taking place now on the streets all over the country under the watching eyes of King Abdullah II’s General Intelligence Department (GID) and its omnipresent undercover agents….

Each vote is sold for $150…Despite the videos and pictures taken by journalists and reporters of this vote-buying, no one has ever been officially punished for this shameful and disgusting practice! This is simply the corrupt Kingdom of Al-Maniak Abu Hussein (King Abdullah II)….

News story in Arabic re: Vote-Buying, Published on November 14, by Arab Al Yawm Newspaper:

King Abdullah II: Darling of the West...a thuggish dictator in Jordan

State-wide protests in fake municipality elections held in July will be repeated on November 20th... 

JNM, Amman-Jordan (Sunday, October 14, 2007): Does the phrase “rid me of this meddlesome priest” ring a bell? Whether in fact King Abdullah II of Jordan, whom many in the West view as a champion of peace and democratic values, uttered some such words about his political opponents, it is clear King Abdullah II’s intelligence community and his corrupt cohorts, such as the Minister of Interior Eid Al-Fayez and Major General Mohammad (Barzan) Dahabi, Director of General Intelligence Department, have taken it upon themselves to protect the king’s own selfish interests--and theirs. On Tuesday, October 9, 2007, King Abdullah II’s Military Court sentenced former MP Dr. Ahmed Oweidi Al-Abbadi to two years for speaking up against rampant corruption and exponential human rights abuses in Jordan, which will exclude Dr. Al-Abbadi from the parliamentary elections on November 20. Other reformers and civil rights leaders have declined to run for these elections simply because these elections will be a new showcase of fraud, governmental heavyhandedness, irregularities and violence, similar to the “gammy” municipality elections, held on Tuesday, July 31, 2007, and described by many local and international observes as a joke: http://www.jordannationalmovement.org/editorialfocus.htm.

Here is the evidence:

--Tens of thousands of voters have been deleted, transferred and reshuffled from one district to another with and without the knowledge of these voters. The mere purpose of this transferring process is to help pro-absolute monarchy (heads and notable men of tribes) win and guarantee their Parliamentary seats in these pre-cooked, fake elections. 

--The current one-person, one-vote elections system has divided the country into small districts of tribalism so the absolute monarchy can dominate and conquer the executive power for a lifetime. This partial electoral system has damaged the unity of the state and produced tribal MPs whose main concerns lie with personal gains and secure basic services, such as building new roads and installing electricity in their local districts and communities, rather than monitoring the national executive branch and enacting laws and legislations that would give impetus to and push political and economic reforms forward.

--Eid Al-Fayez stated on Friday, October 12, 2007, “it is absolutely forbidden and illegal to monitor these parliamentary elections by local civil institutions or any other organization whatsoever…” Arabic version of this irresponsible and absurd decision:

October 12, 2007

العرب اليوم - رداد القلاب

جددت الحكومة وعلى لسان وزير الداخلية عيد الفايز امس رفضها رقابة مؤسسات المجتمع المدني او اي جهة كانت على الانتخابات المقبلة التي ستجرى في العشرين من تشرين الثاني. وقال الفايز خلال لقائه رجال الاعمال والمستثمرين أمس في مبني الوزارة انه "لا يجوز مراقبة الانتخابات".

What does this decision mean? Simply put: King Abdullah II and his security apparatus have already decided the outcome of these elections. On Saturday, September 22, 2007, Dr. Abdul Rahim Malhas, former MP and Minister of Health, stated, “The next Parliament in Jordan will be martial, pre-designed, has no power to oppose, lack strategic vision, and obedient [to absolute monarchy]...indeed, this type of Parliament shares and resembles the [chemical] properties of water…”

Today, King Abdullah II’s popularity is going down the drain and his performance since February 1999, does not inspire confidence…under his shaky leadership, elections on November 20 will be legally dubious and illegitimate...King Abdullah II is unwilling to flirt with genuine democracy…he is sowing the seeds of public disinterest in such a noble cause. A few weeks from now, the people of Jordan are awaiting another round of election skullduggery, already prepared and cooked by the flamboyant King Abdullah II and his intelligence community. Most foreign diplomats, human rights groups and independent elections monitors in Amman firmly believe that King Abdullah II’s candidates will win about 80 percent of the vote. That is enough to provide a comfortable margin for King Abdullah II, who needs only 51% to pass whatever laws he and his corrupt advisors at the royal court decide to design and ratify.  These elections will be discredited in Jordan and in the West. And whatever the outcome of these fake parliamentary elections, the corrupt tribal chieftains, pro thuggish regime, will be the key and major players to destroy whatever is left of opposition and institutions of civil rights in our beloved country, Jordan.

