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| Southeast Asia |
| Mukhlas sez he dunnit... |
| 2002-12-05 |
| The alleged operations chief of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) has confessed to being part of the Al-Qaeda linked terror group and to taking part in the Bali bombings that left nearly 200 people dead, police said on Thursday. Police arrested Mukhlas alias Ali Gufron, and eight others in a series of raids late on Tuesday on the central Indonesian town of Solo. 'Mukhlas has confessed to be a member of Jemaah Islamiah,' Maj-General I Made Mangku Pastika told reporters. Gen Pastika said that Mukhlas admitted to taking part in meetings in early August to plan the blasts on the Indonesian resort island. I never realized the Indons had such high quality truncheons... In a separate disclosure, Erwin Mappaseng, chief of the Indonesian police's criminal investigation department, said that the Bali bombing was financed by a robbery in a jewellery store. He said that US$35,500 was supplied for the attacks and the money was used to buy a car and explosives. There's a fine line between a crook and a terrorist. And sometimes there's no line at all... He added a man known as Hambali, the former operational leader of the JI, passed the money on to his replacement in the organisation, Mukhlas. The money was passed ''through Wan Min, a Malaysian citizen who has been arrested in Malaysia', he said. The Malays picked up Wan Min a week or two before the bombings... Gen Pastika said last week that Mukhlas had Hambali as head of operations for the JI. He qualified this on Thursday, saying it is still not clear if Mukhlas is Hambali's successor. Meanwhile, a senior Malaysia official said on Thursday that the arrest of Mukhlas was a cooperative effort, with Australia providing the technical prowess and Malaysia and Singapore the intelligence. And Indonesia the trucheons and moustachios. Don't know who provided the giggle juice — but at his press conference with the coppers a couple weeks ago, Amrozi was literally giggling... The official hailed the arrest, saying that Mukhlas could provide authorities with crucial information on other top JI leaders, including the whereabouts of Riduan Isamuddin alias Hambali. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Imported truncheons. Domestic moustachios. |
| Posted by: Tripartite 2002-12-05 10:16:38 |