US embassy cable - 04AMMAN7530

UNCLAS AMMAN 007530 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR, IZ, JO 
SUBJECT: JORDANIAN DAILY ERRONEOUSLY LINKS USAID WITH 
NARCOTICS SMUGGLING; PROTEST REGISTERED 
 
REF: AMMAN 6576 
 
1.  (U)  The new Jordanian daily newspaper Al Ghad has 
acknowledged its editing staff erred on September 7 by 
running a photo of a crate bearing the USAID logo and a 
supposed pile of illegal narcotics alongside a lengthy 
article about drug smuggling operations between Iraq and 
Jordan.  The black and white photo carried the caption 
"seized drugs," but the paper's editor-in-chief admitted to 
IO that the picture did not have any relation to the story 
and was in fact a file photo from the paper's archives.  The 
editor apologized for the error, which he insists was 
inadvertent.  Meanwhile, an official with the GOJ 
Anti-Narcotics Unit told us that he doubted the materials 
shown in the photo were narcotics in any case.  As best as 
post can determine, the grain photo actually portrays a crate 
of peanuts being emptied.  The editor promised to acknowledge 
the error in print, and Charge has written a letter to the 
editor for publication that strongly protests the error. 
 
2.  (U)  Comment:  We are not convinced this was an innocent 
mistake.  The photo may reinforce one of the article's 
underlying messages, which is that drug smuggling was not an 
issue for Jordan until the U.S. invasions of Iraq and 
Afghanistan. 
 
3.  (U)  Baghdad minimize considered. 
HALE