JNM, Amman-Jordan (Sunday, September 23, 2007): The following pieces of news reported from Amman:

--Nabil Abdul Hadi, the Assistant Director of the Publications Department, announced today (Sunday, September 23rd) that his governmental department will now fully monitor the electronic publications in Jordan, a clear breach of press freedom in the absolute monarchical Kingdom of King Abdullah II. Tariq Al-Momni, Head of the Press Association, described this decision as a “backward step” in freedom of the press.

--The following quotes are from Jordanian personalities spoke in a public gathering in Amman on Saturday, September 22, 2007:

1. Dr. Faris Al-Fayez, a national Bedouin figure, stated, “I urge the [unelected] government to stop its harassment of Jordanians and allow Bedouins to join their fellow citizens in running for elections at any district they choose…Bedouins are fully aware of the [governmental] attempts to isolate and partition them…”

2. Dr. Soufian Al-Tal, from the Jordanian National Movement, stated, “the press and media have been officially directed not to publish any activities of this movement…this lack of access to press and media soon will be extended to electronic publications and TV satellites…”

3. Attorney Saleh Al-Armouti, President of the Jordan Bar Association, stressed that there are “renewed files controlling the political seen in the country these days…the [appointed] government and its apparatus are intervening in everything…I advise all opposition parties and figures not to participate in the next Parliament elections [slated for Nov. 20th, 07] simply because the next Parliament is now being worked on by the [unelected] government to serve as a rubber stamp…this Parliament will be the weakest ever in Jordan history…”

4. Toujan Faisal, Former MP, declared that she is “totally against dividing the country based on religious affiliation and race…Women quotas in Parliament is simply wrong…”

5. Dr. Rula Al-Hrroub, columnist in Al-Anbat newspaper, accused pro government writers in newspapers and magazines of being “hypocrites and liars” and attacked the appointed government of King Abdullah II for "harassing and threatening owners of independent newspapers…”

6. Dr. Abdul Rahim Malhas, former MP and Minister of Health, stated, “The unprecedented concentration of absolute power [in the king] has surfaced again…the general direction has been practically focusing on intensifying and centering power in the Royal Court…basically, the Court has been planning for everything, enacting policies and legislations, and making decisions [on behalf of the hand-picked government] , without any consultation, accountability or even public dissent [clear violations of the current constitution]…the next parliament in Jordan will be martial, predesigned, has no power to oppose, lack strategic vision, and obedient [to absolute monarchy]...indeed, this type of Parliament shares and resembles the [chemical] properties of water…”

Violent Clashes in Municipality Elections Set off By Electoral Fraud: Same Will Appear on November 20th...

JNM, Amman-Jordan (Sunday, September 16, 2007): Hopes for a democratic atmosphere in Jordan have been very cloudy since King Abdullah II assumed his absolute monarchical power in February 1999. This man uses double-face and double-talk: In Jordan, he directs his omnipresent and Gestapo-like security forces to interfere in elections results and outside the country, he appears and sounds like an honest leader and pro-Western style of democracy and human rights. The latest series of restraints instructed and imposed by the king and his unelected government will threaten and undermine the faith voters in the next Parliamentarian elections, slated for November 20, 2007, and secure the king’s lock on absolute power:

--The current elections law, one-person, one vote, introduced by the late King Hussein in 1993 and has never been changed since 2003, is very unfair and a showcase of barbaric monarchy:

--Vote-buying is now in full-swing: Dr. Saeed Diab, Spokesman for National Opposition Parties stated on Saturday, September 15, 2007, that “using money to buy votes in the next Parliament elections, under the blessing and watching eyes of government, is one early indication of the incredibility of these upcoming elections.” In an article appeared in Al-Arab Al Yawm newspaper on Saturday, September 15, 2007, the highly-respected journalist in Jordan, Fahad Al-Khitan, made it clear that “there is no one single opportunity exists for independent and national candidates, in most districts, to compete in the upcoming Parliamentarian elections simply because of dominate tribal competition [created by the above elections law] and the spree of rich candidates to buy votes from citizens, in an unprecedented vote-buying process that has never ever been seen in the country before…the government is not moving against such degrading process despite the legal ways and means that can be used to face and stop this process…” Al-Khitan continued to say, “during Ramadan, we will see all sorts and forms of ways to use money for buying votes under the cover that this money is used for charity purposes…the government is turning a blind eye to the vote-buying process despite warnings from civil leaders, opposition protests, documented and flagrant complaints by citizens…” On Sunday, May 27, the Editor-in-Chief of Al-Arab Al Yawm newspaper, Taher Al-Edwan, stated that “…it has become very clear to everybody that most Members of Parliament in Jordan win elections through the art of buying votes…” For example, one incumbent MP Nawaf Al-Zyoued, Al-Hashimiah District in Zarqa, is making daily stops in chicken stores these days: He stands beside stack of large chicken boxes, carrying a small copy of Al-Quran (Muslim holy book) …when a buyer steps in the store to buy chicken, Al-Zyoued offers one single chicken box to the buyer under one condition: Swear on Al-Quran to vote for me on November 20th. The latest offer from Al-Zyoued is buying 4 new pieces of car tires to citizens in Al-Hashimiah in exchange for votes!

--Similar to the widespread vote rigging and rampant violence in municipality elections held on Tuesday, July 31, 2007, electoral fraud, irregularities and violent clashes is widely expected on November 20th. This is mainly due to the tribal and impartial nature of the 1993 elections law that King Abdullah II has constantly refused to amend.

Report (2) is coming soon…stay tuned!

JNM, Amman, Jordan (Sunday, August 26, 2007): Confused about King Abdullah II’s behavior? So are the Jordanians. King Abdullah II and his corrupt henchmen are striving to get richer and oppress Jordanians by almost any means, while they are appearing on the international stage as pro democracy, equality and human rights. If such contradictions confuse the international community, they also puzzle and trouble many Jordanians and help explain why Jordan’s spectacular absolute monarchy has produced as much cynicism and nihilism amongst the Jordanian citizens since King Abdullah II assumed his absolute power in February 1999. King Abdullah II’s unelected government has extended its invitation to human rights organizations to visit the regime’s prisons, including these ones that house political prisoners at the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) and else where in the corrupt Kingdom. During these pre-arranged visits, many prisoners protested the daily ill-treatment committed against them by the secret police. At Swagah prison alone, more than one hundred prisoners were admitted into hospitals after fierce protests against their daily human rights abuses. This incident happened in the presence of representatives of New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amman-based Adaleh Center and Human and Environment Observatory.

Confidential reports from Amman confirmed to JNM that secret police entered the Swagah prison, immediately after these human rights representatives left prison facilities, looking for those inmates who spoken up freely re: their daily ordeals and human rights abuses that they have been subjected to by King Abdullah II's Gestapo-like security forces. The outcome: Additional inmates were beaten up very harshly by these cruel forces due to their frank talk and openness to these representatives, and rushed to adjacent hospitals and medical centers because of their serious injuries. In addition, the new Director (from Public Security Department) of Swaqah prison told his staff that he has full authority to shave the beards of prisoners by force. To accomplish this inhuman task, he ordered several face-covered police officers inside prison cells despite warnings from his aids not to do so. The result of these ghoulish raids: Further clashes erupted and many prisoners were physically attacked. Furthermore, the incoming Director told his staff that he has “additional authority from above to beat up and abuse prisoners whenever and whatever it takes.”

Abdul Karim Shridah, Chairman of Prisons and Jails Committee at the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) stated on Sunday, August 26, 2007, that “We have received several written complaints from families of prisoners in Swagah and Juwaidah prisons stated to the effect that their sons have been subjected to daily kicking, torture, physical and psychological abuses” by King Abdullah II’s security apparatus. Eng. Maysarra Malass, Chairman of Freedom Committee at the Jordanian Engineers Association, stated that prisoners, including political ones, have been subjected to “beating, forced head-and beard-shaving, and cruel treatment” by prisons authorities. Alaa Abu Tair, a prisoner in Swagah, died on Saturday, August 25, 2007, due to this agony and endless torment abuses. More information: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=1746

The international community must keep an open eye on King Abdullah II’s tragic record of human rights abuses, his zigzagged moves towards democracy and the rule of law. Any foreign assistance to King Abdullah II’s regime must be pegged to its progress toward democratic reform and full respects for human rights. So far, King Abdullah II has shown very little to prove that he is a responsible man who believes in what the Jordanian people deserve: Respect and genuine political freedom.

JNM, Amman-Jordan (Tuesday, August 28, 2007): Right before dusk, seven undercover members of King Abdullah II’s Beat Up Squads abducted Member of Parliament Dr. Al-Ali Alatoum, Irbid-First District, for a few hours. During this abduction, these gangs punched, kicked and beaten up Dr. Alatoum before throwing him out on the road in a remote area in Irbid Province. The vicious attackers also shaved his beard by force (see above picture), similar to the incident that occurred in Swaqah prison a few days ago (read story below). Friends and relatives of Dr. Alatoum stressed that these cowards are state agents who have been recruited by King Abdullah II and his brutal gangs in the General Intelligence Department (GID) to plant seeds of fear and panic amongst political and human rights activists in the Jordanian society. Dr. Alatoum has recently spoken up against the widespread fraud in municipality elections held across Jordan on Tuesday, July 31, 2007.  Dr. Alatoum is 65 years old, holds a Ph.D. in Arabic Literature, and a scholar who wrote several books and published many articles in national and international journals and magazines.

Further unfolding information re: this absurd incident: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=1806

The above is another evidence of the brutality of King Abdullah II and his terrorist regime that reminds Jordanians and human rights defenders around the world of these death squads roaming now on the streets of Baghdad and other thuggish dictators who have committed all sorts of cruelty and terror against freedom fighters…The Jordan National Movement will soon write letters to the Boards of Trustees of those institutions of higher education, such as George Town University, that have granted King Abdullah II honorary degrees to withdraw this high honor that has been bestowed upon a king that has lost his own face-value and honor...shame on him!

First Visit by Independent Experts

(Amman, August 15, 2007) – The Jordanian intelligence agency has agreed to allow independent human rights monitoring organizations to visit prisoners at its secretive detention facility for the first time, Human Rights Watch said today.  

The General Intelligence Department’s welcome decision to allow independent monitoring of its detention and interrogation operations should improve conditions for detainees. Ongoing and regular visits by competent and independent civil society organizations help ensure detainees are treated properly. Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

Also Available in   Related Material Suspicious Sweeps. The General Intelligence Department and Jordan’s Rule of Law Problem Report, September 19, 2006 Ghost Prisoners: Two Years in Secret CIA Detention Report, February 27, 2007 Jordan World Report Chapter, January 11, 2007 More of Human Rights Watch's work on Jordan Country Page Free Email Newsletter

On July 15, 2007, the agency granted representatives of Human Rights Watch and the Jordanian-based Adaleh Center and Human and Environment Observatory permission to access the facility in August and to speak to detainees there. The three organizations will carry out their visit during the second half of August and seek meetings with intelligence officials and military prosecutors from the State Security Court to discuss areas of concern.  
 
“The General Intelligence Department’s welcome decision to allow independent monitoring of its detention and interrogation operations should improve conditions for detainees,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Ongoing and regular visits by competent and independent civil society organizations help ensure detainees are treated properly.”  
 
In a September 2006 report, Human Rights Watch alleged that intelligence officers from the General Intelligence Department frequently detain suspects arbitrarily and mistreat them, including by prolonged solitary confinement. There are also persistent complaints about a lack of access to detainees by lawyers and family members. In a January 2007 report, the UN special rapporteur on torture found that torture is routine at the facility. Jordanian officials deny those allegations.  
 
Prior to and immediately after publication of its report, Human Rights Watch met with the leadership of the intelligence agency to discuss its findings. The agency’s director, Maj. Gen. Muhammad al-Dhahabi, at that time extended an invitation to Human Rights Watch to visit the facility. After a meeting in June, both sides agreed on the terms of such visits, which included the participation of Jordanian representatives. The intelligence agency agreed to the participation of two Jordanian participants.  
 
“This is a chance for independent Jordanian activists to help protect the human rights of their fellow citizens without fear of repercussions,” said Asem Raba’ba, president of the Adaleh Center, who has inspected ordinary Jordanian prisons. “It is a step ahead for civil society’s role in promoting human rights in Jordan.”  
 
The intelligence agency previously granted visits only to organizations affiliated with the government or on the basis of a formal agreement. In 2005, the government-controlled National Center for Human Rights conducted its first visit to the detention facility. Since then, the center has conducted three visits. Over the past year, members of Jordanian political parties and parliamentarians from the Public Freedoms Committee of the Lower House of Parliament also visited the center. The International Committee of the Red Cross conducts visits every two weeks, but in accordance with its general mandate, reports directly to the government on its findings and does not make them public.  
 
