Police detain Muslim militants in sweep after terror attacks in U.S.

By JAMAL HALABY
Associated Press Writer

AMMAN, Jordan – Authorities in Jordan have arrested about a half-dozen Muslim militants in a second sweep since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, officials said Monday.

The detained include Issam Barqawi, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent acquitted in September 2000 of what prosecutors had called a failed terror plot linked to Osama bin Laden.

Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five or six militants were being questioned by military prosecutor Lt. Col. Mahmoud Obeidat. They declined to give a reason for the late Sunday arrests or say if the men were believed to belong to a particular group.

Barqawi, also known as Abu-Mohammad al-Maqdessi, was one of six men acquitted of conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets during New Year's 2000 celebrations in Jordan.

Obeidat, the military prosecutor, blamed that plot on bin Laden – the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 carnage.

But Jordan's military court said it found no evidence to link the terror plot to bin Laden. The court freed Barqawi and five other men for lack of evidence, but convicted 22 other members of an alleged terror ring.

A former member of Jaish Mohammad, or Mohammad's Army – a small Jordanian group dismantled in 1995, Barqawi was once sentenced to life in prison for seeking to topple the late King Hussein. He was pardoned by Hussein's heir, King Abdullah II, in 1999.

On Friday, Jordanian police detained 13 Palestinian activists for allegedly taking part in an unauthorized protest. Officials confirmed the arrests, but refused to give details.

The arrests come amid heightened security in Jordan following the attacks in New York and Washington. Jordan, a key Arab ally to the United States, is a moderate Arab country which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

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