09-May-22: No more excuses, Jordan [Guest Post]

Soldiers of Jordan Armed Forces and U.S. military service members
salute during playing of the national anthems at dedication ceremony

for expanded Jordan Armed Forces Joint Training Center
October 10, 2018 [Image Source]

[This guest post is authored by Bennett Ruda. His background is below.] 

Back in June 2020, it seemed as if the US had finally turned the corner on the issue of extraditing an Arab terrorist to the US for the murder of a US citizen.

Ahlam Tamimi is the confessed mastermind of the 2001 Sbarro massacre that killed 15 Israelis, including Malki Roth, who was also an American citizen. 

Jordan had a 1995 extradition treaty with the USwhich had already been honored by Jordan to bring Eyad Ismoil, a Jordanian citizen who assisted in the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, back to the US. 

But in the case of Tamimi, the Jordanian courts claimed the treaty had not been ratified by the parliament and refused to hand her over. This despite the fact that, in 2017, a criminal complaint was unsealed against Tamimi in the US against Tamimi for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against US nationals. 

But in 2020, it seemed that things were going to change.

During his confirmation hearing to be US ambassador to Jordan, Henry T. Wooster told Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) that the US would apply pressure on Jordan to extradite Tamimi:

The United States has multiple options and different types of leverage to secure Ahlam Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi’s extradition. We will continue to engage Jordanian officials at all levels not only on this issue, but also on the extradition treaty more broadly. US generosity to Jordan in Foreign Military Financing as well as economic support and other assistance is carefully calibrated to protect and advance the range of U.S. interests in Jordan and in the region.

Wooster added:

If confirmed, I would explore all options to bring Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi to justice, secure her extradition and address the broader issues associated with the extradition treaty.

This was the day before Jordan's King Abdullah II was scheduled to speak to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee via video.

Whatever was said during that meeting with the Jordanian ruler, nothing was done afterward to follow up on the promise to pressure Jordan to hand over the terrorist.

* * *

It is not as if the US does not have leverage. According to the US State Department website, the US is Jordan's largest provider of assistance, providing more than $1.61 billion in 2021 alone.

After lengthy negotiations, the US and Jordan signed a new defense agreement in January 2021, allowing US forces free entry into Jordan, including both aircraft and vehicles.

Islamist member of Jordanian parliament Saleh al-Armuti

And once again, as in the case of Jordan's extradition treaty with the US, the agreement was signed and approved without going through the Jordanian parliament:

Islamist lawmaker Saleh al-Armuti decried the lack of parliamentary oversight and called on the government to cancel the accord, claiming it “violates the constitution and affects Jordan’s sovereignty.” But [Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman] Safadi pushed back, saying the agreement “in no way affects Jordan’s sovereignty, and everything it contains is subject to Jordanian law and is compatible with international law.” [emphasis added] [Source: Al-Arabiya, March 21, 2021]

There is no indication the Jordanian courts are going to try to claim this agreement is invalid.

* * *

Clearly, Jordan needs the US both militarily and economically.

At a time when the US is struggling in the Middle East in competition with both Russia and China, a recent poll finds that the US has the inside track when it comes to Jordan.

According to the poll by David Pollock of the Washington Institute:

A modestly larger proportion of Jordan’s public says good relations with the United States are either very (18%) or somewhat (34%) important. This is roughly on a par with China, as has been the case in other recent polls. But the United States has a clear advantage over either Russia or China, or any other foreign nation, in several key subcategories. A plurality (43%) pick the United States as “the country that can best help protect us against our foreign enemies.“ A smaller plurality also see the United States as the outside power that “can best promote human rights and democracy in our country” (37%). [emphasis added]

Jordan's trust in the US is in sharp contrast with the Arab states in the Gulf who see themselves as abandoned by the US -- and facing the Iranian threat alone, with the help of Israel.

On the one hand, Jordan does not perceive Iran as a threat on the level that the Gulf Arab states do. According to the poll, only 17% of Jordanians responded that good ties with Iran were "somewhat important" and they are evenly split, at 47%, as to whether "a renewed nuclear deal with Iran" is good or bad for the area.

Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Kadhimi (R), Egyptian Pres Al-Sisi (L) and King

Abdullah II of Jordan (C) attend a Tripartite Summit in Baghdad, Iraq

June 27, 2021 [Source: Iraqi Prime Ministry Press Office/Anadolu Agency]

And just last year King Abdullah II met with Egyptian president Sisi and Iraqi Prime Minister Kadhimi to announce an agreement for transporting Iraqi oil via pipelines from Iraq to Jordan to Eqypt, where it will be taken to Europe via the Mediterranean.

But maybe Jordan is not that sanguine about Iran. It is making a point of forging ties with Iran, just as Saudi Arabia has opened up to the idea of talks with Tehran.

Writing for the BESA Center, Dr. Edy Cohen notes:

Because Iraq is a puppet state under Iran’s control, this agreement represents King Abdullah’s “coming out of the closet” with the Islamic Republic. Exporting Iraqi oil through Jordan to Europe is simply exporting oil controlled by Iran, which rules Iraq through its network of Shiite militias and controls the country’s resources.

The day after the announcement, Jordanian state media began promoting full financial cooperation with Iran.

In addition, there is talk of allowing up to one million Iranian religious tourists to visit the village of Kerak to visit the shrine of Jaffar Ibn Abu Taleb and according to the Jordanian press, Iran has proposed building an airport in Kerak.

Nevertheless, a Jordanian TV broadcast at the time warned of the dangers of allowing Iranians into the country as tourists.

Harold Rhode, a longtime former adviser on Islamic affairs in the Defense Department, agrees:

Rhode draws attention to how Tehran became the dominant force in both Lebanon and Syria. It seems to be using the same strategy to take over Jordan. In doing so, “Iran is attempting to surround Israel and Saudi Arabia further.”

At a time when the US is clearly making a point of supporting Jordan as an ally (unlike the Gulf Arabs), King Abdullah is playing with fire. 

By contrast, Jordan is anything but friendly with Israel, despite their peace treaty. In his poll, Pollock found that

Israel remains even more unpopular than Iran among Jordanians today. A mere 10 percent or so, young and old alike, have even a “somewhat” favorable opinion about the late 2020 Abraham Accords between Israel and four other Arab states (the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan). And the same very low percentage of Jordanians agree, a quarter-century after their own formal peace with Israel, that “people who want to have business or sports contact with Israelis should be allowed to do so.” 

* * *

The FBI wants Ahlam Tamimi but Jordan says no

But this is not an issue between Jordan and Israel. It is between Jordan and the US. 

While the US government has not publicly explained its reticence to enforce the treaty, the excuse offered by some is the concern that forcing the issue is too controversial, especially among those Jordanians with Palestinian roots. 

According to this theory, due to the popular support of Tamimi in Jordan, extraditing her to the US to face justice could lead to the fall of the kingdom.

The US consistently justifies aid to Jordan by claiming that Amman is a US ally in the Middle East. If that is true, then at the very least the US should be able to publicly address the issue of Tamimi instead of avoiding and ignoring it. 

In the fight against terror, the US has the opportunity to get a win. As an ally, Jordan should be willing to prove itself.

* * *

Our thanks to guest blogger Bennett Ruda who has blogged as Daled Amos since November 2003. His posts also appear on the Elder of Ziyon site as well as The Jewish Press. Bennett has been involved for some years in helping Frimet and Arnold Roth analyze and respond to government and other authorities in the context of the efforts underway to see Sbarro massacre monster Ahlam Tamimi brought to US justice.

05-Jan-18: In Jordan, the FBI fugitive Ahlam Tamimi pays tribute to her slapping/taunting/kicking Tamimi cousin

Last weekend's Jordanian "Festival" in homage to Ahed "Shirley
Temper" Tamimi [Image Source]

Some months ago, an Australian TV journalist contacted us about doing an interview after the Jordanians rejected a US request to extradite our daughter's killer.

The felon, a Jordanian woman called Ahlam Tamimi, murdered 15 innocent Israeli civilians, most of them children, in the bombing of Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria in the summer of 2001. She did this on behalf of Hamas as its first-ever female jihadist. Our daughter Malki, 15, was one of the people she killed.

In 2011, as part of the Shalit Deal, she was set free and returned to Jordan where her family lives and where she was born, raised and educated.

