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Linking Bin Laden to Bali
-- Some suggest bin Laden may have mastermindded the Bali bombing, but 
Indonesian officials are reluctant to acknowledge a link
By Jason Tedjasukmana and Simon Elegant
Sunday, Jan. 19, 2003

Indonesian officials have been reluctant to make a direct link between the 
bombings last October in Bali and al-Qaeda, the terrorist network headed by 
Osama bin Laden. Many of those arrested were members of Jemaah Islamiah (J.I.), 
an Islamic militant group with adherents throughout Southeast Asia. But as 
recently as Jan. 8, Indonesia's top police official said, "We haven't come to 
any conclusion yet whether there is a link between Jemaah Islamiah and al-
Qaeda."

Some of those accused of the bombings, however, paint a very different picture. 
The 27-page confession to local police by Ali Gufron, better known by his J.I. 
code name Mukhlas, refers to the time he met bin Laden in Afghanistan during a 
three-year stay there. 

In the confession, a copy of which TIME has seen, Mukhlas says he believes the 
$25,000 that he and other plotters were given for the Bali operation by Riduan 
Isamuddin, J.I.'s operations chief also known as Hambali, may have originally 
come from bin Laden. Bali investigators are also looking into the possibility 
that a hardened al-Qaeda operative named Syafullah—a Yemeni who entered 
Indonesia on a fake U.S. visa—may have been in charge of mixing the chemicals 
used in the bombs. Mukhlas says that he, Hambali (who is still on the lam) and 
other J.I. leaders maintained close ties with al-Qaeda from the late 1980s on, 
and the official police summary of Mukhlas' interrogation states 
baldly, "Jemaah Islamiah's jihad operations were funded by al-Qaeda."

Why the reluctance by Indonesian officials to acknowledge a link? Because the 
Bali bombings remain controversial. J.I.'s suspected spiritual leader, the 
influential cleric Abubakar Ba'asyir, has been detained since October. But 
speculation in Jakarta continues that he is being protected by hard-line 
Islamic sympathizers at the top levels of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's 
government. General I Made Mangku Pastika, the officer in charge of the Bali 
investigation, says he is convinced that Ba'asyir was a "teacher and 
inspiration" to the bombers. Pastika says Ba'asyir, who has not been connected 
to the Bali bombings, will go on trial for immigration violations. While 
Ba'asyir's role in J.I. is still being investigated, linking J.I. with al-Qaeda 
does not sit well with many Indonesian politicians. 
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Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Sunday, January 19, 2003, Posted: 21:15:22 (AEDT) 
Indonesian police to resubmit Bali bomb suspect file to prosecutor

Indonesian investigators of the Bali bombing will next week resubmit the file 
on key Bali bombing suspect Amrozi to prosecutors after adding details, police 
said. 

"The files of Amrozi will be returned by end of next week at the latest, 
hopefully sometimes early next week," spokesman for the team of investigators 
Zainuri Lubis said. 

Prosecutors who will prepare the court documents for the trial of Amrozi in 
Bali last week returned the files of the suspect to police, saying they needed 
to be completed and improved. 

Under Indonesian law, if prosecutors are satisfied with the evidence file they 
prepare charges which will be brought before a court. 

"With the arrests of Ali Imron and the other new suspects, we will also 
complete the Amrozi files with information obtained from their questioning," Mr 
Lubis said. 

Imron is a younger brother of Amrozi, the first suspect detained over the 
October 12 attack which killed more than 190 people, mostly tourists. 

Imron and 13 other suspects were arrested on an isolated island in East 
Kalimantan and were flown to Bali where they are being detained for questioning.

Another man has since also been arrested in Lamongan, East Java. 

Based on the testimony of 15 suspects previously detained, Imron is known to 
have taken the van used in the Bali bombing to the resort island along with 
Amrozi, police have said. 

Imron allegedly also took part in several meetings in Lamongan to prepare the 
attacks, and was wanted for possession of weapons found buried in a forest in 
Lamongan shortly after the bombing. 

Police say they want to put the first suspects on trial as early as next month.

They could face the death penalty if charged under a new anti-terrorism decree 
passed in the wake of the bombing. 

Police say Amrozi has admitted buying a van and chemicals to help make the bomb 
and transporting them to the island. 

Thirty people have been arrested in the case while nine more, among them two 
Malaysians, are still being sought. 

Key suspects in custody are Amrozi's elder brother Mukhlas, the alleged 
controller of the Bali attack, and Imam Samudra, whom police says was the field 
coordinator. 

Mr Lubis says that with the prosecutor having returned Amrozi's files to the 
police, the investigating team's plan to submit the files of Imam Samudra will 
be delayed about one week. 

"The files of the other defendants will be made with the Amrozi files as a 
reference," Mr Lubis said.
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Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Mon, Jan 20 2003 8:29 AM AEDT
More oil, gas reserves to be developed in Timor Sea

Geoscience Australia says there are more oil and gas fields to be developed in 
the Bonaparte Basin in the Timor Sea. 

Petroleum adviser Paul Williamson says the latest Oil and Gas Resources of 
Australia Yearbook shows a 23 per cent increase in reserves. 

Mr Williamson says the yearbook also estimates that a number of oil and gas 
fields in the Bonaparte Basin are still to be developed. 

"There's been something like 67 discoveries in the basin," he said. 

"Of those 22 have been oil, 31 gas, four oil and gas together, nine of those 
discoveries have been developed as fields. 

"One is currently been developed but there are... 24 more which are big enough 
that they might be developed at some time."