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Posted on 09/30/2002 12:12:31 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
The United States has warned that Al Qaida may be planning to kidnap Americans in Jordan.
U.S. officials said the U.S. embassy in Amman issued the warning after receiving information that Al Qaida was plotting abductions of Americans in the Hashemite kingdom. They said available information suggests Al Qaida formulated the plans in August.
On Sept. 26, the U.S. embassy issued what officials termed a "warden message" to the American community in Jordan, Middle East Newsline reported.
The message said the U.S. government had received uncorroborated information that reported a plot being considered by an Al Qaida operative to kidnap U.S. citizens in Jordan.
Al Qaida has attempted to attack U.S. and Israeli interests in Jordan on several occasions. The largest plot was in early 2000 when Al Qaida had hired Palestinians to blow up bridges that connect Israel and Jordan where U.S. Christians were arriving for millennium celebrations.
Jordanian officials have reported the arrest of several suspected Al Qaida insurgents over the last few weeks. The officials said one of those arrested was a U.S. national who returned from Afghanistan recently. "There's no further information available to determine the credibility of this threat or any indications of the timing," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Friday. "But they felt it was necessary and appropriate to tell Americans resident in Jordan who might be subject to this about it, just in case it turned out to be real." Boucher said the decision to issue the alert was made by the U.S. embassy in Amman.
"I think the standard has always been specific, credible, and cannot be countered," Boucher said. "But we have also tried to be prudent in making available information where we could, so that people, particularly who live in places where there may be dangers from time to time, so that they have the best sense — as much information as they can."
The plot included a plan to blow up the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman, Jordan, which is frequented by American tourists, and the infiltration of suspected Algerian terrorists from Canada, the officials said.
U.S. authorities have linked Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile who headed the al-Qaida network from sanctuary in Afghanistan, to the suicide bombing of the Cole while it was refueling in the Gulf of Aden.
Three Algerians were convicted of planning the bombing of the Los Angeles airport during the Millennium celebration.
The plot was foiled when its mastermind, Ahmed Ressam, was arrested in Washington state in December 1999 while trying to enter from Canada in a car with a trunkful of explosives. Ressam had been trained in terrorist camps financed by bin Laden, according to investigators.
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