Two of Jordan's courts, in strange decisions several months apart (the first in September 2016; the second in March 2017) ruled that there are problems with Jordan's 1995 extradition treaty with the United States. As a result, they decided, she doesn't have to be extradited and the US treaty request can be refused. The US doesn't agree:

• The State Department's official listing of valid treaties ["United States Department of State | Treaties in Force | A List of Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States in Force on January 1, 2017" at page 240] includes the one with Jordan, stating that it "entered into force July 29, 1995". No suggestion that the US sees any legal problems with it.
• The Department of Justice have confirmed to us that the treaty is valid and in effect.
• The FBI are actively pursuing the Jordanian woman. (More about that later.)

The Australian guy arranged for some inquiries to be made in Jordan and then got back to us saying his producers had decided not to interview us. Why? Nothing to do with us, he said, but because

1. it turned out Tamimi's spoken English isn't very good - somehow leading to the conclusion that if she doesn't speak well enough, why bother hearing what the parents of one of her victims (meaning the two of us) have to say. Or more sharply: Our audience is more interested in hearing what the murderer says about the extradition story than what any of her victims think; and 
2. Tamimi had been told by Jordan's government to lower her profile for a while. In simpler terms (our words) if Jordan was going to stick its finger in the eye of its American strategic ally, protector and benefactor (as it has and as it continues to do), it would be prudent not to publicly flaunt the gift of freedom that King Abdullah has given her. It's good to know that though it likes to call itself a constitutional monarchy, Jordan operates more like an absolute monarchy. If King Abdullah wanted Tamimi extradited, she would be have been shipped to Washington the same morning.

Last weekend, in response to the intense media attention on Ahed "Shirley Temper" Tamimi, the Jordanian media reported on a public event that took place in Amman. (For some excellent background, see "Why Is No One Talking About Ahed Tamimi’s Call For Stabbings?" in Forward, January 4, 2018). Some prominent Jordanian speakers were in the line-up which was heard by an audience filled with elderly men. Also: some women.

What caught our eye is that one of the speakers was Ahlam Tamimi, the mass-murdering fugitive jihadist in the flesh.

She appears to have decided to bring the brief keep-your-head-down phase of her career to an end in order to do the Tamimi thing. And although her extradition was blocked by a Jordanian court ruling on extremely technical grounds, no voices in Jordan that we know of have called for Jordan to do something against her. She's a national treasure. Murderer, maybe; but she murdered Jews, so where's the problem? (We have written about this several times, notably including "21-Mar-17: Tamimi extradition: When it's claimed that something is illegal in Jordan..." and "13-Jun-17: The hunt for our daughter's killer: today's radio interview".)

If anyone has a problem with our way of telling it, let them point us to Jordanian voices calling publicly for an end to the shame and embarrassment of Jordan openly harboring a confessed murderer of children who's on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. There aren't any.

Our child's murderer, Ahlam Tamimi, speaking at last weekend's
Amman tribute to various things and her cousin Shirley Temper
[Image Source: Video Screenshot]

Last weekend's event was 'modestly' titled “The Festival for the Support of the Jerusalem Holy Sites and the Palestinian People and Declaration of Solidarity with Ahed Tamimi”. There's video coverage of the event and the speeches (all in Arabic) on YouTube (Ahlam Tamimi starts at about the 4 minute mark).

There are multiple Arabic newspaper reports in Al-Rai, JO24, AmmanNet and others. (We archived the Al-Rai version here; that's important if someone decides to take the source articles down for some reason.)
We haven't found any English-language reports from any Arabic source yet. Some might see that as significant. 

What Tamimi said to the crowd is predictable:

• "The Hashemite leadership stood by the holy Islamic sites, and Prince Ali supported Ahed Tamimi with his words. (Prince Ali bin Hussein is the half-brother of Jordan's King Abdullah II. Incidentally, he's also the husband of Princess Rym Ali, the founder of the Jordan Media Institute - see "20-Jan-18: Shutting down media critics in Jordan isn't quite the challenge it might seem to be".)
• "The Zionist Project wishes to remove the Hashemite supervision of the Aqsa Mosque, and the response should be to terminate all the agreements and treaties with the Zionist enemy.
• "Jordan should use its influence to  confront the American-Zionist plans in all areas."
• "Ahed Tamimi is experiencing loneliness and sorrow in the Zionist prisons, which Ahlam has experienced herself, in addition to the numerous female prisoners and children prisoners into whose cause Ahed has breathed new life.

