WASHINGTON (AP) - Worried that Jordan could be vulnerable to the Islamic State militant group, the U.S. is stepping up its intelligence cooperation with one of its most stalwart Middle East allies.
The CIA has approached a retired former agency official with close ties to King Abdullah II about setting up a special task force to help Jordan deal with the threat from the Islamic State group, according to two former agency officials who would not be quoted by name discussing a secret mission.
The retiree, Robert Richer, a former Marine who was chief of CIA's Near East division, became close with King Abdullah when he was Amman station chief in 1999. Richer is now a consultant with clients in Jordan, according to his LinkedIn page. He declined to comment.
While the prospect of the Islamic State prevailing over the well-equipped Jordanian military seems remote, Jordan is vulnerable to both terrorist attacks and internal strife. Its economy is weak, its unofficial unemployment rate is 30 percent, and 1.5 million Syrian refugees are consuming scarce resources and services, U.S. officials and experts say.
Jordan is among the countries directly threatened by the Islamic State's recent surge, White House counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco told reporters last week. Secretary of State John Kerry is departing Tuesday on a trip to Jordan and Saudi Arabia as he tries to formally enlist those countries in a U.S. and European coalition against the Islamic State group.
Whatever he does publicly, Abdullah - who graduated from Deerfield Academy, a Massachusetts prep school, and once appeared on an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager"- has consistently supported the U.S. behind the scenes. The CIA has long had close ties to Jordan's intelligence service, and the two countries work closely together against al-Qaida and other extremist groups.
The U.S. is providing Jordan about a $1 billion this year in economic and military aid, according to the Congressional Research Service, a sum that does not include classified intelligence funding through the CIA.