No subject

who wanted to go off to Afghanistan for training, or for those with experience 
who wanted to fight in religious wars from Bosnia to Indonesia. He arranged for 
at least two of the Sept. 11 hijackers to meet in Malaysia, in early 2000, and 
then travel to the United States. One of his front companies wrote a letter 
that allowed Zacharias Moussaoui to enter the United States. (Mr. Moussaoui is 
on trial in Virginia in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.) 

Mr. Hambali was present at the creation of what appears to be Al Qaeda's first 
major operational base in Southeast Asia, in the Philippines about a decade 
ago. 

"Every major terrorist plot by Al Qaeda against the United States has some ties 
to the Philippines," Zachary Abuza, a professor at Simmons College, wrote in 
the recently published "Tentacles of Terror: Al Qaeda's Southeast Asian 
Network." 

The Philippines, an overwhelmingly Catholic country, might seem like a most 
unlikely place to cultivate a radical Muslim insurgency. But on the southern 
Philippine island of Mindanao, Muslims had been waging a war for an Islamic 
state for 20 years, and in the 1980's, hundreds of Filipino Muslims fought 
against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Once they returned, they were ripe for 
recruiting into Mr. bin Laden's army for his new war, against the United 
States. 

In the early 1990's, Mr. bin Laden assigned a brother-in-law, Muhammad Jamal 
Khalifa, to the Philippine mission. Mr. Khalifa married a Philippine woman and 
set up an import-export company as his cover, and to explain the movement of 
large amounts of money, much of supplied by Mr. Hambali, who set up front 
companies in Malaysia.

Using a charity, Mr. Khalifa funneled money to two militant Muslim groups that 
became affiliated with Al Qaeda, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu 
Sayyaf. Thousands of Islamic fighters from these groups went to Afghanistan for 
training, and returned to fight against the Philippine government.

But separately, Mr. bin Laden set up a cell in Manila whose target was the 
United States. All cell members were Arabs. He entrusted the cell to Ramzi 
Yousef and Mr. Yousef's uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, both of whom had taken 
part in the planning of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Mr. Yousef was arrested in Pakistan in 1995 and is serving a life sentence in 
the United States. Mr. Mohammed is still at large, and is now on the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation's most wanted terrorist list. American officials have 
said that he was a key planner of the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Back in 1994, in Manila, they worked on a plan to blow up 11 American airliners 
over the Pacific. The plot was foiled when chemicals exploded in Mr. Yousef's 
Manila apartment. Helped by the network, he fled to Malaysia, where Mr. Hambali 
had his base, and on to Pakistan, where he was captured.

Looking back, American officials now say that Al Qaeda's Manila operations 
should have alerted them. "That was the real sign we should have paid attention 
to," a former American intelligence official in the region said.

A few months after Mr. Yousef fled, Omar al-Faruq showed up, sent by Mr. bin 
Laden. Mr. Faruq, who was seized in Indonesia and turned over to the Americans 
last June, has become a major source of information about Al Qaeda's network 
and operations in Southeast Asia.

Mr. Faruq had a dual mission — to work with Islamic radicals in the Philippines 
and to prepare terrorist attacks on American interests, Philippine officials 
said. 

He tried to get the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf to work 
together, which would have been a deadly team for Al Qaeda. But Abu Sayyaf 
degenerated into a group of bandits who engaged in kidnapping for ransom.

Al Qaeda's relationship with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was more 
fruitful. At Mr. bin Laden's request, the front opened its Camp Abubakar to 
foreign jihadists, which meant they did not all have to go to Afghanistan. 

Three other camps for foreigners were opened in the 1990's — Camp Palestine, 
primarily for Arabs; Camp Vietnam and Camp Hudaibie, for Malaysians and 
Indonesians. More than 1,500 Indonesians went through the camps, then returned 
to Indonesia, where they presumably are today, a Philippine official said.

In 2000, the Philippine Army basically demolished Camp Abubakar, and today the 
Moro Islamic Liberation Front is engaged in peace talks with the Philippine 
government.

When the Philippines became a bit less friendly, Mr. bin Laden turned more 
aggressively to Indonesia after Suharto fell in 1998. With more than 200 
million Muslims living under a repressive government, it was ripe recruiting 
ground.

