Suspicious timing
11/4/08
It is hard to figure why exactly Human Rights Watch (HRW) chose to submit its report entitled “Double Jeopardy: CIA Renditions to Jordan” now. The report covers the period between 2001 and 2004. Surely HRW has more up-to-date reports on the human rights situation in the country; dwelling on past accusations which were thoroughly investigated at the time is odd, to say the least. Amnesty International submitted a similar report on the subject in 2006, alleging that Jordan was a “central hub” of secret detention facilities serving in past the so-called US rendition programme. There were repeated allegations during that period that Jordan harbours secret jails to interrogate and incarcerate people accused of committing acts of terrorism. Some human rights NGOs, both local and international, made these charges only to be proven wrong upon closer scrutiny. The National Centre for Human Rights, a well-respected independent human rights watchdog in the country, did go to a great extent to investigate the charges; it discovered there were no secret detention facilities but premises serving national or foreign purposes.