[Kabar-indonesia] Bali Bomber Tracked By Bank Data [+Of jihad networks and the war of ideas]

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: Of jihad networks and the war of ideas

Weekend Australian 
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Bali bomber tracked by bank data

WASHINGTON: An international banking database was
reportedly used as a ''vital tool'' in the hunt for
the prime architect of the 2002 Bali bombings.

Riduan Isamuddin Hambali was captured in Thailand in
2003 after the CIA gained access to records from a
Belgian co-operative, the Society for Worldwide
Interbank Financial Telecommunication, The New York
Times reported yesterday.

SWIFT is regarded as the ''nerve centre of the global
banking industry'', the newspaper said on its website.

Hambali remains in secret US custody.

He is accused of having been the key link between
al-Qa'ida and Jemaah Islamiah, the Indonesian-based
terror group blamed for the Bali atrocity, in which
202 people died, including 88 Australians.

The paper said US authorities gained secret access to
SWIFT in the weeks after the September 11, 2001,
al-Qa'ida attacks in New York and Washington.

Officials said the secret US program traced
transactions by individuals known to have links to
al-Qa'ida.

''Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool,
the program has played a hidden role in domestic and
foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped
in the capture of the most wanted al-Qa'ida figure in
Southeast Asia,'' the paper said, referring to
Hambali.

The records mostly involved wire transfers and other
methods of moving money overseas or into and out of
the US.

Most routine transactions confined to the US are not
in the database.

The program, run out of the CIA and overseen by the US
Treasury Department ''has provided us with a unique
and powerful window into the operations of terrorist
networks and is, without doubt, a legal and proper use
of our authorities,'' Stuart Levey, a Treasury
undersecretary, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Treasury officials said SWIFT was exempt from American
laws restricting government access to private
financial records because the co-operative was
considered a messaging service, not a bank or
financial institution.

But the article also quoted several people familiar
with the program who said they believed a ''grey
area'' in the law had been exploited and worried about
the impact on SWIFT if the program were disclosed.

''There was always concern about this program,'' an
unidentified former government official was quoted as
saying.

The New York Times said administration officials had
asked it not to publish the article, saying disclosure
of the SWIFT program could jeopardise its
effectiveness.

After considering the Government's request, Bill
Keller, the newspaper's executive editor, said: ''We
remain convinced that the administration's
extraordinary access to this vast repository of
international financial data, however carefully
targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public
interest.''

Shortly after publication of the Times article, US
Treasury Secretary John Snow issued a statement
defending the Government's use of the SWIFT program
and expressing regret its existence had been made
public.

''Let me be clear what this program is, and what it is
not,'' Mr Snow said.

''It is an essential tool in the war on terror, based
on appropriate legal authorities with effective
oversight and safeguards.''

------------------------------------------------------

US News & World Report
June 22, 2006

Of jihad networks and the war of ideas

By David E. Kaplan

How goes the war on terrorism? On two key fronts – the
shifting nature of jihadist networks and the war of
ideas – there's plenty to worry about. Here are two
reports from our sources in Washington, D.C.: 

Dutch intel experts give a disturbing picture of
jihadist activity. Experts on Islamic extremism from
the Dutch intelligence service came to Washington in
early June, giving a series of closed-door briefings
that offered a disturbing portrait of jihadist
activity in Europe generally and in the Netherlands
particularly. Since the 2004 Amsterdam murder of film
director Theo van Gogh by a jihadist, Dutch
intelligence has focused aggressively on Islamic
radicalism, and its analysts have produced some of the
best work on jihadist networks on the Continent, say
terrorism experts.

Dutch officials refused to allow any reporters in the
briefings, but U.S. News received a full report from
sources in attendance. The group, from the Interior
Ministry's General Intelligence and Security Service
(AIVD), spoke at length of how jihadist groups are
becoming much more dynamic, fluid, and diffuse, coming
together to cooperate on specific goals and targets.
Unlike the al Qaeda of old, these are local,
autonomous, "self-radicalizing" jihadist cells, not
controlled from overseas. They rely heavily on virtual
networks and training, through the Internet, and then
shift into actual, operational networks. The Internet
is "the cement" of these new terrorist networks, the
analysts stressed. Another trend seen by Dutch
intelligence is a worrisome drop in age among
participants, with increasing numbers of teenagers,
often with petty crime records. Other trends include
the recruitment of women and western converts.

One veteran terrorism expert noted that most of these
trends have been noted by U.S. intelligence but said
that the Dutch provided a needed, independent voice on
what's happening out there. "Their presentation really
hit home," he said. "They made it absolutely clear how
serious the problem of homegrown terrorism is going to
be." Despite the AIVD's closed doors here in
Washington, much of the agency's analysis is in fact
unclassified and available online. 

U.S. effort on war of ideas draws skepticism. Even as
jihadist networks become tougher to combat, the United
States still lacks a comprehensive strategy to thwart
the ideological forces fueling their growth, say
critics. In response, the administration recently
launched its latest attempt to coordinate the "war of
ideas" against radical Islam: The White House's
National Security Council has convened yet another
interagency committee to develop a strategy aimed at
marginalizing extremists. Dubbed the Policy
Coordinating Committee on Public Diplomacy and
Strategic Communication, the group is headed by the
administration's point person on the ideas war: Karen
Hughes, the State Department's under secretary for
public diplomacy. 

Skeptics abound, as this is at least the fourth
attempt at coordinating federal efforts on infowar.
The NSC began two ill-fated interagency committees in
2002, one on "strategic communication" and another on
"information strategy." Both generated more
frustration than results, say participants. Their work
was succeeded, in part, by the Muslim World Outreach
Policy Coordinating Committee in 2004, which drafted a
widely praised plan that was never implemented. Now
that committee is being replaced by Hughes's new
group. "It's the same old people with a new title,"
says one insider.

Hughes, the president's former counselor, has won
points for crafting a Rapid Response Unit, designed to
help U.S. officials abroad respond to the day's news.
(For a peek at one of its daily Rapid Response sheets,
marked Official Use Only) But critics say the effort
is typical of Hughes's quick-hit, political
campaignlike approach to what is a years-long
ideological struggle. Former State Department diplomat
John Brown, editor of the Public Diplomacy Press
Review, calls the administration's efforts "naive,
provincial, and evangelical" but says the problem
ultimately may lie in the very nature of U.S.
government today. "It's so complex, with so many
bureaucracies, that to get anybody to agree on a
single message is almost impossible." 

------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------