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Jordan arrests "cyber-Islamist" who threatened to attack intelligence HQ (AFP)11 January 2005 AMMAN - Jordanian authorities arrested last month an 18-year-old man who allegedly used the Internet to threaten attacks on the intelligence department, a pro-government newspaper reported on Tuesday. Murad al-Assaydeh, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, was indicted by the military prosecutor on one count of "threatening to use violence aimed at undermining general security" pending his trial, Al-Rai said. Assaydeh travelled twice to the West Bank since August 2003 where he linked up with a radical Islamist identified as Abu Jamil who indoctrinated him "on the need to fight Arab regimes", Al-Rai said, quoting the charge sheet. "Abu Jamil told the defendant that one of the current methods of the jihad (holy war) is the electronic jihad," the report said, adding that Assaydeh was encouraged to send electronic mail to his targets. Back in Jordan the young man familiarised himself with Islamist websites and began visiting cyber-cafes, the report said. In November 2004 he sent off an email to the intelligence department entitled "Awbash" or villains in Arabic, in which he threatened "terrorist attacks". "You should know that with the Grace of God we have managed to penetrate you and you will soon see black days," one of the messages read, according to excerpts of the charge sheet. Assaydeh allegedly said in the message that "rockets" were aimed at the intelligence department, adding that the building was "booby-trapped", the report added. Jordanian fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head for deadly attacks in Iraq, has been accused of plotting a foiled chemical bombing of Jordan's intelligence headquarters. His trial opened in December at the state security court.
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