WASHINGTON — The government of Jordan provided military assistance and information from Israeli and Western intelligence agencies to Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait and during the Persian Gulf War, according to classified documents and interviews.
During this period, the Bush Administration allowed some government defense supplies to be shipped to Jordan despite public assurances to Congress that such aid had stopped, according to the records.
Even after King Hussein publicly declared his support for Iraq and the United States imposed a comprehensive ban on all U.S. military trade with Jordan, commercial military shipments were still being cleared for delivery through the war's final days, the records indicate.
The allegations are contained in the classified annex to a report by the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, on Jordan's compliance with United Nations sanctions against Iraq.
The probe was conducted at the request of a House subcommittee and was issued Sept. 25. However, several of its key findings have remained classified "secret" at the insistence of the Administration. A copy of the secret portion was obtained recently by The Times.
The investigation suggests that the U.S. posture toward Jordan was more lenient than the Administration publicly indicated during the Persian Gulf crisis. It also offers the prospect that Iraq may have derived some benefit from the continuing U.S.-Jordan relationship during the period.
Contacted for comment, a State Department official disputed some of the GAO's findings.
Calvin Mitchell, an official in the Middle East division, said there is no proof Jordan sent arms to Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait. "We have said consistently that we have no confirmed information that military parts or equipment moved from Jordan to Iraq during the Gulf crisis," he said.
He declined to discuss the allegations about intelligence sharing and other forms of Jordanian-Iraqi cooperation.
Other Administration officials acknowledged that the Administration did not take the most stringent position on Jordan's dealings with Iraq. They said that some consideration was justified in recognition of Jordan's extremely delicate position in the region and in view of U.S. hope of restoring a good relationship in the future.
