Diplomatic eyes are on Amman, Jordan in the wake of a shooting, the gunning down of a USAID official that increasingly looks like a political assassination.
A local terrorist group is claiming responsibility for the killing, and that an arrest has been made. Anti-American sentiment seems on the rise there as the U.S. prepares for war against next-door neighbor Iraq. In the 1990 Gulf War, Jordan’s beloved King Hussein sided with Saddam Hussein. This time around his son, King Abdullah, is allied with President Bush, though his subjects are deeply divided.
The bond between the two countries is tricky: America remains staunchly Pro-Israel, while more than half the people who live in Jordan are Palestinians.
Guests:
Rami Khouri, Analyst for the International Crisis Group, former Editor-in-Chief of the Jordan Times
Fouad Ajami, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies, and author of The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation’s Odyssey
and Nicolas Pelham, reporter for the Christian Science Monitor – based in Amman.