The Great Wall of Jordan: How the US Wants to Keep the Islamic State Out
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
[Note: I am seeding this as background to the "border wall" discussion-- it was published in 2016]
King Abdullah II of Jordan is meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday, for working talks that the Jordanian Embassy describes as covering "the strategic partnership" between the two countries. In addition to discussing the flood of Syrian refugees into Jordan — there are now 750,000 of them — the Embassy also says that the two will "tackle global efforts to combat terrorism and extremism across the Middle East, Africa, and the world." The White House mentions the talks in the president's daily schedule, noting the two will discuss "efforts to counter ISIL (and) resolve the Syrian conflict," using the US government's favorite acronym for the Islamic State group.
But that's a very reductive description of what the monarch and the president are likely to talk about. There's a major war going on across the Hashemite Kingdom's northern and eastern border, and much about Jordan's military role in that war won't likely be the subject of press releases. But the border is undoubtedly somewhere buried in the briefing books. The Obama administration is spending close to a half a billion dollars to build a sophisticated electronic fence along Jordan's northern and eastern borders, a wall which US strategic planners hope will stem the flow of refugees and also wall off the increasingly important American base from the disintegration of Syria and Iraq.
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The walls will be studded with day and night cameras, ground sensors and fixed and mobile surveillance towers able to detect movement five miles away on either side of the fence. They will have patrol paths, ground radars and a full command, control and communications suite.
Mobile surveillance stations and quick reaction forces will be stationed at vulnerable points and stand ready to race to emerging hot spots.
This formidable defense system will be connected to at least 10 American and Jordanian command centers.
Note that they realized that a "Big beautiful Wall" like trump keeps obsessing about is not the best way to keep people out-- rather, this is a fence with several other features!