[Kabar-indonesia] The Australian in Manila: Muslim Converts Answer Jihad Call

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

The Australian
Monday, October 2, 2006

Muslim Converts Answer Jihad Call

Emma-Kate Symons, Manila 

A NETWORK of homegrown converts to radical Islam has emerged as a major 
terrorist threat in Southeast Asia, teaming up with higher-profile al-Qa'ida 
offshoots Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Sayyaf to plot attacks on Western and local 
targets.

Manila's top anti-terrorism official has told The Australian that the group 
of former Christians known as Rajah Solaiman is highly educated and 
well-financed and lacked the profile of traditional Islamist terrorist groups, making it 
easier to evade detection. 

His warning came as Indonesian and Australian mourners remembered the 20 
people killed in JI's last major terror attacks, at Jimbaran Bay and Kuta in Bali 
a year ago yesterday. 

Terrorist experts believe that while JI has suffered some significant 
setbacks in the past 12 months, its alliance with southern Philippines groups such as 
Rajah Solaiman mean it is still a potent force. 

The Australian understands that Canberra is closely monitoring the pursuit of 
Rajah Solaiman, which shares JI's goal of a pan-Islamic state in Asia. 

Rajah Solaiman has direct links to al-Qa'ida's leadership and to JI's 2002 
Bali bombers Umar Patek, who was killed last month, and Dulmatin, who is still 
on the run in the war-torn southern Philippines. 

Philippines defence undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said Rajah Solaiman was 
hiding out in the country's impenetrable south, conducting joint training 
exercises and plotting terror attacks with its JI and Abu Sayyaf allies. 

Mr Blancaflor said Rajah Solaiman was a "classic case of homegrown terrorism" 
that could be compared to Australia's problems with small extremist groups of 
Lebanese Muslim migrants. 

"These homegrown terrorists are messengers of hate - hate of the West and of 
Christianity," he said. 

"We have to understand that terrorism today goes way beyond al-Qa'ida, it has 
no boundaries and no geographical limits." 

He called on Australia to support a UN blacklist of the new force, which is 
understood to have carried out JI's orders in executing the 2004 Philippines 
SuperFerry bombing that killed 116 people - the second-worst terrorist attack in 
Southeast Asia after the 2002 Bali bombs. 

Rajah Solaiman's name is taken from a 16th-century Filipino king, a Muslim 
who was the last of the homegrown monarchs before the Spanish conquest. 
Australian authorities say it poses a significant threat not only to Philippine 
interests, but also to Western interests abroad, including Australia's - from 
foreign embassies to shopping malls, passenger ferries and nightclubs popular with 
Western tourists. 

Rajah Solaiman leader Ahmed Santos, captured late last year in Mindanao, even 
sheltered Patek and Dulmatin at his family farm in the southern Philippines, 
where JI, Rajah Solaiman and Abu Sayyaf operatives established a joint 
training camp, where bomb-making was taught. 

Santos converted to Islam in the 1990s via the Islamic Studies Call and 
Guidance, a group linked by US intelligence to Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law 
Mohammed Jamal Khalifa. 

Dulmatin and Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani and members of Rajah 
Solaiman have managed to evade capture despite the sustained US-backed Philippines 
military offensive in Mindanao and the Sulus. This has been under way since 
August 1, and has led to the deaths of at least 15 Philippines soldiers and 
dozens of militants. 

The US has offered a $10 million bounty for the capture of Dulmatin, the 
Malaysian explosives expert who is believed to have planned the 2002 Kuta attacks. 

Last month, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, 
attacks in the US, a leaked Philippines intelligence report said two Rajah 
Solaiman explosives experts had arrived in Manila. 

This followed arrests of three Muslim converts in May, suspected of planning 
to bomb malls and foreign embassies in Manila.

The Philippines military has been attacking southern rebels since August 1, 
with the support of the US, in an operation that has resulted in the deaths of 
more than a dozen Filipino soldiers and perhaps dozens of rebels. 

"One of our aims is to make the southern Philippines as inhospitable for 
these guys as possible so we have them on the run," Mr Blancaflor said. "And if we 
have them on the run we are going to catch them sooner or later." 

He also called on Canberra and Manila to go further with a military pact 
currently before the Philippines Senate, which would see Australian troops 
conducting training exercises in the country's south. 

"The agreement needs to go beyond the military," Mr Blancaflor said. "The 
defence agreement is the usual stuff - guns, boats and armaments. But the 
agreement should also have non-military stuff - like desktop computers and 
communications equipment. 

In Jakarta, a former senior JI member warned that more attacks by terror 
leader Noordin Top could not be ruled out, as police admitted they still had no 
idea where Indonesia's most wanted man was hiding. 

Nasir Abas, a Malaysian whose sister Farida is married to death-row Bali 
bomber Ali Ghufron, warned that while Top's ability to conduct large attacks had 
been diminished as the police net around him tightened, he remained in control 
of an unknown number of small cells that could still launch effective strikes. 

"Noordin's potential to conduct a major bombing is quite small, since 
Azahari's gone, as has Jabir, so that the number of people he could use (in an 
operation) is diminished," Mr Abas said. 

"However, I would also point out that his intention is to murder people - and 
that doesn't have to be a big operation. His ability has been reduced but his 
desire to kill has never diminished." 

Mr Abas has been a key source of information on JI since his defection from 
the organisation after being arrested in 2003. 

Mr Abas cast some doubt on a recent leaked US intelligence report suggesting 
JI was acquiring the ability to spread further across the archipelago and 
possibly launch attacks against US allies including Australia. 

"Well, that's according to them," Mr Abas said, pointing out that the active 
terror elements in JI were now more focused on small cells operating 
independently of each other under Top's direction. "Just as with the second Bali 
bombing, they continue to be directly organised by Noordin," he said. "He is the big 
boss, with (Abu Bakar) Bashir continuing to be revered as a leader of the 
movement." 

These cells, if they are indeed planning attacks, are doing so under the 
radar of national and international intelligence agencies, who admit they have no 
indication there is a strike being planned for the current so-called "bombing 
season". 

However, it was precisely one such cell, answering directly to Noordin, that 
carried out the triple suicide bombings in Kuta and Jimbaran exactly a year 
ago, much to the surprise of those whose job it was to anticipate such things.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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