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| Southeast Asia |
| Little anecdote on Siregar's importance in the al-Qaeda pecking order |
| 2005-08-20 |
| Figured this was worth noting ... An al-Qaida operative who allegedly brought hundreds of European Islamic militants to Indonesia for military training is in the country, an intelligence official said Friday. Parlindungan Siregar, who has been on the run for more than four years, allegedly brought members of a Spanish al-Qaida cell to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in 2001 for secret training, terrorism experts said. U.S. and Spanish authorities have in the past claimed that Siregar - accused of bringing hundreds of militants to Indonesia for training - was a member of Southeast Asia's Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network. Sidney Jones, the Southeast Asia project director for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said Siregar's arrest would be significant, shedding light on possible links between Osama bin Laden's network and regional terror groups. She said Siregar got a scholarship to study in Spain, where he allegedly hooked up with an al-Qaida cell, bringing some of the members to Poso in central Sulawesi in 2001 and later to military training camps. Though he has never been mentioned as being part of Jemaah Islamiyah's leadership, ``he certainly had contacts that could set up meetings with Spanish al-Qaida and operatives in central Sulawesi,'' she said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |