[Kabar-indonesia] Arrest of Hambali - the 'Ultimate Mastermind'

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Bangkok Post 
Sunday, August 6, 2006

Feature

Arrest of the 'ultimate mastermind'

Next Friday, 11 August, marks the 3rd anniversary of
the arrest of alleged terrorist Hambali in the Thai
province of Ayutthaya. The White House welcomed his
capture as 'an important victory in the war on
terrorism,' and $10 million in reward was later handed
to the Thai government. SONGPOL KAOPATUMTIP and
MAXMILIAN WECHSLER investigated the events that led to
a five-month-long hunt for one of the world's most
wanted terrorist suspects in 2003.

It was a hot afternoon in mid-March 2003. Inside a
Police Special Branch (SB) office in Bangkok, a senior
officer was sifting through his "top secret" file when
his mobile phone rang. "My friend, we just got
information that Hambali and his wife have left for
Thailand," said the voice at the other end of the
line. The caller was a Cambodian intelligence officer,
who had been on the hunt for the alleged terrorist
leader for a month.

Earlier in Phnom Penh, Cambodian police had arrested
several Islamic teachers and extracted crucial
information about Hambali and his Chinese Malaysian
wife, Noralwizah Lee Abdullah. Word about the presence
of the pair put the SB officer's unit on "red alert".

"My hunch was that Hambali was planning a big
operation here," the officer told Perspective. Bangkok
was then preparing for the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (Apec) summit, which would be attended by
21 world leaders, including US President George W.
Bush, in October 2003.

A "war room" was set up, and a nationwide hunt for
Hambali - later code-named "Operation Black Magic" -
began.

"Everyone was very tense because Hambali was allegedly
linked to various bombings that killed some 300
people. He was the most wanted fugitive in the region
and was closely linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
movement," said the officer.

"It was confirmed that he organised a meeting for two
of 9/11 hijackers when they visited Kuala Lumpur in
2000," he said, adding that Hambali's planned
terrorist attacks in Singapore were thwarted in 2001.

Hambali is also believed to have masterminded the
Christmas Eve bombings in 2000 in Indonesia (19 dead,
47 wounded), the bombing on September 30, 2000 in
metro Manila, the Philippines (22 dead), the Bali
attacks on October 12, 2002 (202 dead, more than 330
wounded), and possibly the J.W. Marriot Hotel bombing
on August 5, 2003 in Jakarta (12 dead, over 150
wounded).

With the arrest of Hambali in Ayutthaya province on 11
August 2003, the officer believes that a series of
major terrorist attacks planned for that year in
Bangkok had been averted.

FROM MAE SAI TO AYUTTHAYA

Following the tip-off from Phnom Penh, Thai officers
began interrogating several local and foreign Muslims
apprehended in and around Bangkok. One of them
confirmed that Hambali had entered Thailand from
Cambodia.

"The last foreigner we interrogated gave us the name
of Hambali's trusted aide. He also told us that
Hambali was holding a Spanish passport bought from a
pair of Pakistani forgers living in Thailand, who were
linked to a Russian-born criminal whom we arrested
later," said an officer in charge of the
interrogation. "However, none of them knew Hambali's
whereabouts, which we learned three days before his
arrest."

After locating Hambali's aide, Thai police in early
August followed him to the immigration checkpoint in
Mae Sai district of the northern province of Chiang
Rai. After making a visa extension for Hambali, his
aide took a bus back to Bangkok. "We pounced on him at
Ekkamai bus station, when he started to run," said the
officer.

The police seized from him two passports - one was his
own and the other belonged to Hambali, bearing the
name of "Daniel Suarez Naviera." This Spanish passport
wasn't a fake one as claimed by media reports. It was
stolen from its owner, whose photo was replaced with
Hambali's.

More importantly, they found on him a room key with
the name tag of Boonyarak apartment in Ayutthaya
province, 75 kilometres north of Bangkok. The police
checked the list of all tenants and found that a man
they believed to be Hambali was renting Room 601 on
the 6th floor - checked in for him by a Thai national.

His aide rented another room on the same floor sharing
with another male foreigner, who was arrested along
with Hambali and his wife. The identity of this
foreigner, believed to be a member of the Jemaah
Islamiya (JI) terrorist organisation, remains unknown.

"We wanted to catch Hambali without causing any
bloodshed. Some officers suggested that we break in
but we didn't know whether he had explosives, grenades
or guns in his room, or he would blow himself up and
kill our men as well," said the officer.

Finally the officers decided to make a phone call to a
top Thai government official, who instructed them to
catch Hambali alive.

Shortly before 11.00 p.m. on 11 August 2003, Thai
police officers, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT)
sharpshooters, and personnel from the Armed Forces
Security Centre (AFSC) and the National Intelligence
Agency (NIA) were positioned in and around Boonyarak
apartment. A telephone operator called Hambali to come
downstairs to discuss a matter regarding his phone
line.

Hambali was intercepted as he emerged from the
elevator. He managed to kick a police officer in the
stomach before he was wrestled to the ground by
several policemen, who recovered two fully-loaded .380
mm calibre Soviet-made Makarov pistols from his
trouser pockets.

Hambali reportedly obtained the guns in Cambodia. He
was wearing jeans and T-shirt, a baseball cap, and
sunglasses when he was arrested.

Shortly afterwards, the SWAT team armed with HK MP5
machine guns broke into room 601 and arrested
Hambali's wife and the foreign JI man. They also
stormed the other room but no one was inside. Both
rooms were searched and sealed.

DEADLY PLANS UNCOVERED

Police found in Hambali's room a manual on how to
assemble a bomb, a large amount of Thai baht,
documents, but no explosives or bombs.

>From the seized documents, police believe Hambali
planned to carry out a series of bomb attacks during
the Apec summit, including against the US and British
embassies, nightclubs in Phuket and Pattaya, and the
check-in counter of El Al Israeli Airlines at
Bangkok's Don Muang airport. Hambali also planned to
attack an Israeli restaurant in the backpacker's area
of Khao San Road in Bangkok.

Hambali was interrogated by Thai police officers
shortly after the arrest. "He gave us nothing useful,
nothing about his purpose in coming here and what he
planned to do," said an officer who took part in the
interrogation. "But he was a very clever and
convincing talker. After talking to him for several
hours, you could be convinced that the cause of
Islamic militancy is right."

According to a Thai intelligence officer, Hambali was
in Thailand as early as September 2002, before
crossing into Cambodia. He first stayed in an
apartment near the railway station in Phnom Penh
before moving to the lakeside Boeng Kak guesthouse.

"He said he was a businessman by the name of Mizi,"
the guesthouse owner told Cambodian police. He smoked
Marlboro cigarettes and drank Coca Cola. While in his
room he listened to BBC radio and read
English-language magazines.

Cambodian authorities were poised to arrest Hambali
when he suddenly disappeared.

Contrary to what the media reported at the time, the
capture of Hambali had nothing to do with the arrest
of Malaysian-born Zubair Mohamad, believed to be one
of his close associates, in southern Thailand in July
2003. "It (the news leak) was a tactic to cause a rift
within the JI movement," said the intelligence
officer, who maintained that Zubair did not provide
any useful information about Hambali's whereabouts.

So where was Hambali during mid-March and early August
2003?

According to one of the Thai interrogators, Hambali
told them that he lived in the Hua Mark area of
Bangkok before moving to Ayutthaya. "He said he was
very upset with the debauchery of Thai Muslims he met
in Hua Mark. He saw young live-in couples who behaved
like Westerners, drank alcohol and who always asked
him for money. He said he couldn't live there anymore.
A friend later advised him to live in Ayutthaya
because many good Muslims lived there and he would be
safe."

About three weeks before the police swoop, Hambali and
his wife moved into Boonyarak apartment. Two
motorcycle taxi drivers and a food vendor recognised
them when Perspective showed them their photos last
week.

"Yes, I remember the couple. They visited the 7-Eleven
store from time to time. They were always together,
casually dressed like Westerners. They usually left
for dinner around 9 p.m. walking across the street to
a food market," said one motorcycle taxi driver. "But
I did not see them during the daytime."

Another motorcycle taxi driver said he saw Hambali
leaving the apartment around 11 p.m. about three to
four times. "Each time, he would wait at the street
corner - sometimes up to 10-15 minutes - before
crossing the street to the petrol station, where a
sedan and two modified pick-up trucks had been
waiting. The guy you mentioned and the other
Arab-looking men wore white hijabs and white
skull-caps. The cars sometimes took fuel and the
passengers went to the toilet or to buy food. After
talking for awhile, Hambali would get inside the car
for what appeared to be a long discussion," he
recalled.

FLOWN TO GUANTANAMO?

Hambali was flown out of Thailand on a special US jet
three days after his arrest. A convoy of cars took him
to a remote section of Don Muang airport under tight
security at night. All the lights were switched off in
that restricted area of the airport, guarded by
heavily-armed commandos.

"Hambali was taken into the plane by foreign security
agents and that was the last time I saw him," said the
senior police officer who took part in the secret
operation from the very beginning.

Intelligence sources said Hambali ended his journey at
Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba, as did his
close aide and other JI man arrested at the apartment,
but this could not be confirmed. Hambali's wife was
deported to Malaysia where she is now in custody.

"The Americans wanted Hambali badly because of his
link with al-Qaeda. It was also a big catch for them
as the war on terror at that time - and really to this
date - hadn't netted many top terrorist leaders
alive," a Western diplomat told Perspective. He said
Hambali should be put on trial because he is wanted by
Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines for a series
of deadly bomb attacks.

"To keep him in Guantanamo, as rumoured, is not the
best solution," he said.

Reactions to Hambali's arrest were upbeat from
supporters of the war on terror.

A White House spokesman called Hambali's arrest an
"important victory in the war on terrorism" and a
"significant blow to al-Qaeda." The announcement came
aboard Air Force One, as President George W. Bush was
flying from Texas to California on August 14, 2003.

In a speech to US Marines in San Diego later in the
same day, President Bush said: "Hambali is one of the
world's most lethal terrorists who is suspected of
planning major terrorist operations He is no longer a
problem for those of us who love freedom."

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called Hambali
the "ultimate mastermind" of the October 2002 Bali
bombings that killed 202 people, including 88
Australians.

The high-profile statements were not encouraging for
Thai officers who felt they didn't get the respect and
credit they deserved. This also applies to the reward
money paid by the US government.

According to Thai officials, most of the $10 million
in reward was distributed to those who had not much to
do with the case, while those who worked hard got very
little or nothing.

Most of the media reports on the case were incorrect
because "firstly, we had to conceal some information
to protect our sources and secondly, people from a
certain organisation wanted to get all the credit,
like they had done everything," said a senior Thai
police officer.

"We used all the people we could trust and all the
equipment at our disposal. Some agencies paid little
attention to our requests, but we were joined later by
personnel from the AFSC and the NIA with support from
a Western intelligence agency," the officer said.

"But without the tip-off from Cambodia and the hard
work done by my people, a series of bomb attacks could
have caused large-scale devastation in Thailand," he
said.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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