Once again, there was a movement for Al Qaeda to tap into, in this case Jemaah 
Islamiyah, which sought to establish an Islamic state across Southeast Asia. 
Its leader was Abu Bakar Bashir, and the chief of operations was Mr. Hambali. 
Last week, it was declared a terrorist organization by the United States. 

In the early 1990's, American intelligence discovered that Jemaah Islamiyah was 
sending scores of young Muslim men to training camps in Afghanistan. When the 
Americans presented evidence of this to Indonesian officials, they said they 
were not concerned, and the United States did not push the issue, a former 
American intelligence official said.

In 1999, just after the repressive Suharto dictatorship was toppled, Al Qaeda 
set up a training camp in central Sulawesi. Hundreds of men went through the 
camp, including at least 200 Arabs, Indonesian intelligence officials said. The 
camp was closed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mr. bin Laden also sent Mr. Faruq to Indonesia. There, he married an Indonesian 
woman and immediately hooked up with Jemaah Islamiyah.

Mr. Bashir gave money and volunteers to Mr. Faruq for terrorist plots. Working 
together, Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah were also plotting in the most unlikely 
of places, Singapore, which has the tightest security in Asia, if not the 
world. The possible targets included the American Embassy and other places 
frequented by American servicemen. 

But the plot was foiled when Singaporean authorities discovered it and arrested 
many of the participants.

Malaysian and Singaporean authorities say they have neutralized Jemaah 
Islamiyah and Al Qaeda in their countries, an assessment supported by Western 
governments. But few other nations can make that statement with any confidence.

"It is universally accepted that the United States has done a great deal in 
dismantling the terrorist machine in Afghanistan," a senior Philippine 
intelligence official said. But, he said, "their network and contacts in 
Southeast Asia are still in place, and it is more radical now."

"We cannot discount the reality that these people have the capacity to do a 
Bali here," another senior Philippine official said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CNN.com/World
Bali forensic team ends bomb site probe
By CNN's Grant Holloway in Sydney
Monday, October 28, 2002 Posted: 1:46 AM EST (0646 GMT)

KUTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The forensic examination of the Bali bombing crime 
scene is largely completed, Australian Federal Police say, with part of the 
site now open to the public. 

But the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar, which bore the brunt of the two explosions, 
are both still sealed off. 

At least 180 people were killed by two explosions in the Kuta Beach 
entertainment district of Bali on October 12, the bulk of whom were Australian 
tourists. 

The joint Indonesian Australian police investigation team will give a formal 
briefing in both Bali and Australia later this week to detail its findings so 
far. 

"The bulk of the forensic testing and mapping of the site has been completed 
and tests on this material is well advanced by laboratories in Indonesia and 
Australia," federal agent Graham Ashton said Sunday. 

Agents are following a number of leads which they hope will lead them to the 
culprits, and sketches have been produced of three Indonesian men whom police 
now consider to be "persons of interest." 

The identity of a Mitsubishi van believed to have carried the explosives for 
the larger blast outside the Sari Club is also being pursued. 

The van was parked by at least two Indonesian men just two minutes before the 
explosions, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald Monday. 

Pinpointing the time the Mitsubishi L300 van was stopped in the street outside 
the club will allow police to get more accurate descriptions of the three 
possible suspects, the report says. 

A team from Mitsubishi in Japan are now assisting the investigation team in 
trying to track down the owner of the van, which appears to have its 
registration number deliberately scratched out. 

Hotel room link
Forensic experts from various countries are also conducting post-blast residue 
analysis to determine the types and amount of explosives used in the attack. 

"It is too early to speculate on when the analysis of the samples that have 
been collected over the last two weeks will be finalized or what the findings 
may be," Ashton said in a statement. 

He said he was satisfied with the progress of the investigation to this point. 

"We have extensive material from the crime scene that is being subject to 
forensic analysis; a large number of potential witnesses that can help build 
our understanding of persons in the area prior to the blast; and literally 
hundreds of videos and thousands of photographs," he said. 

Indonesian investigators on Sunday said they had found evidence linking a Bali 
hotel room to the terror attack. 

Indonesia's police spokesman Brig-Gen Edward Aritonang said investigators had 
searched several houses, hotel rooms and car dealerships in and around 
Denpasar, the main city in Bali. 