The thing we want to emphasize is this. Very prominent Jordanians, members of the country's political elite, have no problem sharing a public platform with a confessed killer of Israeli children who is also an FBI fugitive and the subject of American efforts to have her extradited to the US to face serious federal charges. Can you imagine this happening anywhere else? She's a wanted criminal but not in Jordan where she's a hero.

And Jordan, for those wondering, has given no sign it intends to prosecute Ahlam Tamimi in its own courts; in other places, that's the kind of thing that occasionally does happen when an extradition request is rebuffed on narrow technical or constitutional grounds. But not Jordan, which for all practical purposes is the largest and most powerful of the three Palestinian Arab countries, the other two being the Hamas entity and the Fatah/PLO/PA entity. (Again, a talking point for another time.)

Enthusiastic backers of the sixteen year-old Nabi Saleh Tamimi girl
at last weekend's Amman gathering [Image Source: Video Screenshot]

So what did those Jordanian dignitaries on the platform who had no problem sharing the limelight with the self-admitted, mass-murdering, Jew-hating fugitive from justice say?:

• Taher al-Masri, a Palestinian Arab who served briefly as prime minister of Jordan said Arab claims to Jerusalem and Palestine concern not only the Palestinians but every Arab, every Muslim and every free person in the world. He called on the Arabs to support "our people in Palestine" and come to "the defense of the Islamic faith that is the basis of the concepts of our societies". Ahed Tamimi, the blonde girl from Nabi Saleh, "represents the spirit of Palestine". It is "no longer possible for us to remain silent on what is happening to Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause." And some anger directed at America: "The transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem is the second stage of the Zionist project, America's recognition of Greater Jerusalem as the capital of "Israel" (quote marks are in the source text) meaning that Jerusalem is no longer part of the occupied Palestinian territories". He gave voice to a favourite Palestinian Arab theme - a Jewish Temple is going to be be constructed over the ruins of what he called "the Al-Aqsa Mosque". 
• Saleh Armouti, a member of Jordan's parliament (we quoted him here last year) and one of Jordan's most prominent and noisy Islamists: "The American assistance and aid can go to hell if it will cost us our dignity." He's a man who's bothered by what he calls "shameful Arab silence" in the face of attempts to divide Palestine and Jerusalem which "are one and we do not accept any division between the two". Armouti is enraged by the "occupation" of what he called West Jerusalem which makes up 80 percent of Jerusalem. And another serve to America which, he said, "is a partner in the aggression against the Arab and Islamic nation. It must be boycotted and Trump should be tried before the International Criminal Court". 
• Khamis Attia, deputy speaker of Jordan's lower house of parliament (and was the prime mover in an effort to get energy-starved Jordan to cancel its gas-importing deal with Israel in 2014): Jordanian anger over Trump's Jerusalem decision, he said, is great and the position of His Majesty the King on Al-Aqsa Mosque and on the Trump decision is honorable. 
• Rula al-Hroub, a prominent former MP and (we're fairly sure) also a Palestinian: Praised King Abdullah "and the Hashemite leadership" on their resistance to the Trump decision. Wants the Oslo Agreements "to be brought down". "Palestine is Arab Muslim from the river to the sea and no one has the right to relinquish it, or any part of it."

For those new to Ahlam Tamimi's history: She was an undergrad student of journalism at the time she carried out the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria massacre. She was a part-time news-presenter at a Palestinian Arab TV station in Ramallah. She has described for the record how she rushed from the scene of the terror attack in the center of Israel's capital, having left the human bomb behind to explode a few minutes after her safe departure. She rode a bus back to the other side of the Green Line where, a few hours later in front of the cameras, she reported in straight-faced fashion on the massacre she herself had executed with her own two hands. She of course did not reveal her role as mastermind of that day's killings though she has said she wishes she could have revealed all to the exultant people in the cab:

"Afterwards, when I took the bus, the Palestinians around Damascus Gate [in Jerusalem] were all smiling. You could sense that everybody was happy. When I got on the bus, nobody knew that it was me who had led [the suicide bomber to the target]... They didn't even know one another, yet they were exchanging greetings... While I was on the bus and everybody was congratulating one another, they said on the radio that there had been a martyrdom attack at the Sbarro restaurant and that three people were killed. I admit that I was a bit disappointed because I had hoped for a larger toll. Yet when they said 'three dead,' I said: 'Allah be praised.'" ...Two minutes later, they said on the radio that the number had increased to five. I wanted to hide my smile, but I just couldn't. Allah be praised, it was great. As the number of dead kept increasing, the passengers were applauding. They didn't even know that I was among them. On the way back [to Ramallah], we passed a Palestinian police checkpoint, and the policemen were laughing. One of them stuck his head in and said: 'Congratulations to us all.' Everybody was happy." [MEMRI Arabic-to-English transcript of Ahlam Tamimi interviewed on Al-Aqsa TV, July 12, 2012]

