Sa'ad Khair was a

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

ian

Intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be des ...

and Security official.

Career

Between 2000 and 2005, Sa'ad Khair was the head of the newly formed Jordanian National Security Agency,

King Abdullah II of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein ( ar, عبدالله الثاني بن الحسين , translit=ʿAbd Allāh aṯ-ṯānī ibn al-Ḥusayn; born 30 January 1962) is King of Jordan, having ascended the throne on 7 February 1999. He is a member of t ...

, '' Our Last Best Chance'', New York, New York:

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, 2011, p. 221 otherwise known as General Intelligence Directorate, and was a key U.S. ally in the

War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

. He participated in the CIA

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had the purpos ...

of people suspected by the US government of being terrorists. During the

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investigation it became known that he had one Credit Suisse account of more than 28 million Swiss francs, even though he qualified as a

politically exposed person In financial regulation, a politically exposed person (PEP) is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function. A PEP generally presents a higher risk for potential involvement in bribery and corruption by virtue of their position and ...

. His brother and wife held accounts of 13 and 6 million francs, respectively.

In popular culture

The character ‘Hani Salaam’ in the

Sir Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades th ...

film '' Body of Lies'' is said to have been largely inspired by the six-year tenure of Sa’ad Khair as the GID chief.

David Ignatius David Reynolds Ignatius (born May 26, 1950) is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for ''The Washington Post''. He has written eleven novels, including '' Body of Lies'', which director Ridley Scott adapt ...

, author of the novel on which the film is based, has written about his encounter with Khair and modelling the character after him. Both the story and the film feature incidents directly inspired by Saad Khair’s experiences as the spy chief, as the author says, the part where Hani Salaam meets with a

jihadist Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

making him talk with his mother on phone and the fearsome spy headquarters’ being called the ‘fingernail factory’ are among a few. The first incident, in real life, took place in an '

Eastern European Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...

city where Khair with his team tracked down an undercover jihadist in an apartment and made him talk with his mother on phone in an attempt to force him emotionally in ' changing side' to the

Jordanian government The politics of Jordan takes place in a framework of a parliamentary monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister of Jordan is head of government, and of a multi-party system. Jordan is a constitutional monarchy based on the constitution promulgated on ...

. ‘Hani Salaam’ was portrayed by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

actor

Mark Strong Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia; 5 August 1963), is a British actor, best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in ''Stardust'' (2007), Archibald in '' RocknRolla'' (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in ''Sherlock Holmes'' (20 ...

, whose performance in the film got particular critical acclaim because of its notable suavity and illusiveness, which according to the original author reflected the personality of Sa’ad Khair.

References

External links

Jordan gets new intelligence chief - Al-jazeera.netAl-Rai Newspaper
المشير سعد خير في ذمة الله *Muneeb Madi and Suleiman Mousa. History of Jordan in the Twentieth Century 1900-1959, Al-Muhtaseb Library, 1988. {{DEFAULTSORT:Khair, Saad 2009 deaths Jordanian military personnel 1956 births

Career

In popular culture

See also

References

External links