“Public reporting based on ongoing, regular, independent visits by local activists will give Jordan’s intelligence agency the opportunity to inspire confidence in its operations,” said Taleb al-Saqqaf, director of the Human and Environment Observatory, who also has experience in inspecting Jordanian prisons.

JNM, Amman-Jordan (Friday, July 27, 2007): Very early today, 4:00AM-5:00AM, the personal car of Osama Al-Ramini, Editor-in-Chief of the Weekly News publication, was set on fire and completely destroyed by undercover officers from the General Intelligence Department (GID) and supporters of King Abdullah II’s regime. In his weekly articles, Mr. Al-Ramini has been very critical of the anarchy and misery that is going on in Jordan these days. Also, he has been outspoken against the daily human rights abuses and severe corruption cases hitting high gear in the Hashemite Kingdom of Corruption (HKC) lead by the new dictator King Abdullah II. This is another evidence of so many that proves and shows to the civilized world how King Abdullah II, his corrupt regime and omnipresent secret police behave: Terrorizing society, intimidating journalists and opposition, and muzzling voices of freedom to keep holding their dirty and iron grip on absolute power and absurd tyranny in our homeland Jordan!  

JNM, Amman, Jordan (Thursday, July 5, 2007): Like King, Like Prime Minister: both lie to their own people and the international community. In a recent meeting with Human Rights Watch (http://hrw.org/doc/?t=mideast&c=jordan) delegation in Amman, the unelected Prime Minister of Jordan, Marrouf Bakhit, stated that "the current Parliament has delayed the political reforms process in Jordan," a flat lie and fabrication designed to mislead the international audience and human rights observers. Bakhit is a graduate of the Hashemite School of Corruption (HSC).

Parliament in Jordan is a rubber stamp and the majority of its members have been elected via illegitimate means, such as vote-buying (read the next news story below). King Abdullah II and his intelligence community have always been working very hard and behind closed doors to create Parliament that the great majority of its members are merely tribal servicemen rather than professional legislators. This way, the unaccountable, weak and unpopular king and his unelected government rule freely and absolutely, and enjoy no challenges whatsoever from the legislative branch.

The only way to achieve genuine democracy and bring freedom to the people of Jordan is for the king to step aside (constitutional monarchy) and allow the people of Jordan to elect their own Prime Minister, Parliament and Senate, freely and without direct or indirect interference by the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) and royal court.

Above news report of this meeting published by the weekly Al-Majd Newspaper on Monday, July 2, 2007:

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JNM, Amman-Jordan (Friday, June 22, 2007): The New Saddam Hussein in the Middle East: King Abdullah II of Jordan, Extends His Right Hand to People in Jordan for Kissing, a Ludicrous Ritual that Even his Father, the Late King Hussein, Refused to Do, But the Dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, Loved it!!! 

JNM, Amman-Jordan (Tuesday, June 5, 2007): A new solid evidence shows and proves how the regime of King Abdullah II violates the basic principals of human rights in Jordan: http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=324. This scandal represents the danger of forging trade agreements with this thuggish, dictatorial and undemocratic regime in Amman!

Previous reports and comments:

http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=5034

http://www.lotusorganics.com/articles/JordanGarmentWorkers.aspx

Amman, JNM (Sunday, April 15, 2007): The picture above speak volume! A Jordanian driver, Khalid Mahasnah, beat up brutally and disgracefully by 15 police officers on Saturday, April 7, 2007, just because he asked a police officer to move his car out so he can park his transportation bus in the designated, legal area. His injuries include: bleeding under the eyelid, several bruises all over his body, broken arm, knee injures and kicks in the stomach and face. This simply describes the daily barbarian fashion of King Abdullah II’s security forces.

Lieutenant General Muhammad Al-Eitan, Director of Public Security, spoke, on Saturday, April 14, 2007, against human rights organizations, asking the press and media to stand up for these organizations and claiming that, under the leadership of King Abdullah II, Jordan has a very clean human rights record!

The final thoughts will be left to the educated readership of this site to find out how the regime of King Abdullah II is deceiving and bluffing to the local audience and international community!