Tamimi was born and raised in Jordan. She was sent back there when, despite the 16 terms of life imprisonment ("with no possibility of parole or early release" in the words of the judicial panel that had sentenced her) she hit the jackpot and was freed by Israel in the catastrophic Gilad Shalit Deal of October 2011. She married soon afterwards to a cousin who is also a convicted and freed murderer and a Tamimi like her. She has been living in Amman, Jordan ever since.

In March 2017, the  United States announced that  Federal charges had been brought against her, she had been added to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list and the US had requested Jordan hand her over for prosecution under the 1995 Jordan/United States extradition treaty. Jordan refused and has continued to maintain its refusal. She lives free as a bird with no suggestion by Jordan it will prosecute her itself under Jordan's criminal code or in any way abridge her freedom of movement.

The all-powerful king of Jordan has powers that include appointing the judges, rotating the parliament at very frequent intervals and controlling the media. In its 2017 report, Freedom House rates Jordan's media "Not Free", ranking the country at 150 in a table of 199 countries.

Some of Jordan's friends in the US Congress might want to reflect on the implications of that and Jordan's derisory response to a US extradition request when they review relations between the two countries.

Also: that the murder of two Americans - one our daughter, one a tourist visiting Israel briefly with her husband and pregnant with her first child - mean nothing to the people, government and courts of America's Jordanian ally. They're with the loathsome Tamimi clan of Nabi Saleh and let no one have any illusions about how that works.

14-Mar-17: Will Jordan's lust for dead Jewish children cause problems with the US?

The original caption reads: "His Majesty King Abdullah presents the Hashemite

flag to the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army during a ceremony

in Amman on Tuesday (Photo courtesy of Royal Court)" [Image Source]

This being a blog about terrorism and those who do it, we tend to write often about despicable people.

We profiled an especially vile killer of seven Jewish girls on a 1997 school-trip in yesterday's post ["12-Mar-17: What a Jordanian hero and his admirers tell us about the likelihood of peace"]. He's not smart, he's certainly not brave, he was said by his family to have been insane at the time he did the sickening things that got him sent to prison in 1997. And he has never ever uttered a syllable that suggests he did wrong and regrets it.

Quite the opposite: as soon as he was set free on Sunday and "driven home in a convoy of dozens of cars whose drivers were honking their horns, a video shared on social media showed" [source], Ahmad Musa Mustafa Daqamseh launched into a series of public statements via the media most of which has gone unreported in the more civilized parts of the world. (Almost all the reports are in Arabic.)

For instance, Daqamseh declared (according to Aljazeera - here's MEMRI's transcript and video) that we Israelis are “human waste” that must be eradicated. That the rest of the world vomited us up and now we need to be eliminated "by fire or by burial". And that if that's not done by the hands of the cheering crowds standing around him as he said this, then "the task will fall on the future generations to do.”

Now put yourself into the shoes of a Jordanian leader. Perhaps a Member of Parliament. Or a prominent journalist. What would you want people to know about where you stand on the matters addressed by the newly-freed thug? How embarrassed would you be that so many of your citizens are openly rejoicing at the man's release and at the crimes he committed?

Wonder no more:

