The following insights surrounding the intrigue that brought Hussein's eldest son Abdullah to the throne in Amman come in part from information made available to MER from persons in Europe where both the media and many individuals are more mature and seasoned than is the case in the US. Plus, at the end, a few historical insights about Abdullah's namesake who was the original British, and then Zionist, agent, facilitating the division of historic Palestine into its fractured and tortured modern-day configuration:

In the last months of King Hussein's life, when it was clear that he had only a few months to live, he had been "kidnapped" by the USA in the form of a month-long stay at an American clinic (Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota). This happened in the form of "loving care" bestowed on him by his American wife Liza Halaby who in Jordan had the reputation of being "the wife sent by the CIA". Liza Halaby, daughter of businessman Najeeb Halaby who once headed Pan American Airlines and himself is believed to have had close connections to the US government as well as a number of the Arab "client regimes", was introduced to King Hussein by Ali Ghandour, Chairman of the Jordanian Alia Airlines, and another highly suspect manipulator and fixer who long ago chose to work with the Jordanian Muhabarat and against Palestinian interests. Ghandour's son, Fadi, now heads up Aramex, an international shipping company,which follows in similar traditions.

In fact, during the last months of King Husseins life, when he had been practically isolated in the USA clinic with only his wife having regular access to him, a staff of CIA-people, together with Jordan's head of the Secret Service, carried out what was in effect a conspiracy against the designed Crown Prince, Hussein's brother Hassan, who for most of his lifetime was the designated successor to Hussein.

At first the goal was to get the dying Hussein to revise the succession to the crown and replace Hassan with the eldest son of Liza Halaby, Hamzeh -- who is now Crown Prince to Abdullah as a part of the deal that was eventually made. Many of the Jordanians however were worried about attempting to pass the crown immediately to Hamzeh, then only 19 years old, primarily because this would have automatically brought his mother - hated and mistrusted by so many in Jordan - too much into the limelight. Therefore, in the end, and just days before the King's death, the CIA, Liza Halaby (and her family circle) and the top Jordanian military and intelligence heads reached the decision to put Hussein's oldest son, Abdullah, on the Throne, with Hamzeh at his side as Crown Prince. His main credentials were that he could be more easily politically manipulated than Hassan, was more british than arab and more military than civilian. and could this would leave Hamzeh waiting in the wings to be called on if and when needed.

The order of the day then went out was to quickly build up the image of Abdullah, as well as Liza Halaby, using all the western public relations means available, especially CNN where Larry King's program became one of the chosen vehicles among others. In this whole conspiracy the most important thing was to get rid of Prince Hassan's succession to the crown as he was deemed to be much too linked to the Jordanian-Palestinian business middle class and their perspectives. This was also thought to be desireable since the Israeli-Jordanian "peace-agreement" and the subsequent Jordanian-USA-trade agreements do not put emphasis on independent development of the Jordanian economy but rather provide for it's subordination to the business interests of foreign investors, especially Israelis. As for the Americans the geostrategical asset represented by Jordan was and remains the main thing of importance for them; as is also the case with Turkey; especially with both Iraq and Syria not yet in American orbit. Much of these underlying realities have been quietly reported and discussed in European business newspapers; but rarely in such bold and historical terms.

In Israel Shahak's book, "Open Secrets" (Pluto Press, 1997)...King Abdullah "was recruited as a spy for the Zionist movement in the early 1920s, soon after being appointed 'Emir of Trans-Jordan' by the British' (p 80)."

Andrew and Leslie Cockburn in their book, "Dangerous Liaisons" (Stoddart 1991), p. 34: "During the War of Independence and the subsequent war with neighboring Arab countries, Shiloah [Ben Gurion's chief intelligence advisor-H.K.] had played a key role in one of the least known but most important Israeli covert operations of the time. Despite the traditional perception that all Arab countries united to crush Israel at birth, King Abdullah of Jordan was by no means unalterably opposed to the Jewish State. In fact, secret negotiation with the King, involving Shiloah, Moshe Dayan, and others in Ben-Gurion's inner circle,,, resulted in a secret agreement, lubricated by bribes, that Abdullah would collude with Israel in order to ensure that the independent Palestinian state envisaged by the United Nation would never come into being. Instead, with Israeli assent and encouragement, Abdullah seized Arab Palestine in defiance of his fellow Arab rulers and ruled it as the West Bank."

And we have commented before about the remarkably insightful book COLLUSION ACROSS THE JORDAN by Professor Avi Shlaim at Oxford University; even though the Hashemite regime managed to get this title of the first edition changed to something far more benign for all subsequent editions, after a carefully orchestrated campaign to woe the author with an all-expenses paid visit to the Kingdom for him and family just as they became aware that the first edition of the book could not be prevented from coming off the presses.

Mid-East Realities

www.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/4/182.htm