“The war on terror” is all about keeping our bastards on a short leash in an attempt to get them to abuse/kill/detain the pre-determined enemy. So simple and yet so costly:
In the bleak and seemingly endless desert expanse that unfolds east of Jordan’s capital city, Amman, lies a crucial cog in the ambitious regional designs of the US and its allies in the Middle East.
Commonly known by its acronym JIPTC, the Jordan International Police Training Center is ground-zero for the transformation of US-allied security forces not only for the Kingdom of Jordan, but also for Iraq, Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Under the regime of King Abdullah II, this country of six million strategically located at the heart of the Middle East and bordered by Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the West Bank, has developed itself as something of a “Green Zone” in a tumultuous region.
As General Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau in the US said during a joint training mission and tour of Jordan late last month, the country has become “the lynchpin” in the efforts to create a “peaceful central command region.”
JIPTC is staffed mostly by Jordanians, but the trainers are military and police officers from more than a dozen countries — primarily Canada, the United Kingdom and the US — as well as private contractors, such as DynCorp.
The relatively unassuming base, surrounded by blast walls and concertina wire, is comprised predominantly of temporary portable buildings spread out across a five square kilometer facility. The sprawling desert environment is well suited for its multiple shooting ranges for a program that planners say is three-quarters hands-on training, and only one-quarter classroom instruction.
Since graduating its first class in November 2003, JIPTC has trained more than 50,000 police officers bound for Iraq. More recently, the academy has trained four battalions of the Palestinian security forces, deployed under the auspices of United States security coordinator, Gen. Keith Dayton, to back the “caretaker” government of Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad in the West Bank.
With little fanfare, JIPTC has Jordan’s regime playing a frontline role in the US project to transform the Middle East.
“Jordan continues to be a key partner and to play a positive role in the region,” General David Petraeus, the US commander responsible for the region told a Senate Armed Service Committee meeting in April. “Jordan participates in many regional security initiatives and has placed itself at the forefront of police and military training for regional security forces.”