No subject

behind the Bali bombings (see story), Indonesian militants have been peddling 
their own version of the tragedy: That the CIA planted the bombs to create 
evidence for its claims that terrorists were at work in the country. Reporter 
Dan Murphy says the most interesting thing about this claim is how many 
Indonesians either believe it or say it's possible. The claim has been repeated 
in newspapers, on television, and in dozens of Dan's conversations with 
Indonesians about the blast.   

"I was sitting at a warung – a streetside thatched-roof restaurant two days 
ago – having lunch and talking to a couple of construction workers. They asked 
me if I thought the CIA was behind the Bali bombing.

"Their logic: The Americans were issuing warnings that a terrorist attack was 
coming. They said: 'Doesn't that seem suspicious to you?' "

Dan says that it reflects not only a rising distrust of America because of 
anger over its policies in the Middle East but also a legacy of the 
dictatorship that ended here in 1998. "After so many years of dictatorship – 
where information was tightly controlled and propaganda was liberally doled out 
to the nation – there's almost a national obsession with conspiracy theories. 
Apparently, the truth seems too simple and too obvious."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Wall Street Journal (via Joyo Indonesia News)
November 7, 2002
Militant Used Thailand As Base for Bali Attack
By Jay Solomon and James Hookway 
Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

Al Qaeda's top Southeast Asian operative used southern Thailand as a pivotal 
planning area for last month's bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali 
that killed more than 190 people, according to Asia-based intelligence 
officials.

The officials say a mid-January meeting at a safe house near Thailand's border 
with Malaysia was particularly important because it was led by Riduan 
Isamuddin, an Indonesian Islamic cleric implicated in several other Southeast 
Asia terrorist plots. Mr. Riduan, officials say, allegedly exhorted Arab and 
Southeast Asian militants attending the Thailand meeting to attack nightclubs 
and restaurants after a more ambitious plan to bomb U.S., Israeli and other 
targets in Singapore was foiled in late 2001.

The militants' use of Thailand as a staging area illustrates how Osama bin 
Laden's al Qaeda network has exploited Southeast Asia's porous borders to plan 
operations. Intelligence officials say the meeting demonstrates the impressive 
mobility of Mr. Riduan, also known as Hambali, who is one the world's most 
wanted terror suspects. "We know that he is alive and he is always on the 
move," says a senior Asia-based security official. "He doesn't spend more than 
one night in a single place."

Mr. Riduan elusiveness has frustrated U.S. and Southeast Asian security 
agencies since he was last spotted in Malaysia's southern state of Johor in 
December 2001. At the time, according to intelligence officials, Mr. Riduan and 
other members of Jemaah Islamiyah -- an al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian 
militant group -- were trying to sneak four tons of explosives into Singapore 
to use in planned attacks on the U.S. and Israeli embassies and other targets 
there. The Singapore government uncovered the plot and arrested more than a 
dozen people allegedly involved. Malaysia detained several suspected Jemaah 
Islamiyah members. Mr. Riduan escaped.

Asian security officials believe Mr. Riduan spends most of his time moving 
between the southern Philippine island of Mindanao and his native Indonesia . 
Mr. Riduan is suspected of organizing meetings for Jemaah Islamiyah operatives 
in Marawi City in Mindanao and is believed to have visited the Indonesian 
islands of Java and Sulawesi.

Extracting Leads
Much of the information surrounding Mr. Riduan comes from interrogations of 
suspected al Qaeda agents who worked with the Indonesian national in the past. 
One is Kuwaiti-born Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, who was detained in Oman in April 
and handed over to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Jabarah is 
being held by U.S. authorities at an undisclosed location.

The FBI says Mr. Jabarah said he was one of the operatives Mr. Riduan employed 
to carry out the planned Singapore attack. According to Asia-based intelligence 
officials who have seen his FBI interrogation report, Mr. Jabarah said he 
attended the Thailand meeting with Mr. Riduan where the plot to bomb nightclubs 
was hatched. "Hambali seemed furious that the plan in Singapore failed," says a 
senior Asia diplomat who has been working closely with Washington on dealing 
with al Qaeda. "He seemed to want to make sure an operation succeeded."

The FBI says Mr. Jabarah told authorities a skilled bomb-maker he identified 
as "Saad" also met with Mr. Riduan and other Jemaah Islamiyah militants in 
southern Thailand. Some terrorist experts speculate Saad was an Arab munitions 
expert sent from Afghanistan to help Jemaah Islamiyah carry out attacks. But 
one Asian intelligence official, who has seen Mr. Jabarah's interrogation 
report, says he believes Saad is Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian who 
trained briefly with the Taliban in Afghanistan before returning to Southeast 
Asia last year.

Mr. Ghozi -- who Singapore authorities allege was also involved in the failed 
bomb plot there -- was arrested in the Philippines earlier this year. He was 
convicted of illegal possession of explosives and is serving a 12-year sentence.

A Step Forward
The fact Mr. Riduan and other Islamic militants used Thailand to plan 
operations could open a front in Southeast Asia's campaign against terror. 
Although Thailand is predominately Buddhist, the far south of the country has a 
sizable Muslim population and has a long history of political violence by local 
Islamic militants aimed at the central government in Bangkok.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai government hasn't publicly 
acknowledged any activity by al Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiyah operatives in 
Thailand. "There is still no confirmation that Jemaah Islamiyah used Thailand 
as a base for planning terrorist activities in the region," says Thai 
government spokesman Sita Divari. "But we are putting every tool in use to 
investigate these claims."

Thai Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha is expected to meet with Malaysian 
officials in Kuala Lumpur early next week to discuss ways to tighten security 
and immigration procedures along the two countries' loosely patrolled border.

Meanwhile, almost a month after the Bali bombing, Indonesian officials have yet 
to charge anyone in connection with the attack. Police Spokesman Brig. Gen. 
Edward Aritonang says security forces had interrogated at least 10 people who 
may have been involved in the attacks. "So far, we have not concluded whether 
they had anything to do with it or not," he says, adding that, except for the 
three detainees, none of the others was in custody.

The U.S. and Australian governments have said they believe al Qaeda and Jemaah 
Islamiyah were behind the attack.
-- Leslie Lopez in Kuala Lumpur and Shawn Crispin in Bangkok contributed to 
this article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Australian
Bashir link to Bali suspect
By Martin Chulov, Surabaya
November 08, 2002

THE chief suspect in the Bali bomb blasts was visited three times during the 
past year by cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of banned 
terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah who has for three weeks denied any involvement 
in the atrocity.

Neighbours in suspect Amrozi's tiny east Java village, and the director of the 
Islamic school where he prayed, confirmed to The Australian yesterday that Mr 
Bashir had visited Mr Amrozi's mechanical workshop each time he came to town.

In a day of sudden developments, Indonesian and Australian police confirmed 
last night that Mr Amrozi had confessed to a significant role in the bombing.

National police chief Da'i Bachtiar said the 35-year-old suspect had admitted 
he was the last owner of the Mitsubishi L300 minivan used to plant the main 
bomb outside the Sari Club, which claimed most of the 184 lives lost in the 
attack. He is believed to have bought the vehicle with US dollars from a man 
named Annas in Bali.

"Amrozi used the car to plant the bomb in Bali," General Bachtiar said. "Amrozi 
admitted it, and we are still chasing his friends.

"They are a group of people who have assigned jobs. Among them is Amrozi, who 
has admitted having come there (to Bali) and he was assigned to secure the 
mission and was also responsible for actions in the field."

The suspect also has allegedly confessed to a role in the Atrium Plaza bombings 
in Jakarta during Christmas 2000, the same attack over which police are trying 
to question Mr Bashir. He is in custody.

The international investigation team has been given details of the 
interrogation of Mr Amrozi, who was flown under guard to Bali on Wednesday for 
further questioning.

Investigation sources said Mr Amrozi also had confessed he knew the top JI 
leaders – Mr Bashir and Riduan Isanuddin, alias Hambali, southeast Asia's most 
wanted man.

Mr Bashir, who is based in the central Java town of Solo, last visited Mr 
Amrozi's village – Tenggulun, about two hours west of Surabaya, Java – in June. 
That was the month Mr Amrozi allegedly bought the minivan used for the Sari 
Club bomb. The Bashir visit was confirmed yesterday by the director of the 
village's Al Islam school, Mohammed Khozin, who said Mr Bashir had also visited 
in mid-2001.

"Each time Abu Bakar Bashir came here, Amrozi played host to him in his bengkel 
(workshop)," said a neighbour named Maftunin. 

Mr Amrozi lives with his mother, Mariyam, and ailing father, Nurhasyim, in the 
back of a rundown rural cottage flanked on either side by his two workshops.

Both were surrounded yesterday by police tape, but inside was evidence of 
amateur mechanical repairs, electrical components and a sewing machine that 
neighbours said was used to make veils.

Mr Amrozi had a reputation in the village as a self-taught repair man, 
specialising in computers, mobile phones and cars.

Police at the scene confirmed yesterday they had taken for analysis metal 
shavings found on tools in Mr Amrozi's shed, believing someone involved in the 
bombing had tried to obliterate the minivan's engine and chassis numbers.

But it was the chassis number that led police to Mr Amrozi, with the help of 
analysts from Mitsubishi.

He was arrested on Tuesday in his workshop by police from Indonesia's anti-
terrorist team who had staked out his home for two days.

His mother said yesterday she did not know her son had been arrested, and 
detectives had asked her only whether he had a passport. She confirmed that he 
had owned a white van that used to be parked at the front of the house, but it 
had been missing since late September.

His room in the back of his parents' shack had been ransacked by detectives, 
who took away brochures on Islamic holy wars in Bosnia and The Philippines.

They also seized a passport that confirmed he had recently travelled to 
Thailand and Malaysia, where neighbours said his brother, Ghufron, had run an 
Islamic school that was closed by the Malaysian Government in 1996.

Detectives said Mr Amrozi had told investigators he did not regret the loss of 
life in Bali, but that he played no role in making the bomb.

One of Mr Amrozi's friends has been detained by police in Surabaya.

The developments came as police released a fourth identikit image of a man 
wanted over the Bali bombings. They refused to disclose his link but he is 
believed to be the person being sought for planting the smaller bomb at Paddy's 
bar, opposite the Sari Club. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Minivan owner confesses to role in Bali blasts 
07 November, 2002 21:11 GMT+08:00  
By Dean Yates 
Jakarta (Reuters) 

Indonesian police said on Thursday the owner of a minivan used in last month's 
car-bomb attack in Bali had admitted being a key figure in the group that 
carried out the atrocity, and had given police plenty of information. 

In the first big breakthrough in the multinational probe over the October 12 
blasts that killed 184 people, national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar 
identified the man as Amrozi and told reporters he was on the resort island at 
the time of the attacks. 

Asked if Amrozi parked the explosives-laden van in front of a nightclub packed 
with foreign tourists, Bachtiar said: "The group has several people with a 
division of labour, certainly including Amrozi, who admitted going there and 
dividing up tasks." 

Amrozi is the first suspect named over the three blasts that rocked Bali, 
presenting President Megawati Sukarnoputri with the biggest challenge of her 
presidency and appearing to confirm fears that the world's most populous Muslim 
nation was Southeast Asia's weakest link in the war on terrorism. 

The car-bomb was by far the biggest of the blasts, destroying the Sari 
nightclub and killing mainly foreign revellers. 

Bachtiar said Amrozi resembled one of four sketches of possible suspects police 
have released. He did not say if Amrozi was Indonesian or if he had any links 
to radical Muslim groups. 

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts but speculation has centred on 
Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian Islamist group which intelligence agencies 
say has planned attacks throughout the region and have linked to al Qaeda. 

Without prompting by reporters, Bachtiar said that if any information pointed 
in the direction of Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim cleric who is the suspected 
spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, this would be cross-checked. 

"We have gathered lots of information from (Amrozi) but we still have to cross-
check it with other evidence," Bachtiar said. 

Bashir has not been tied to Bali. He denies any wrongdoing. 

Police had announced the capture of Amrozi in East Java earlier in the week. He 
was moved to Bali on Wednesday night. 

A Crackdown On Militants? 
Police earlier released the sketch of the fourth suspect in the Bali probe as 
Jakarta came under fresh international pressure to find and prosecute those 
responsible for the atrocity. 

Police released sketches last week of three Indonesian men. 

Singapore said on Thursday plenty was at stake in the probe. 

"We hope that the Indonesian government will prosecute this (Bali) 
investigation vigorously, get to the bottom of it, find out who is responsible 
and the culprits punished," Singapore Defence Minister Tony Tan said on a visit 
to Australia. 

"Because if you don't do that you are sending a signal to terrorist groups, to 
the rest of the world, to Indonesians, about your attitude towards terrorism." 

In a sign Jakarta might be cracking down on Islamic militancy in the wake of 
the blasts, a radical Muslim group notorious for raiding nightclubs and making 
threats against Westerners said it had suspended its militia's activities 
indefinitely. 

Prior to Bali Jakarta had been accused of resisting pressure to tackle 
militants among its mainly moderate Muslim populace. 

The move by the radical Islamic Defender's Front (FPI) follows another militant 
group, Laskar Jihad, which broke up only days after the Bali tragedy. 

Support For Bashir 
A senior Indonesian security source said both groups -- which diplomats have 
said could not have existed without support from elements within the security 
forces -- had come under pressure from the military and police to shut up shop. 

But working against the perception of a crackdown is widespread support given 
to Bashir, detained over a series of church bombings and an alleged plot to 
kill Megawati, along with near silence from her and other senior officials 
about the problems posed by Islamic militancy. 

The senior security source said the declining fortunes of the Islamic 
Defender's Front and Laskar Jihad was no coincidence. 

"You can see with FPI, every (militia) will eventually disband. This is due to 
pressure from the military and police," said the source, who declined to be 
identified. 

Australia -- which lost some 90 citizens in Bali -- meanwhile brushed aside 
criticism from Asian neighbours of its treatment of Muslims, adamant that its 
ties with Asia were good but stressing that national security came first. 

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have accused Canberra of over-reacting by 
advising Australians to leave Indonesia in the wake of the blasts and not to 
travel in Southeast Asia. 

The criticism reached a crescendo after Australian intelligence officers and 
police, wielding sledgehammers, raided several Muslim homes to hunt down 
supporters of Jemaah Islamiah. 

Indonesia's acting ambassador to Australia, Imron Cotan, said if the raids did 
not stop, Jakarta might have to pull out of a joint investigation into the 
bombings. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~