Problematic probe
Those places were believed to have a connection with several items found at the 
crime scene, as well as to the movement of the bombers prior to and after the 
explosion, the Jakarta Post reports Aritonang saying. 

Investigators were trying to determine whether the presence of certain vehicles 
and people at the blast site were purely coincidental, or were directly 
connected to the perpetrators, he said. 

"I cannot be more specific than that. All I can say is that the evidence would 
be residue, DNA traces and fingerprints," he said. 

The Bali investigation so far has been problematic, with Indonesian 
investigators telling media of findings and developments which have been 
subsequently proven incorrect by Australian police. 

There are currently 120 Australian police investigators working with the joint 
team in Bali, which also includes experts from the United Kingdom and the U.S. 

The number of Australians confirmed as dead in the Bali bombings has risen to 
34 with grave fears held for another 55. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Age (Melbourne)
Clues arise from the scrap-heap
October 29 2002
By Darren Goodsir, Kuta

The twisted metal fragments are laid out on bare white tiles; a piecemeal 
outline of the van in which the most deadly of the Bali bombs was hidden.

Laid out like a rectangle, it is hard to imagine that these mangled, reddish-
brown scraps were once part of a vehicle.

But with the help of Inspector Neurah Wijayaputra, a chemistry graduate from 
the Udayana University in Denpasar, the outline of the terrorist's van can be 
distinguished.

Mr Wijayaputra has been a policeman for only three years, but today finds 
himself at the forefront of the Indonesian police effort. "It's a slow job, but 
we are now starting to put the pieces back together," he said.

The cylindrical axle, for instance, found near a shop 400 metres from the Sari 
Club, is bent and broken but recognisable. In front of it has been placed the 
steering column.

Alongside that, police have put down a fractured wheel drum, and further back 
lies the crankshaft. The pieces have been loosely assembled to resemble the 
chassis.

In all, more than 100 parts, some minute, others virtually intact, are on the 
floor. Incredibly, a punctured tyre - possibly the spare - survived the blast. 
It denotes the rear of the L-300 Mitsubishi van, the most important piece of 
forensic material in the complex investigation.

During an exclusive inspection of the Indonesian police scientific headquarters 
in Denpasar, The Age was yesterday escorted through laboratories and testing 
rooms; observing the myriad experiments aimed at identifying the bombers.

Outside the headquarters are further mounds of blackened material from the 
blast, some stored in shopping bags.

Police have confirmed that the vehicle was a 1981-83, L-300 1400cc Mitsubishi 
van. But the van's colour, engine number and number plate have not yet been 
revealed - all the identifying features had been scraped off by the bombers.

Inside an office are two Jakarta experts, Ari Kurniawan and Lukas Budisantoso 
Msi, part of a 41-strong forensic team.

Mr Kurniawan is finalising tests on the vehicle. He holds up a diagram that 
shows a line of cars in Jalan Legian, near Paddy's Bar and the Sari Club from 
which he has extracted data.

Mr Budisantoso said: "I have been doing the polygraph tests on the suspects. We 
already have the results and a conclusion from the three witnesses." But he 
declines to reveal his findings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Xinhuanet
2002-10-28 19:51:08 
Indonesia denies involvement of two generals in Bali blasts 

JAKARTA, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Politics 
and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday rejected rumors about the 
involvement of two generals in the bloody blasts in the tourist resort of Bali 
island two weeks ago. 

Yudhoyono made it clear at a press conference that there had been no 
information or investigation result referring to the involvement of the two 
generals in the Bali deadly explosions, which killed some 187 people and 
injured some 311 other, many of them are foreign tourists. He made the 
statement after discussion with the Indonesian police chief about the rumor. 

"I would like to call on all parties concerned to allow the process of 
investigation to continue and refrain from making any conclusion before the end 
of the investigation," Yudhoyono said. 

He warned that making undue conclusion might lead to the rise of fractions 
among social groups and even national disintegration. 

Separately, a spokesman of the Indonesian National Police Basyir Barmawi said 
that the police kept carrying out investigation against the two generals, in 
regarding with the possible involvement in the Bali bombing. 

According to him, so far the police has not yet received any information about 
the involvement of the two generals. 

The rumor about the involvement of the two generals originated from the 
manifest of an Indonesian airliner for Jakarta-Denpasar flight about the time 
of the bombings, which included their names.