• "The Jordan Times on Monday contacted several Jordanian opinion leaders who declined comment for various reasons such as the controversial nature of the debate and to avoid escalation of disputes." [Jordan Times, March 13, 2017; the paper is owned by the Jordan Press Foundation which - says Wikipedia - has been majority government-owned since its inception in 1976]
• Parliamentarian "Mohammad Riyati (Aqaba) wrote on his Facebook page that he visited Daqamseh to congratulate him on his freedom after serving the 20-year prison sentence, describing him as a “Muslim and Arab nations’ icon”"
• The same politician is quoted saying he will "propose a memorandum to the Lower House to deduct JD100 from the 130 deputies’ salaries to be given to Daqamseh and his family".
• Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who lives free as a bird in Jordan despite being the mastermind of our daughter Malki's murder, - evidently saw in Daqamseh's sickening words a kindred homicidal spirit. In an Arabic tweet yesterday, she said his hateful and disgusting words (she didn't call them that) highlight the failure of Jordan's prison system. We can only hope, as we wrote yesterday, that she soon gets to experience from the inside how successful or not the Jordanian penal system actually is. 
• The head of a Jordan student rights group called Thabahtouna convincingly asserted that Jordanians "did not care much about the details of the act but instead that they considered it as a response to prolonged Israeli aggression against Palestinians and Arabs in general". They're OK with it, is what the leader, Fakher Daas who tweets here, is basically saying. He also says Jordanian festivities "celebrating Daqamseh’s release contained a message condemning the peace agreement with Israel" and that Israeli plans "to normalize relations with Arabs" had failed. He's fine with that too, of course.
• "MP Khalil Attiya lauded the release of Ahmed Daqamseh from prison, calling for his protection." [Via MEMRI]
• Another Jordanian parliamentarian, Dima Tahboub: "This is a Jordanian day of celebration. We are very happy at (Daqamseh's) release, which is overdue. Even in prison, we considered him to be free, because no one can arrest someone like the soldier Daqamseh. Today, his freedom is complete. He was free in prison, and now he is free outside. We congratulate the Jordanian people, the Daqamseh family, and ourselves. We congratulate the people who continue to uphold the principles for which Daqamseh was imprisoned."  [Via MEMRI]
• Jordanian parliamentarian Saleh Al-Armouti: "Daqamseh's release has undoubtedly warmed the hearts of us Jordanians."  [Via MEMRI]

What must it be like to live in a country with leaders of that calibre? With such widespread popular support of your neighbours' children? [Click here for our previous posts tagged with "Jordan".]

So how is it that Jordan keeps being lauded in the State Department's annual survey of terrorism? State's June 2015 "Country Reports on Terrorism" annual survey says of the Hashemite Kingdom:

Jordan remained a key ally and a model partner in combating terrorism and extremist ideology... Jordan demonstrated regional leadership in the fight against ISIL... and participated fully on the diplomatic, political, financial, and military fronts... Jordanian prisons have a religiously based de-radicalization program that seeks to re-engage violent extremist inmates into the non-violent mainstream of their faith.

Jordan legislated its first anti-terrorism law in 2006, a year after a series of terrorist bomb blasts at three Amman hotels that killed dozens of people.

Under the new law, penalties for terrorist acts range from 10 years in prison to the death penalty, and the definition of terrorism has been expanded to include any act meant to create sedition, harm property or jeopardise international relations, or to use the Internet or media outlets to promote "terrorist" thinking. [Aljazeera, April 25, 2014]

That law has since undergone changes (summarized in this April 2014 AFP syndicated report). But what the State Department report fails to mention is how Jordan has carefully defined terror over the years so that acts of violence directed at Israelis are specifically, by definition, never to be considered terror. For instance:

Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism of 1999 (Ratified 28 Aug. 2003): "Jordan does not consider national armed struggle and fighting foreign occupation in the exercise of people’s right to self-determination as terrorist acts under art. 2(1)(b)" [Source]

Jordan's creativity with the definition of terror is not new and hardly a secret, but largely ignored. So too the wildly popular support that terror when directed at Israelis enjoys among Jordanians. 

The quiet celebrity lifestyle enjoyed by Ahlam Tamimi, who delivered the bomb to the Sbarro pizzeria in August 2001, can be happening only because the kingdom and its leaders are fine with that.

From within Jordan's borders and regularly venturing beyond them, Tamimi speaks widely and often as an honored guest. 

She speaks at its universities, professional guilds, law courts and other venues; records her television program "Naseem Al Ahrar" (translation: “Breezes of the Free”) week after week. Or rather she did until about November 2016 - and then she seems to have stopped appearing though the program continues. The show has been beamed out to the Arabic-speaking world since 2012 giving its presenter the status of a genuine pan-Arab celebrity. 

Tamimi has boasted repeatedly of her central role in the Sbarro pizzeria massacre. She has zero remorse. The Jordanians seem to love her for it.

Should the US government be fine with that too?