Amman, JNM (April 8, 2007): The slogan for this newly established student organization reads: “You Have Killed Us!” It is a serious slogan that is now being raised by every single college student in Jordan. The mission of the National Campaign for Students Rights (NCSR) is to raise awareness at the national and international arenas that King Abdullah II’s corrupt regime must stop terrorizing the people of Jordan. Organizers of this growing campaign stress the following:

1. Student unions, clubs and organizations must be left alone and out of the strict surveillance and monitoring schemes of King Abdullah II’s secret police, intelligence officers and undercover spies. On a daily basis, the king's Gestapo-like security agents enter college student classrooms and summon activists to the General Intelligence Department (GID) offices for interrogation that usually include, but not limited to, physical abuse, jail time and eventually lead to expelling those students from their institutions permanently.

2. Expelling and suspending students due to their peaceful and political activities on campuses at all colleges and universities must be stopped immediately. According to the new discipline system at the University of Jordan, “any student caught distributing a political statement on campus will be expelled immediately.” The irony is that the same system suspends a student for two consecutive semesters if he or she is caught using or distributing drugs at the University!

3. Exponential rise in tuition and fees and the dwindling support of the government towards state-supported institutions of higher learning (stands now at 23%) must be investigated fully and immediately. The current annual state tuition, which is expected to rise significantly in the coming weeks, for a full-time student is $6,200. This represents a disaster for college students in a country that almost 40 percent of its population is below the poverty line; 70 percent of its citizens are severely poor, and more than 20 percent of the labor force is unemployed.

4. The ongoing absurd issue of accusing students of instigating national divide, slanders and libels, and sectarianism against the state simply because they speak out against the current unjust system of governance on and off campuses must be addressed and resolved immediately.

King Abdullah’s political and economic reforms are not working: Jordan’s shuffle toward economic reforms is choreographed by the royal family elites, calling themselves new economic and political reformers, but clinging to power and self-interests. The tyrannical regime of King Abdullah II has been pumping out bribes, envelopes of hush money and expensive gifts to sustain the royal family members and their buddies’ enterprises. The royal family in Jordan has tolerated, encouraged, and participated in schemes to bleed factories of their assets, banks of their deposits, and citizens of their savings. No true Jordanian would disagree. Almost nothing in the Jordanian economy is on a firm footing. King Abdullah II, his wife Queen Rania and their “gay” business partner, Bassim Awadallah, are fully responsible for all of this mess.  

Ordinary Jordanian households at the bottom of the economic food chain were left to pay the bill. Inflation is on the rise. Taxes soared as the king tried to cover the huge deficits his own foolish policies had created. Jordanians are in sharper pain. Dozens of already broke enterprises are being pushed into bankruptcy, hundreds of already idled workers are losing their jobs, and trading companies left the country to go elsewhere in the region.

Our beloved country is going to rack and ruin. Many economic experts, local and foreign, continue to stress the fragility of Jordan’s economy, and the anxiety of its people. Adoption of quick and radical economic reforms is too much for the country to bear. Jordanians are firm believers in gradual economic reforms, but they also stand strongly against the current scope of regulation, the sheer size of the public sector, and a centralized, abusive and dictatorial political system that provide only ample opportunities for massive corruption and human rights abuses.

Constitutional changes that would shift executive power from the king to a Prime Minister, elected directly by the people, is also very vital and the hallmark of any true democratic and genuine free trade system. Full respect of Jordanians’ civil rights must be kept in mind. Physical abuses, suppressing dissenting voices and official harassment of political activists, students and journalists must be curbed once and forever.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78855.htm

After his recent imbalanced and foolish speech to Joint Session of U.S. Congress, where he sharply criticized the State of Israel and did NOT bother to mention or criticize terrorist organizations (the real threat to peace in the Middle East), such as Hamas and Hizb Allah (Party of God), King Abdullah II issued his absolute royal directives to the current corrupt, vote-buying and rubber-stamp Parliament to enact a law that forbids sending emails that carry criticism of the king and royal family, stressing such emails must be considered as a form of terrorism: The punishment is 3 years in prison!!!

Also, JNM just learned that King Abdullah II has issued his directives to the General Intelligence Directorate to find ways of implicating or assassinating members of JNM leadership in Jordan and abroad!!!

Further, in a meeting held on Monday, March 12, 2007, at the royal court, King Abdullah II told his top appointed and corrupt cohorts and henchmen that after his recent stumpy speech at the US Congress, Jordan’s interest are now being threatened by pro-Israeli lobbyists in Washington, DC.  

More information and analysis on these important developments are coming up soon!

Please stay tuned…..