SOME dabbled in running Jemaah Islamiah (JI) youth camps.
| "Okay, kiddies! Everybody out for volleyball! Mahmoud! Where's your gun?" |
Others did not go beyond sheltering fugitives on the run and giving funds. For their brush with terrorism, 12 Singaporeans were served with Restriction Orders on Saturday. Their activities were considered peripheral, and their involvement not deep enough to deserve a detention, said Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng yesterday at a press conference to make public the details of the third phase of terrorist investigations. Of the dozen, 10 were members of the deviant JI network. The other two were members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) based in the Philippines.
| Which has approximately squat to do with Singapore... |
Most of the JI members had undergone physical training exercises in Malaysia, and this included a session on making and using Molotov cocktails, or firebombs. Three of them were even ordered in December 2001 to look for a warehouse with good lorry-parking facilities, in connection with the rigging of truck bombs against targets in Singapore. This was part of an Al-Qaeda operation that was being directed by the terror group’s operative ’Sammy’ or Jabarah Mohamed Mansour, and the late Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi. But the three, Mohd Ashikin Mohd Yusof, 33, Abu Bakar Sedek Hashim, 53, and Mohammad Hashim, 42, never got very far. They were told abruptly by their JI leaders to drop inquiries when fellow JI members were nabbed that same month, in the first of three phases of arrests.
TO ALL PERSONNEL:
Never mind.
Thank you,
The Management |
Among these latest 10 revealed, several were also involved in running JI youth or children camps called tamrin. Held between 1995 and 1998, the camps were used to talent-spot potential JI recruits from among the unsuspecting camp participants and their parents. One such activity included a visit to Sembawang Drug Rehabilitation Centre. The bus ride there was used as a cover to film the Sembawang area where American servicemen live. The footage was later used in plans to target a bus service that ferried the servicemen to Yishun MRT station. A few among the 10 also offered their homes as refuge to JI fugitives following the first phase of arrests.
"Ummm... Yeah. I guess you can hide here."
"Thanks, comrade!"
"I mean, they ain't gonna bulldoze my house or anything, are they?"
[Stare]
"Maybe I can still get you a room at the Motel 6?" |
Jasmani Bakran, 42, for instance, lent his house in Taman Putri Wangsa, Johor, to Singapore JI chief Ibrahim Maidin, who used it to meet JI members on the run in December 2001. Another, Mohd Yusuf Mohd Noor, 52, also opened up his house in Taman Sutra, Johor, for a week during the same time to JI refugees.
As for the two MILF members, they were enamoured with the idea of performing jihad in Mindanao with the MILF separatist group. Mohd Abdul Rahman Baharom, 45, visited the MILF twice and even volunteered in 2000 to join its fight against the Philippine army. His offer was not taken up, however. Abdul Ghani Omar, 28, helped his father-in-law and Singapore’s leading MILF member Husin Abdul Aziz to transmit funds and materials to the MILF. Among the materials were remote control accessories ordered by Husin from a shop here.
Mr Wong explained why the Internal Security Department did not detain the 12. ’We have made arrests and detentions when necessary. But when a Restriction Order is sufficient to prevent the potential threat posed by the individual, there is no need to detain that individual.’ His comments may serve to allay the fears of some community and mosque leaders contacted last night. Mr Rahmat Sulaiman, chairman of Hassanah Mosque, for instance, wondered if it would have been better to detain the 12. ’One of these days, if they lose their minds, they may pose a risk to society if they decide to blow up Singapore or be a suicide bomber. You never know,’ he said.
| "Id just cut their heads off and be done with it. Better safe than sorry, y'know." |
But others such as MPs Zainul Abidin Rasheed (Aljunied GRC) and Ho Geok Choo (West Coast GRC) placed their trust in the authorities. Said Mr Zainul, who is also Mayor of the Northeast Community Development Council: ’The fact is the security agencies know best and they consider these people safe enough to interact with the community at large.’
| "As long as they're leashed and muzzled, anyway." |
He urged Singaporeans not to ostracise them, but to give them a chance to return to the mainstream. Madam Ho appealed to the employers and colleagues of the 12 not to panic.
| "Oh, come now! Don't panic! I mean, they're krazed killers, and all, and they wanted to overthrow the state and institute a caliphate and shariah law, where people get their heads and arms cut off and women are breeding stock, but... Argh!" |
She urged the ministry to help ease their fears by explaining fully the process of their monitoring and counselling. |