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| Southeast Asia |
| Bali bombers 'were trained and sent by al-Qaeda' |
| 2002-11-01 |
| A team of foreign bombmakers trained and sent by al-Qaeda played a vital role in the blasts which killed 184 people on the Indonesian island of Bali on October 13, a detained member of the terrorist network has said. An al-Qaeda bomber known as Saad, who had trained for a suicide mission, is also said to have attended a meeting with the bombmakers and members of the Jeemah Islamiah (JI), the south-east Asian Islamist group, in southern Thailand in mid-January this year. Saad was brought to the meeting by the alleged leader of the JI, Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali. This looks like more stuff for the Indon pols to discount, deny, or explain away... According to Mohamed Mansour Jabara, a detained al-Qaeda activist now being held by the US, the plotters decided to bomb "soft" targets across south-east Asia such as nightclubs, restaurants and bars frequented by westerners. Mr Jabara, who was arrested in Oman in March, attended the meeting in Thailand. The growing evidence of a direct link between the Bali bombing and the core of al-Qaeda suggests the network's continued ability to function and the nature of its relationship with affiliated groups such as the JI. This represents a "back to basics" approach, maybe just brought on by the smell of the local cooking. The Viet Cong used to do that in Saigon on a regular basis... The identity of Saad has yet to be established, but he is known to have belonged to al-Qaeda, rather than JI. Following the meeting in Thailand, finance for the bombing campaign was sent from donors in Saudi Arabia, Mr Jabara has told US interrogators. According to another al-Qaeda detainee, Omar al-Faruq, JI earlier this year received $74,000 from a Saudi donor known only by what is thought to be a pseudonym, Ali Abdallah al-Emirati. The Soddies continue to become less and less subtle in their involvement in the terror machine. A year before, the money would have come from a third party, maybe in Pakland... According to Mr Jabara, the bombmakers who attended the meeting in Thailand were trained at the Abu Khabbab camp, al-Qaeda's main explosives and non-conventional weapons training camp in Afghanistan. It was there that video film was discovered showing al-Qaeda's chemical weapons tests on animals. Al-Qaeda's own bombers may have been used in the Bali attack because previous operations planned by JI with minimal outside help had failed. JI members are thought to have done reconnaissance before the Bali bombs were planted. Wonder if the Indons had a reaction to this little bit of arrogance? "You guys will probably screw it up. We'll send somebody who's qualified to kill a couple hundred people..." The Indonesian authorities on Wednesday issued sketches of three Indonesian men who Prasetyo, a senior official of the Indonesian police, said "could be executors, or the ones who control the executors". However, in a rare public statement the director general of security of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Denis Richardson, for the first time on Thursday said that Australia, which lost 90 people in Bali, was "confident that the hand of al-Qaeda is somewhere in that atrocity". The "executors" would be the runners, the links between the cannon fodder in the cells and the controllers, who are the guys they really need to catch... The emerging picture of a direct al-Qaeda role has raised doubts as to the value of detaining Sheikh Abu Bakr Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of the JI now being held in Indonesia. "Arresting Bashir is useless. Al-Qaeda is still intact, and they have only detained the public figure," said Rohan Gunaratna, a regional terrorism expert. "Hambali is the one they have to go after." Abu's more in the position of Gerry Adams — as clean as they can get a dirty guy, anyway. He'll be the legit face, while Hambali will be the one who has the details of the dirty work. It's getting a little more clear now, even over here on the other side of the world. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 I wouldn't panic just yet, Aracona. A Royal Thai Army colonel - a very senior one, too - is one of the co-moderators of a message board I frequent, and she (yes, she - Thailand has, to the surprise of a lot of Westerners, a long tradition of women warriors) says that the RTA has been on high alert for the last few weeks watching out for any attempt to do in their tourist meccas in the south of their country what was done in Bali. Not too many people may be aware of it, incidentially, but Thailand has been quite active in the war thus far, particularly in helping to shut down the money links, and they've been battling al Qaeda-backed separatists down near the Malaysian border for quite some time. The RTA gets a lot more of a workout than is commonly supposed, all in all; they've also been known to fight pitched battles with Burmese drug armies equipped with old tanks, and my colonel cut her teeth in combat with the Vietnamese on the Cambodian border back in the 1980's. |
| Posted by: Joe 2002-11-01 17:37:33 |
| #1 I used to live in Thailand and I'm afraid it's just a matter of time before Bangkok gets hit by these madmen. Southern Thailand is teeming with Muslims and Thai society is very open and tolerant, which makes things easy for the terrorists. Obviously they've been using the capital as frequent location for meeting and planning attacks. Bangkok has a LOT of western tourists and residents in certain districts and would be a "soft" target. I really hope I'm wrong, but.... |
| Posted by: Aracona 2002-11-01 11:30:51 |