Just Keep On Trucking

By DEAN FISCHER AMMAN

The transaction is perfectly blatant. A Jordanian customs official is bribed, illegal cargo is substituted for food and medicine, a false manifest is prepared, and the truck heads for the Iraqi border. At the Jordanian customs post, the truck, sealed with a lock and a bit of wire, is not examined, the customs inspector stamps the false manifest, and the driver heads for Baghdad. Boasts police major Ahmed Omari as he waves through a van of vegetable oil: "Not a single truck has carried smuggled goods into Iraq." But thanks to Iraqi payoffs lavished on Jordanian government officials, thousands of tons of U.N.-embargoed communications gear, construction parts, military equipment and computers enter Iraq from Jordan to help prop up Saddam Hussein's regime.

Coming the other way, legally, a half-mile-long column of oil tankers stream beneath a giant portrait of Saddam that marks an archway over the desert border. Each day they bring 50,000 bbl. of cut-rate fuel to Amman to sustain the stumbling economy of Jordan.

Jordan's involvement in the smuggling is illicit, but greed inspired a willingness to brave the consequences of violating the U.N. strictures imposed after the gulf war. Until a few weeks ago, truck convoys from Jordan transported 6,000 tons of goods a day into Iraq, but only about 70% were the food and medicine permitted by the U.N. The remainder, say U.S. intelligence officials, consisted of materials Saddam has used to rebuild the infrastructure damaged by allied bombs.

Washington decided to crack down last month. CIA Director Robert Gates visited King Hussein at his Aqaba retreat on the Red Sea to remind him of his responsibilities. It was an appropriate venue for the mission; the bulk of the illegal cargoes that are eventually trucked into Iraq enter Jordan via ships docking at Aqaba. Confronted with the CIA'S evidence of cross-border smuggling, however, Hussein has finally ordered officials to stop the trade. Truck traffic from Jordan to Iraq has since declined by a third. In Amman last week, Secretary of State James Baker acknowledged a "reduced leakage of goods across the Jordanian-Iraqi border."

But the overall ineffectiveness of the embargo has enabled Saddam to restore communications and electrical services and repair damage to bridges and government buildings. U.S. diplomats believe the ease with which Iraq has circumvented the sanctions has encouraged Saddam to increase his defiance of U.N. demands.

Before King Hussein tightened oversight, U.S. intelligence analysts estimate, from 35 to 50 companies in Amman handled the business, many of them Iraqi fronts established after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait two years ago. Al- Bawadi Co., for example, an Amman importer of European goods, has been identified by Western intelligence as the creation of Saddam's half brother Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who directs Iraq's internal security. Arabco, which deals in military equipment, was also identified by Western intelligence as a firm run by Saddam's son-in-law Hussein Kamel. With an estimated $30 billion stashed in foreign banks, Saddam has plenty of funds to bribe Jordanian officials and purchase goods abroad, including luxury items to buy the continued loyalty of military and security officers in Baghdad. His agents forge export licenses, issue phony letters of credit for the front companies, and pay shipment costs to Aqaba's free port. There cargoes supposedly destined for Jordanian companies are loaded onto trucks bound for Iraq. "Saddam is willing to pay a high price," says Jawad Anani, former Jordanian Trade Minister, "and plenty of people here were willing to take high risks in return for the promise of hefty profits." Basil Jardeneh, Jordan's Finance Minister, acknowledged the existence of the front companies, but he insists that "there is nothing in the U.N. sanctions barring financial transactions involving such firms."

Jordanian officials feel unfairly squeezed by Washington. Last year, when Baker urged Taher al-Masri, then Jordan's Prime Minister, to comply with the embargo, he responded, "If you want me to reduce trade with Iraq, then open the gulf states to trade with us." Jordan's economy has been badly hurt by the punishment meted out by the desert kingdoms for King Hussein's support of Saddam in the war. Echoing widespread sentiments in Amman, Minister of Information Mahmoud al-Sherif complains that the volume of smuggling from Turkey and Syria is much greater than that from Jordan, a judgment the U.S. rejects.

The measures Hussein has taken come too late to prevent Saddam from rebuilding his country. Jordan's belated bow to U.S. pressure reflects the monarch's sensitivity to the threat of Western political and economic retaliation. But he also calculates that Saddam could outlast George Bush. As long as he retains power, the Iraqi dictator is a potential menace to regional stability -- nowhere more so than in Jordan. "Smuggling in this country is an industry," concedes Finance Minister Jardeneh. Many Jordanians have come to view it also as a necessary form of insurance to placate the bully next door.