US embassy cable - 04AMMAN4115

S E C R E T AMMAN 004115 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/20/2014 
TAGS: ASEC, PTER, JO 
SUBJECT: NEW (BOGUS) ALLEGATIONS SURFACE ABOUT FOLEY 
ASSASSINATION 
 
REF: A. FBIS GMP20040505000090 
     B. AMMAN 2645 
     C. FBIS GMP20021029000070 
     D. FBIS GMP20010812000027 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Edward W. Gnehm for reasons 1.5 (b)(d) 
 
1.  (C)  Jordanian security contacts have dismissed a renewed 
claim of responsibility for the October 2002 assassination of 
USAID official Lawrence Foley, and say they are confident 
that the right people have been convicted for the crime.  The 
Islamic Action Front (IAF)-affiliated newspaper al-Sabil on 
May 4 reported it had received a communiqu in the name of 
"Shurafa al-Urdun" (the Nobles of Jordan), in addition to two 
bullet casings that the senders claimed matched the weapons 
that killed Foley and Yitzak Snir, an Israeli businessman who 
was gunned down in the same Amman neighborhood in August 
2001.  The communiqu claimed that this new "evidence" proved 
that the men convicted on April 6 by Jordan's state security 
court for Foley's assassination were in fact innocent of the 
crime.  According to al-Sabil, Hussein Majali, the President 
of the Jordanian Bar Association who is the principal defense 
attorney for the Foley assassins, received a similar package 
in the mail (refs a and b). 
 
2.  (S/NF)  The "Nobles of Jordan" issued claims immediately 
after the Foley and Snir shootings (refs c and d), but until 
now, security services cannot confirm the group's existence. 
 Moreover, ORCA security contacts report that the bullet 
casings sent to the paper do not match the ballistics from 
the crime scene.  They remain confident that they have 
accurately identified and built a solid case against the 
perpetrators in Foley's killing, and dismiss the communiqu 
as a feeble attempt by as yet unidentified individuals to 
exonerate the criminals responsible for the assassination. 
 
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COMMENT 
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3.  (C)  It is possible that unknown supporters of the 
defendants (who still maintain their innocence) concocted 
this story in an effort to cast doubt on the April 6 verdicts 
in advance of the groups' upcoming appeal in the Court of 
Cassation.  The "group" may have chosen to send the 
"evidence" to al-Sabil (the highest circulation weekly in 
Jordan) because as the publication of Jordan's leading 
opposition group, it was more likely than other 
pro-government newspapers to publish the story.  No other 
Jordanian newspapers reported the story. 
 
Visit Embassy Amman's classified web site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman or access the site 
through the State Department's SIPRNET home page. 
GNEHM