Jordan Watch : Kagan Statement: Have we been Fooled?

In my last post, I wrote about a statement by John McCain's political advisor of foreign Affairs (Robert Kagan) during a "lecture" he is supposed to have given in New York University saying that Jordan should be the alternative country for the Palestinians. The source of the news was Ammon News portal, a Jordanian tabliod news that is very popular. I wrote about the same issue in my daily column as Addustour (text in my Arabic blog) and almsot every single writer, political party, parliamentarian and politician in Jordan have denounced the statements.

Today, some emerging information may suggest that we have been fooled by an undignified act by the Ammon news agency, fabricating the whole story.

Ammon today published that the original source of the news is a blog called "fellka Israel" which is well known for fabricated news against Jordan. This is where the source, which is the only one on the web is published. It is interesting to read one of the principles of this blog goes as "Destroying the kingdom of Jordan peacefully and bringing back its land to its normal situation as a part of great Palestine"!

There is absolutely no mentioning of any lecture in English on the web. Not even an announcement about the lecture in the university. Indeed, when you write (Robert Kagan Jordan) on Google, my previous post tops the list! The New York University website does not mention any lecture for Robert Kagan in its events calendar.

During the last three days our Foreign Ministry (the most ineffective ministry in the government, and that record is really needs some beating!) did not mention anything. Assuming that there was a creative mechanism for monitoring such dangerous developments the embassy should have

1- contacted Mccain and Kagan for an explanation

2- Contacted the university where the lecture was given.

3- Locating any person that was present in the lecture to confirm or deny the reports.

4- Reaching a reality conclusion and stating it to the people of Jordan and local, regional and international media.

None of this happened. Only after three days Petra Agency published a news item from the Jordanian Media office in our embassy refuting the statement by Kagan, based on Kagan's opinion himslef. Furthermore Jordan Times has published a more detailed response today.

Unless someone that was present in the lecture with a audio-visual recording of the statement show up, I am certain we were all fooled by Amman's lack of credibility. The most annoying thing is that they have not even apologised to the millions they have fooled. This is a big blow to the credibility of electronic press in Jordan and I am afraid it will give more reasons to the governemnt to crack down on them with legislative tools in the near future!

I stand apologizing for all the people I have also contributed to fooling without making sure of the credibility of sources! However, I think the great wave of refusal by the whole Jordanian society was very encouraging and proves that this Jordanian Option, still much alive despite that it has been fabricated in this particular case, is refused by all Jordanians.