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| Southeast Asia |
| JI relied on Soddy cash until recently |
| 2005-11-25 |
| Individuals in the Middle East and Asia sent couriers to ferry thousands of dollars in cash to extremist Islamic groups in Indonesia, a top intelligence official was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying in a report. State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Syamsir Siregar said that an estimated 75,000 usd worth of funds have flowed to local groups in recent years from the individuals but the financial support has now been stopped, the Jakarta Post reported. 'The 75,000-dollar figure was worked out as the result of an investigation held this year,' he reportedly said, without elaborating on which countries were involved. However as a result, he said BIN is considering deploying its officers to the Philippines, Thailand and some countries in the Middle East. 'But whether the plan is feasible, we will see how this goes with the foreign ministry,' he was quoted as saying. Neither Siregar nor his spokesman could be immediately reached for further comments. The chief also said that intelligence units -- accused in the past of kidnappings and violence against government critics -- should be empowered to arrest and interrogate suspects for up to three days. In a major breakthrough for Indonesia, authorities tracked down master Malaysian bomb-maker Azahari Husin earlier this month. He was killed during a stand-off with police but his main accomplice, Noordin Mohammad Top, remains on the run. The two men are leading members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional extremist group, believed to have ties with Al-Qaeda, and are among key figures blamed by authorities for bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people in 2002 and for attacks there last month in which 20 died. Authorities have also connected them with several other bloody attacks that began with coordinated bombings of churches in Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000. Indonesia's police chief General Sutanto told a parliamentary commission earlier this week that Azahari's group was short of cash but had received funding from Saudi Arabia until 2003. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |