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17,000 Islands, 300 Ethnic Groups, 250 Languages
With 17,670 islands, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago, stretching from Southeast Asia to Australia in a 3,500-mile crescent.
The fourth most populous country in the world, it is also one of the most culturally diverse, encompassing Javanese Muslims, Portuguese-speaking Christians, Balinese Hindus, and animist tribespeople from Borneo and New Guinea. Three hundred different ethnic groups inhabit the islands and while the official language, Bahasa Indonesia, is prevalent almost everywhere, 250 other distinct languages are also spoken.
Suharto's Departure Brings Freedom and Chaos
The ethnic, religious, and political tensions kept in check during former President Suharto's 32 years of authoritarian rule ruptured in the months following his downfall in May 1998. The Indonesian ideal, "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" ("Unity in Diversity") unraveled as the government collapsed.
Balkanization
Indonesia has been compared to the former Yugoslavia, with Suharto as the country's Tito. Once the country was no longer held together by a strong leader, its forced cohesion began to splinter.
Rioting and skirmishes have increased in the past year, some of them the expression of a general, ill-defined desire for "reformasi" directed at the government and the country's worsening poverty. But in a number of troubled regions around the archipelago, the violence has focused on long-simmering ethnic animosities and religious bigotry.
infoplease.com
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Suhartos New Order
The transition from Sukarno's Guided Democracy to Suharto's New Order reflected a realignment of the country's political forces. The left had been bloodied and driven from the political stage, and Suharto was determined to ensure that the PKI would never reemerge as a challenge to his authority. Powerful new intelligence bodies were established in the wake of the coup: the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order (Kopkamtib) and the State Intelligence Coordination Agency (Bakin). The PKI had been crushed on the leadership and cadre levels, but an underground movement remained in the villages of parts of Java that was methodically and ruthlessly uprooted by the end of 1968. Around 200,000 persons were detained by the military after the coup: these were divided into three categories depending on their involvement. The most active, Group A, those "directly involved" in the revolt, were sentenced by military courts to death or long terms in prison; Group B, less actively involved, were in many cases sent to prison colonies, such on Buru Island in the Malukus, where they remained under detention, in some cases until 1980; Group C detainees, mostly members of the PKI peasant organization, were generally released from custody. (As late as 1990, four persons were executed for involvement in the coup. Although the delay was explained as due to the length of the judicial appeals process, many observers believed that Suharto wanted to show that the passage of years had not softened his attitude toward communism.)
Communists aside, Suharto generally dealt with opposition or potential opposition with a blend of cooptation and nonlethal repression. According to political scientist Harold A. Crouch, Suharto's operating principle was the old Javanese dictum of alon alon asal kelakon, or "slow but sure." Thus, he gradually asserted control over ABRI, weeding out pro-Sukarno officers and replacing them with men on whom he could depend. The army was placed in a superior position in relation to the other services in terms of budgets, personnel, and equipment. Nasution, Indonesia's most senior general, was gently pushed aside after he left the post of minister of defense and security to become chairman of the DPR in early 1966. Although he later retired from public life, Nasution remained a potential rival to Suharto although he never publicly spoke out or exploited his favorable popular image.
Like Sukarno's Guided Democracy, the New Order under Suharto was authoritarian. There was no return to the relatively unfettered party politics of the 1950-57 period. In the decades after 1966, Suharto's regime evolved into a steeply hierarchical affair, characterized by tight centralized control and long-term personal rule. At the top of the hierarchy was Suharto himself, making important policy decisions and carefully balancing competing interests in a society that was, despite strong centralized rule, still extremely diverse. Arrayed below him was a bureaucratic state in which ABRI played the central role. Formally, the armed forces' place in society was defined in terms of the concept of dwifungsi. Unlike other regimes in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand or Burma, where military regimes promised an eventual (if long-postponed) transition to civilian rule, the military's dual political-social function was considered to be a permanent feature of Indonesian nationhood. Its personnel played a pivotal role not only in the highest ranks of the government and civil service but also on the regional and local levels, where they limited the power of civilian officials. The armed forces also played a disproportionate role in the national economy through militarymanaged enterprises or those with substantial military interests.
Although opposition movements and popular unrest were not entirely eliminated, Suharto's regime was extraordinarily stable compared with its predecessor. His success in governing the world's fourth most populous and, after India, ethnically most diverse nation is attributable to two factors: the military's absolute or near-absolute loyalty to the regime and the military's extensive political and administrative powers. In the mid-1980s, approximately 85 percent of senior officers were Javanese (although the percentage was declining). Suharto wisely averted a problem of many military regimes: the monopolization of the higher ranks by senior military officers who frustrate the aspirations of their juniors. In 1985 he ordered an extensive reorganization of the officer corps in which the Generation of 1945, who had taken part in the National Revolution, was largely retired, the younger generation promoted into command positions, and an extensive reorganization accomplished in order to promote efficiency.
Other factors in stability include the establishment of a large number of corporatist-style organizations to link social groups in a subordinate relationship with the regime. These included organizations of a social, class, religious, and professional nature. Rather than imposing cultural and ideological homogeneity-- a virtually impossible task given the society's diversity--Suharto revived the Sukarno-era concept of Pancasila. Suharto's approach to political conflict did not reject the use of coercion but supplemented it with a rhetoric of "consultation and consensus," which, like Pancasila, had its roots in the Sukarno and Japanese eras.
- countrystudies.us
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secret backing of the Americans
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Recently-released files reveal that when the Indonesian tyrant General Suharto seized power in the 1960s, he did so with the secret backing of the American, British and Australian governments, which looked the other way or actively encouraged the slaughter of more than half a million "communists". This was later described by the CIA as "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th Century".
The Australian Prime Minister at the time, Harold Holt, quipped: "With 500,000 to a million communist sympathisers knocked off, I think it's safe to assume a reorientation has taken place." Holt's remark accurately reflected the collaboration of the Australian foreign affairs and political establishment. The Australian embassy in Jakarta described the massacres as a "cleansing process". In Canberra, officials in the Prime Minister's department expressed support for "any measures to assist the Indonesian army cope with the internal situation".
Suharto's bloody rise might not have succeeded had the United States not secretly equipped his troops. A state-of-the-art field communications system, flown in at night by the US Air Force planes, had high frequencies that were linked directly to the CIA and the National Security Agency advising President Johnson. Not only did this allow Suharto's generals to co-ordinate the killings, it meant that the highest echelons of the US administration were listening in and that Suharto could seal off large areas of the country. In the American embassy, a senior official drew up assassination lists for Suharto, then ticked off the names when each was murdered.
The bloodbath was the price of Indonesia becoming, as the World Bank described it, "a model pupil of the global economy". That meant a green light for western corporations to exploit Indonesia's abundant natural resources. The Freeport Company got a mountain of copper and gold in the province of West Papua. An American and European consortium got the nickel. The giant Alcoa company got the biggest slice of Indonesia's bauxite. Other companies took the tropical forests of Sumatra and Kalimantan; and Suharto and his cronies got a cut that made them millionaires and billionaires.
IN 1975, the violence that had brought Suharto to power was transferred to the Portuguese colony of East Timor. Suharto's troops invaded, and over the next 23 years more than 200,000 people, a third of the population, perished. During much of East Timor's bloody occupation, Suharto's biggest supplier of arms and military equipment was Britain. In one year, a billion pounds' worth of Export Credit Guarantee loans went to Indonesia so that Suharto could buy British Aerospace Hawk jets.
Today, Suharto has gone, but decades of foreign plunder, in league with one of the greatest mass murderers, have produced fault-lines right across Indonesian society. The "model pupil" of the global economy is more indebted than any country; and millions of Indonesians have descended into abject poverty. It is hardly surprising there are resentments and tensions, and support for extreme religious groups. - John Pilger
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His latest book, The New Rulers of the World, comprises four essays which expose the links between globalisation and imperialism.
'The Model Pupil' tells of the West's support for General Suharto's savage coup in Indonesia in 1965. His US-trained minions slaughtered between 500,000 and one million people, mainly members of the Communist Party, but also many ethnic Chinese.
The CIA engineered this coup while other Western leaders looked on with ill-disguised glee, and the multinationals moved in to carve up the country's economy between them. There is a vivid description of how the resources of Indonesia were divided up in five different rooms, each dealing with a sector of the economy. The multinationals wrote the legislative framework for the expropriation of Indonesia.
The IMF and World Bank gave billions of dollars of loans to Suharto's regime despite Indonesia's invasion of East Timor, where 300,000 people died. Suharto was overthrown by a popular uprising in 1998, but Indonesia still "owes" $262 billion to Western financial institutions. This after Indonesia, to a large extent, has been stripped of its resources.
Before the fall of Suharto, IMF officals arrogantly dismissed evidence presented to them by Pilger that Suharto's family and cronies had siphoned off billions from the loans. - nthposition.com
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welcome to the terrordome - Paradise Lost
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Jemaah Islamiyah Shown to Have Significant Ties to al Qaeda
Indonesian Islamic Group Trains in the Philippines and Operates Throughout the Region
Recently uncovered evidence points to strong connections between the Islamic terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), perpetrator of the recent Indonesian bombings at the Australian embassy in Jakarta and the discothèque in Bali, and al Qaeda. The al Qaeda link seems to have prompted Indonesian authorities to make a serious effort to crack-down on JI members. It appears that many Jemaah Islamiyah operatives are still training in camps that were set up in the 1990s in the southern Philippine Islands. It is believed that these operatives plan to carry out acts of terrorism in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia - jinsa.org
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What a set up!!!
Watch out for that boogeyman under your bed.
If theres an attack, its from within.
Subject: Who Benefits?
From: "Hazel"
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 22:27:53 -0000
One by one, the world terror attacks bear more of the hallmarks of US
Intelligence, oBlack Ops,? than of Islamic terrorism. The signs are
unmistakable, the CIA backed industrio-religious crusaders are staging
terror campaigns throughout the world - absolutely - positively.
The despicable US media giants were silent when undisputed proof surfaced
that the CIA, NSA, British Intelligence, the US Secret Service and the FBI
were all involved in the May 16th 2002 blast in a Philippine hotel room when
their agent, Michael Meiring accidently blew his own legs off while
constructing a bomb which was intended, if ignited as planned, to be a
staged oAl Queda? terror attack, justifying a tightened US- Philippine
military alliance.
Meiring who operated under the cover of being a treasure hunter was in fact
a CIA operative under the direct protection of the White House (As evidenced
by his swift NSA/FBI medivac to San Diego after blowing his own legs off).
The US spook spent 10 years on assignment associating with Islamic groups,
Abu Sayef, MNLF, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and other Philippine based
Islamic groups, supplying them with US counterfeit notes (Courtesy of US
intelligence) and bomb making materials so that they may create terrorist
mayhem within the Philippines, giving the US a pretext to move in and,
ohelp,? just like in Indonesia - just like nearly everywhere else these
Mafia-like thugs can plant their terror and, oprotection,? racket.
Meiring called his front company, Paruosia International Trading
Incorporated Paruosia, in Christian fundamentalist lingo, means oSecond
coming of Christ.? - These intelligence asset/crusader types canTt
resist revealing clues to their delusions of righteous grandeur.
What was the coverage from the CIA controlled propaganda machines, CNN, Fox
and the rest regarding this explosive story of a CIA agent caught planting a
terrorist bomb? - Zippo. Not a single mention of Meiring - Nothing.
Thanks to the CIATs complete infiltration of the US major media and the
collusion of media editors and journalists in this crusade and thanks to the
cowardly and obedient journalists who are supposed to write about the real
nature of this crusade, and thanks and to a population whoTs minds have
been so fabulously obliterated by years of programming by the mind slum that
is television, the crusaders have had a free ride. After all these years
infiltrating and or buying the media they have created their own consent
machine, giving themselves a perpetual green light - like thereTs no one
left to stop them...
...or so they think.
One by one you will see staged oIslamic Terrorist,? attacks throughout
South East Asia. Up next Thailand. Since it would be patently ridiculous to
claim that there are viable Islamic terrorist groups in Thailand the CIA/CNN
lie being released into the LieScape is that Al Queda terrorists are using
Thailand as a oSafe Haven.?
And of course Indonesia and the Philippines will continue to receive the
heaviest brunt of these crusadersT attacks
The crusaders know that their window of opportunity is closing fast -
awareness is building throughout the world that it is in fact the dark hand
of this group of US covert operators who is actually behind every single
terror attack in the world - so the Bushes know that they must terrorize now
before the worldTs populations rise up, destroy their own complicit lying
governments and take up arms against US interests around the world. But
since the Bush filth and his type lack the skills to formulate a complete
and total plan for global conquest, the extent of their current plan is to
create as much terror and destabilization as they can and only afterwards,
somehow hope to reap benifit and profit from all the apocalyptic confusion
they create.
What these war criminals and war profiteers in Washington donTt know is
that global conquest is more complicated than BrzezinskiTs books outline.
These retards read BrzezinskiTs books, get all fuelled up on viagra (their
only connection to virility) and harbour serious delusions that they are
godTs crusaders. Another thing that Bush and his cabal of war profiteers
and war criminals donTt know is that they will be brought to justice for
their September 11th attacks on the American people.
But for now, their organs of lies and disinformation, CNN, Fox and the rest
of the lying monopoly media are busy churning out the preparatory lies
necessary to precondition the US population so that when these US crusaders
ignite their bombs, the lie that it was Al Queda that did it will already be
inscribed in our heads.
But CIA/CNN simply cannot churn out enough convincing lies fast enough to
reverse the wave of hatred both within the United States and throughout the
world of these New World Order crusaders fronted by the most despised man on
earth, George W. Bush. And so the crusaders are counting on the panic and
mayhem generated by these CIA terror strikes to give themselves more time to
formulate a plan - to figure out what to do next to cash in on their terror
attacks.
After the totally unreported Philippines hotel bomb screw-up, the crusaders
struck again in the Bali Nightclub blast.. Voxnyc was the only news service
on the planet with the courage, independence and skills to identify that
this bombing was yet another terror strike courtesy of US based crusaders -
not Al Qaida. We mounted a massive notification campaign and sent out nearly
200,000 emails to every academic institution, politician, newspaper editor
and journalist in Indonesia clarifying just exactly what really happened.
And the result was a phenomenal success. Within days of our massive
notification campaign, public opinion polls throughout Indonesia revealed
that most Indonesians believed that the Bali blast was in fact perpetrated
by the CIA and not Al Qaida.
And if there is any doubt that this little independent news service
voxnyc.com was singlehandedly responsible for exposing the truth about the
Bali blast, just ask any major newspaper editor or politician in Indonesia
if they remember the voxnyc article - they do. It was the only beacon of
truth coming out of the west about that incident. The only flicker of light,
amongst the swarming sea of lies perpetrated by the CIA based US media and
their moles amongst the Indonesian media and political spectrum.
So from now on, our focus of reporting the terror after it has occurred will
shift to focusing on reporting the terror BEFORE IT HAPPENS. This shift
towards oPreemptive reporting? is absolutely critical if we are to stop
these crusadersT terror attacks.
George Bush willingly fronts for the most evil force to ever hold the human
species in itTs grip. He and the invisible murderous hand which lurks in
his shadow represent the very face of evil and simply must be stopped at all
costs.
The big question is, will the crusaders have enough money to infiltrate or
pay off enough local Asian politicians and media owners in order to keep the
truth from their own populations like they have been so fantastically
successful at doing here in the United States. Will the massive CIA based
media monoply which has been so successful at destroying the minds of nearly
80% of all Americans be able to reach into the minds of the Asians and
destroy theirs too? Because unless the infiltration and payoffs are
complete, and the destruction of the mind is total, the fact is, people who
are getting attacked are going to want answers. And without infiltration,
payoffs or mind wasting, there is no other way to keep the real information
about who is behind the attacks, from the victims. My guess is that the pan
Asian infiltration and payoff channels are not complete - so those who seek
the truth still have a window of opportunity to warn the peoples of South
East Asia that the US Crusaders are racing towards them with a blood thirst
not seen since the Third Reich.
The message to those in the State Department, military, intelligence
organizations and in the many religious and industrial think tanks and
organizations who are certainly behind these attacks must be clear - We
intend to warn the populations of the earth in advance of your attacks. We
intend to launch preemptive news campaigns to diffuse each and every one of
your attempts at striking terror in the hearts of these peaceful people.
Your efforts will fail because the people of these nations will be informed
PRIOR to your attacks that you are going to be the ones behind these
attacks. We know that this is for sure your modus operandi and we will
assure you that your plans will not succeed.
The oil crusadersT plan is to create pan global terror and through that
terror somehow use the US military threat as their trump card to go in and
ohelp.? ThatTs it. That is all they are capable of planning. The rest
is improvisation. Their hopes at best is to figure out a way to profit from
that turmoil. But because they are such colossal f**k-ups and literally f**k
up EVERY SINGLE PLAN THEY HAVE EVER CONCOCTED, this one will surely fail as
well - killing many thousands of innocent people in the process and causing
decades of anti American sentiment throughout the world.
So we must warn the countries of Southeast Asia that the crusaders are
racing to take their crusade of terror and plunder to their peaceful
nations.
The analysis of the memes originating from CNN, the Council of Foreign
Relations and the other think tanks of death lead to only one conclusion -
That the crusaders, emboldened by the apparent lack of any feasible
resistance to their terror campaigns, plan to spread their crusade to the
entire planet.
It is critical at this moment in history that some alternative news services
shift to a preemptive mode. ItTs not hard to do, the actions of the
crusaders are completely predictable. Preemption is vital to assuring the
safety of the people of the world and the continuance of life on this
planet. If one wishes to see a clear blueprint for the New World OrderTs
plan for global conquest one only has to turn to CNN. For CNN is the organ
whereby the crusaders transmit their necessary preparatory conditioning
memes so that a sheep-like populous will be ready to march, lock step, like
obedient worker ants and foot soldiers for these dying industrialist
geezers, eager and ready to kill millions to keep their grip on power and
further their eugenicist agenda.
www3.usenetarchive.org
Vox News
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What a set up!!!
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PARANOIA IN THE PHILIPPINES: Did the Philippine government bomb its own people to attract U.S. military might? Was the CIA involved? And why was there so little media coverage?
"The money handed down to the plotters originated from Al-Qaida, an international terrorist organization which was then based in Sudan. Operation Bojinka ['911'] was developed by Al-Qaida operatives Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed while they were in Manila, Philippines in 1994 and early 1995. "
operation Bojinka
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the Michael Meiring mystery: an agent provocateur...
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East Timor -
One of the greatest acts of genocide in the second half of the twentieth century apparently did not warrant a single substantial academic case study, based on primary sources. Why? We have to go back to the years immediately after world war two when the study of post-war international politics, known as "liberal realism," was invented in the United States, largely with the sponsorship of those who designed American global economic power. They include the Ford, Carnegie and Rockeller Foundations, the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Thus, in the great American universities, scholars generally served to justify the cold war - which, we now know from declassified files, not only brought us closer to nuclear war than we thought, but was itself largely bogus. As the British files now make clear, there was no Soviet threat to the world. The threat was to Russia's satellites, just as the United States threatened, invaded and controlled its satellites in Latin America. - John Pilger
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'Superpower behind' Burma blasts
15 May, 2005 -
Burma's government says rebels trained abroad by a "superpower" were behind last week's bombings at three shopping centres in the capital, Rangoon.
Nineteen people are known to have died in the blasts, with 69 injured.
The explosives used were not available in the country, and the plot was funded by a "world famous organisation", the military government said.
The junta said it believes the attacks were led by the Thailand-based All Burma Students Democratic Front.
"It is crystal clear that the terrorists... and the time bombs originated from training conducted with foreign experts at a place in a neighbouring country by a world famous organisation of a certain superpower nation," Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told reporters.
He also accused the unnamed organisation - based in Washington - of having given $100,000 (£54,000) to a dissident group led by a cousin of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The group then sent a group of saboteurs to Burma to carry out the attacks, helped by ethnic Shan, Karen and Karenni rebels, the minister added.
The three minority ethnic groups have denied any involvement.
Even though the minister refused to name the suspected country and organisation, correspondents believe he was referring to the United States and the CIA.
The bombs went off at two supermarkets and at a conference centre in Rangoon on 7 May.
The Thai-based National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which has led a government in exile since 1990, has alleged the government might have had the bombs planted to blame the opposition.
bbc
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Major radical and/or terrorist groups in Southeast Asia
Terrorist groups have been reported to be active in at least four countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Several groups have been accused of having links with Al-Qaeda and several have links with other movements in the region.
Jemaah Islamiah (JI)
was founded in the mid-1990s and has the grand aim of establishing an independent Islamic state encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern islands of the Philippines. Intelligence officials (notably from Singapore) have investigated the group since it came to wide attention in January 2002. JI has also been implicated in a number of bombings including those in Manila in December 2000. JI is alleged to be led by a radical Indonesian cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, who runs a Muslim boarding school in Solo, central Java (Bashir, also sometimes described as the movement's 'spiritual leader', has denied in recent interviews a connection with JI). The plot to stage bombings in Singapore was allegedly organised by a deputy to Bashir, Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali (whose current location is unknown). JI is thought to be associated with other groups including the Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM). Singapore has alleged that JI received some funding from Al Qaeda over three years. Singapore officials have also claimed that Hambali has been seeking to coordinate the activities of JI with Muslim radicals in Thailand and separatists in the southern Philippines, especially the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) into an alliance called Rabatitul Mujaihidin.
Laskar Jihad (LJ)
was established as the paramilitary wing of Forum Komunikasi Ahlus Sunnah wal Jammah (Communications Forum of the Followers of the Sunnah), established in Jogjakarta in early 1998. The LJ was formed on 30 January 2000 in response to religious violence in Maluku. The LJ arranged for military training to be given to volunteers at a camp in Bogor, near Jakarta. The LJ sent several thousand fighters to Maluku in the months after April 2000. The Brussels based non-governmental organisation the International Crisis Group has stated that 'The conclusion is unavoidable that the LJ received the backing of elements in the military and the police. It was obviously military officers who provided them with military training and neither the military nor the police made any serious effort to carry out the President's order preventing them from going to Maluku'. LJ claims a three part mission - social work, Muslim education and a 'security mission' and it has had over 10,000 members, some of whom have been active in eastern Indonesia in communal violence. Laskar Jihad has gained support from Indonesia's armed forces (TNI) and has also been able to embezzle money from the military (over $US 9 million). Its founder claims to have rejected approaches from Al-Qaeda but supported the September 11 attacks in the US. In mid October, Laskar Jihad announced that it had been disbanded but the veracity of this claim has yet to be determined decisively.
The Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front-FPI)
is another Indonesian radical Islamic group. The FPI was formed in August 1998 and now claims branches in 22 provinces. Based in Jakarta, the FPI is led by Habib Muhammad Riziek Syihab, a religious teacher who was educated in Saudi Arabia. Like Habib, many of the top FPI leaders have Arab blood. The FPI's stated goal is the full implementation of Islamic Sharia law, although it supports Indonesia's present constitution and avoids calling for an Islamic state. The FPI has a paramilitary wing called Laskar Pembela Islam and is well know for organising raids on bars, massage parlours and gaming halls. The FPI justifies these raids on the grounds that the police are unable to uphold laws on gambling and prostitution. Sceptical observers suspect that the police turn a blind eye to, or are complicit in, these activities, knowing that the victims will be encouraged to maintain protection monies to the police. The FPI in late 2001 took the lead in threatening to sweep Americans out of Indonesia because of the US operations in Afghanistan, although the threat was not in fact carried out.
Abu Sayyaf (Bearer of the Sword)
is an outgrowth of the long-term struggle for autonomy in the southern Philippines, is opposed to any accommodation with the Christians and believes that violent action is the only solution. Abu Sayyaf has mounted terror and criminal attacks since 1991 and directed a wave of such attacks against Christian civilians in 1993. Its founder Abdurajak Janjalani was a veteran of the Afghanistan conflict who had brought back with him enthusiastic followers of radical Islamic ideology. It has strong Al-Qaeda links - Osama bin Laden is reported to have sent the Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Yousef (who attacked the World Trade Center in 1993) for training with Abu Sayyaf and Al Qaeda has given financial assistance. Abu Sayyaf has also gained extensive revenue from kidnapping - including a $25 million payment from Libya to free hostages in March 2000. The group has recently suffered from serious internal divisions and its factions - whose interests appear to be primarily criminal - are now thought to have possibly about 500 members.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
has disclaimed connections with Al-Qaeda but hundreds of its members are reported to have trained with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. MILF split from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) which had led a struggle for autonomy for Muslim areas of the southern Philippines from 1972. The MNLF suffered a series of setbacks in the 1990s, with a number of leaders either defecting to the government or joining MILF. MILF is led by Hashim Salamat who was educated at Cairo's Al-Azhar University. MILF's eventual aim is an independent Moro Muslim state and by the 1990s it had become the primary Moro rebel movement. The movement has been able to gain funds from sympathetic Islamic organisation abroad, including in Malaysia, Pakistan and the Middle East. It has had up to 35,000 members and has trained members of other groups, including JI. Major problems confront the goal of an Islamic Moro state, not least the fact that long-term immigration into the southern Philippines means that non-Muslims outnumber Muslims in most provinces of Mindanao.
The New People's Army (NPA)
was declared to be a terrorist organisation by the US government in August 2002 but it is a different kind of group from those discussed above. The NPA is the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and is a further Philippines radical group. Although primarily a rural based group, the NPA has an active urban infrastructure to conduct terrorism and uses city based assassination squads. The NPA derives most of its funds from contributions by supporters in the Philippines, Europe and elsewhere and from 'revolutionary taxes' levied on businesses. The NPA opposes any US miliary presence and reports in 2001 suggest that it seeks to target US personnel - its strength is estimated at over 10,000. - aph.gov.au
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Blasts in Bali
"terrorists, allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, blew up a nightclub in the resort town of Kuta Beach in Bali killing 202 people and wounding another 100,"
CNN reported on November 8, 2002, an al-Qaeda message posted on the al-Neda website claimed responsibility for targeting "nightclubs and whorehouses in Indonesia." It was claimed a local "terrorist" organization, Jemaah Islamiyah, supposedly linked to al-Qaeda, planted the bombs.
"On 30 April 2003, the first charges related to the Bali bombings were made against Amrozi bin Haji Nurhasyim, known as Amrozi, for allegedly buying the explosives and the van used in the bombings,"
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Al Qaeda admits Bali blasts on Web
Friday, November 8, 2002 Posted: 1:55 AM EST (0655 GMT)
DENPASAR, Indonesia (CNN) -- Islamic militant group al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the bomb attack on a Bali nightclub in which more than 180 people died. The group said it had targeted "nightclubs and whorehouses in Indonesia" in a Web site message which also boasted of its aim to hit inside Arab and Islamic countries which are part of a "Jewish-Crusader" alliance. The al Neda Web site has been used in the past by al Qaeda to claim responsibility for attacks, including the synagogue fire in Tunisia in which mainly German tourists died, and strikes on two ships in Yemen. The Web site's address has been moved repeatedly.
The al Qaeda message read: "By attempting to strike a U.S. plane in Saudi Arabia and by bombing a Jewish synagogue in Tunisia, destroying two ships in Yemen, attacking the Fialka base in Kuwait, and bombing nightclubs and whorehouses in Indonesia, al Qaeda has shown it has no qualms about attacking inside Arab and Islamic lands."
The statement was translated by CNN.
"This is provided that the target belongs to the Jewish-Crusader alliance," it continues.
The synagogue bombing took place in April and killed 19 people, most of them German tourists.
The attacks on the French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen and on U.S. Marines training in Kuwait happened in October.
Several men were arrested in Saudi Arabia in June accused of plotting to shoot down aircraft, reported to have included U.S. military planes based at Prince Sultan airbase.
'Hijacking of Islam'
In an interview with CNN, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said he had also seen a translation of the statement, "It's a hijacking of Islam. It's a distortion of Islam," he said.
Wolfowitz echoed others, including President George W. Bush, in calling the Bali bombing the work of al Qaeda. "I think anybody looking at the evidence of everything that's been happening over the last 10 years, and particularly the last 18 months, would have to say this has all of the hallmarks of an al Qaeda operation," he told CNN. "We can see it from their Web sites, that al Qaeda views this as a major target for disruption and recruitment and for conducting terrorist attacks," Wolfowitz added, saying that the Bali attack had been a wake-up call for the Indonesian government and people in the war on terrorism.
The claim came after Indonesian police said a suspect had confessed during interrogation to being part of a group which carried out the Bali bomb blasts in the October 12 attack on the Sari Club in the resort town of Kuta.
The man, claiming to have planted the Bali bomb, told interrogators he had left it in a minivan, National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar said. According to a spokesman for the international team of investigators, Amrozi was arrested on Wednesday on the main Indonesian island of Java after police identified him as the van's owner. He was later flown to Bali for questioning. Police are still searching for his colleagues.
-- CNN
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Van owner 'confesses' to planting Bali bomb
Staff and wires Thursday, November 7, 2002 Posted: 8:41 AM EST (1341 GMT)
The bombing levelled Kuta's popular Sari Club and killed more than 180 people, most of them young tourists
DENPASAR, Indonesia -- Indonesian police say a suspect has confessed during interrogation to being part of a group that planted the Bali nightclub bomb that killed more than 180 people. National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar said the man, named only as Amrozi, told interrogators that he was involved in planting a bomb in a minivan used in the October 12 attack on the Sari Club in the resort town of Kuta.
"[He] used the car to plant the bomb in Bali," Bachtiar was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. "Amrozi admitted it and we are still chasing his friends."
Amrozi has been formally named as a suspect, he added. "He has disclosed many things and admitted his acts in Bali," Bachtiar said.
The massive blast caused by the car bomb was one of three coordinated explosions which investigators say were designed to inflict maximum casualties. According to a spokesman for the international team of investigators, Amrozi was arrested on Wednesday on the main Indonesian island of Java after police identified him as the van's owner.
He was later flown to Bali for questioning.
Witnesses
Indonesian Police Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang holds up a sketch of a fourth suspect wanted by authorities in connection to the bombings
Police on the island say he will soon be brought before witnesses to verify whether he was indeed at the scene of the blast and to cross-check evidence. According to investigators he does not resemble any of the four sketches of suspected attackers released by police in recent days.
However, officials have told CNN that they have several other sketches of other suspects that were not released to the public.
Three other suspects resembling police sketches remain in custody after being detained this week. Investigators say Amrozi was tracked down using wreckage of the vehicle recovered from the blast scene, which led to him being revealed as the owner of the minivan.
Officials say he was arrested in a house close to an Islamic boarding school in East Java and that documents on Islamic militant groups in the Philippines were among material seized by investigators. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing although Indonesian and Western inteligence officials say they suspect the al Qaeda-linked militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) planned, funded and carried out the attack. Investigators say they are examining possible connections between Amrozi and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the Islamic cleric thought by intelligence agencies to be the spiritual head of JI. - CNN
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On 8 August Amrozi bin Haji Nurhasyim was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Another participant in the bombing, Imam Samudra, was sentenced to death on 10 September. Amrozi's brother, Ali Imron, who had expressed remorse for his part in the bombing, was sentenced to life imprisonment on 18 September.
A fourth accused, Mukhlas, was sentenced to death on 1 October.
All those convicted have said they will appeal, and none of the death sentences have yet been carried out...
On 15 August Riduan Isamuddin, generally known as Hambali, described as the operational chief of Jemaah Islamiyah and as al-Qaeda's "point man" in Southeast Asia, was arrested in Bangkok.
He is in American custody in an undisclosed location, and has not been charged in relation to the Bali bombing or any other crime.
It was reported that the United States is reluctant to hand Hambali over to Indonesian authorities in light of the lenient sentence given to Abu Bakar Bashir [an Islamic cleric who is the alleged spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah].
- wikipedia
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Omar Al-Faruq Recruited by The CIA
19 Sep 2002 20:19:19 WIB
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Former State Intelligence Coordinating Board (BAKIN) chief A.C. Manulang has said that Kuwaitd citizen Omar Al-Faruq, a terrorist suspect who was arrested in Bogor, West Java, on June 5, 2002 and handed over to the US three days later, is a CIA-recruited agent. Al Faruq was assigned to infiltrate Islamic radical groups and recruit local agents within these groups.
"When Al Faruq finished his assignments, the CIA created a scenario that he had been arrested," Manulang told Tempo News Room in Jakarta on Thursday afternoon (19/9).
Manulang made this analysis based on the pattern used by Al Faruq, that of having Kuwait citizenship but holding a Pakistani passport, entering Indonesia as a refugee and marrying an Indonesian woman. This kind of operation is aimed at starting conflicts in Indonesia and creating the image that Indonesia is a land of terrorists.
"After the CIA obtained complete data on this matter, they then made Al-Faruq disappear. It's common in intelligence world," said Manulang.
Manulang said he considered several matters in the arrest of Al Faruq last July to be odd, such as the denial of National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar over the police's involvement in Al Faruq's arrest, and the lack of official documents in Al Faruq's handing over to the US.
"In the handing over of a detainee to other country, there should be an announcement or deportation document. Al Faruq's case indicated a lack of coordination between the Indonesian police and intelligence agencies," said Manulang.
As for Al Faruq's testimony in Time magazine that he had masterminded the plan to murder Indonesian President Megawati and several bombings in Indonesia, Manulang considered this as an attempt to making Islamic groups the scapegoats for all terrorism incidents.
"Anti-Islam intelligence agencies committed the bombings in Indonesia. They have been trained for this and they are very organized," said Manulang. Therefore, he added, it was useless to arrest the bombers. "We must arrest the mastermind of the bombings in Indonesia," stated Manulang.
According to Manulang, it's possible that Al Faruq recruited radical people from Islamic groups for his plan. In regards to the murder attempt on Megawati, Manulang did not consider this as a serious matter.
"Megawati does not need to be worried. She's not the real target in this matter," said Manulang. Manulang requested the government immediately verify the CIA report on Al Faruq. "Such a report could only be a dummy or false intelligence information that is aimed at misleading the public," stated Manulang.source (Sapto Pradityo-Tempo News Room)
see also:
Bali bombing: An investigator's analysis
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Jakarta has played with fire of Islamic extremism
By Hamish McDonald October 17 2002
Although the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has dismissed the line of suspicion as "silly", some officials in his entourage must have wondered as they did the rounds of Indonesian military and police chiefs in Jakarta yesterday how clean were some of the hands they were shaking.
There is a long history of political manipulators within the Indonesian armed forces, or TNI, playing with the fire of Islamic extremism and staging incidents of terrorism. There is also the institution itself carrying out state terror as in Aceh, Ambon and East Timor - either directly or through militia proxies.
David Jenkins, a journalist, recalled the Machiavellian use of former Darul Islam fanatics by the intelligence chief Ali Murtopo during ex-president Soeharto's New Order, leading to acts of terror, such as the 1980 hijacking of a Garuda Airlines jet, that were used to justify political crackdowns.
The bombings that hit Jakarta in the second half of 2000 included a car-bomb explosion outside the home of the Philippines ambassador, which killed two people, and a huge car-bomb blast in the underground car park of the Jakarta Stock Exchange, which killed 15 people and for which two members of the army special forces or Kopassus received jail terms.
The explosive used in at least one of these bombings was C-4, the charge used in the Sari nightclub bombing. It is widely used by armies and terror groups, such as in the al-Qaeda boat attack on the destroyer USS Cole.
If the Bali explosive is traced by some chemical signature to stocks held by the TNI, the possibility still remains it could have been obtained by al-Qaeda or the South-East Asian network of Jemaah Islamiah from sympathisers or corrupt elements within the military. Once obtained, getting a large amount of C-4 into a parked car in Kuta would not have required any special logistical or security assistance.
President, Megawati Soekarnoputri's 14 months in office have seen several blows at entrenched New Order or "status-quo" forces.
The heaviest was the four-year jail term recently given to the parliamentary speaker and Golkar party chief, Akbar Tanjung, who remains in his posts while his case is under appeal. Another has been the constitutional changes which will end the TNI's special representation in the legislature in a couple of years.
Jakarta's failure of accountability for the atrocities in Timor remains a huge obstacle to resumed military ties with the Americans. The TNI's image is also tarnished by the evident backing of its Strategic Reserve Command and other elements for the Laskar Jihad, a force of several thousand young Islamic fanatics set against the Christian communities in the Moluccan islands and in the coastal towns of Papua.
What is emerging as the deliberate staging by Kopassus soldiers of a freedom fighter "ambush" last month near the Freeport mine at Timika, Papua, seems to have been the first deliberate targeting of foreigners. Three schoolteachers, two American and one Indonesian, were murdered.
The upsurge in Laskar Jihad activity and the Timika murders follow the posting as Papuan regional military commander of Major-General Mahidin Simbolon, who was a key figure in orchestrating the East Timor violence in 1999.
The promptness with which the Laskar Jihad announced on Tuesday it was disbanding and withdrawing from Ambon only serves to illustrate the degree to which it was inspired from above.
The Bali bombing may well have been solely the work of Islamic extremists, rather than an effort by the "status-quo" forces to undermine Megawati or bring US support back to the TNI.
If foreign support is directed not just to the hunt for terrorists, but behind a decisive cleaning-up of the TNI, Indonesia and our region will be made more secure.
- smh.com
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Micro- Nukes?
At 11.05 p.m. local time on Saturday night, a giant blast scattered pieces of the Sari Nightclub right across Kuta Beach in Bali, Indonesia. Though two other synchronized blasts shook the American Consulate and a Philippines travel agency office a few seconds earlier, there were no injuries or deaths at these other locations, both of which served as mere "flash cards" to reinforce the unexpected presence of "Al Qaeda" in this beautiful tourist paradise.
Al who? So far as I am aware, the Muslim world does not yet have access to a sophisticated "Special Atomic Demolition Munitions [SADM]", one of which certainly went critical in a sewer more than four feet below the road bed outside the Sari club. Within five microseconds of detonation the awesome million-foot-per-second shock wave hurled two tons of road bed and sand particles upwards and outward in a deadly fan, cutting tourists to bloody ribbons and hurling body parts for several blocks. The body count is currently 187, with more than 300 injured.
The blast from this weapon was so severe that its detonation terminally damaged 27 buildings in the immediate area, and trashed more than one hundred vehicles. In the words of a tourist who earlier survived attacks on London during the nineties, "I felt my hotel shake violently and ran to look out of the window. In the distance I could see a large white mushroom cloud, and knew I wasn't looking at an ordinary attack."
Photographic evidence proving the use of an unconventional weapon was edited out almost immediately by the major media, though not from the amateur video cameras which provided the pictures above. The very presence of the crater itself proves the weapon was detonated sub-surface, while the crater's depth in combination with its diameter, prove the depth at which the weapon was initially placed.
[snip]
During the last few hours, Australian officials say they fear that "as many as 89 more Australians may have perished in the blast". Let us be optomistic here and half that figure down to 45 more dead Australians, over and above the bodies that have already been discovered and removed from Ground Zero. Now ask yourself what class of weapon has the ability to literally vaporize forty-five full grown human beings, to the point where the remaining body parts as so small they cannot be detected by search and rescue crews with the naked eye. Believe me, there is only one class of weapon capable of developing the intense heat and blast pattern needed for the job. - Joe Vialls
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Blast No.2 in Jakarta
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POWERFUL
EXPLOSION: A powerful bomb exploded on Tuesday at about 12:30 p.m. just
outside the JW Marriott Hotel on Jl. Dr Satrio in the Mega Kuningan
business complex in Kuningan, South Jakarta, killing 13 people, and
injuring 149 others. JP/Arif Suhardiman
BBC
Video Report
There were four blasts: Eyewitness
An eyewitness described four separate blasts at the JW Marriot Hotel in the Mega Kuningan business complex in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Tuesday.
"I was going to take some pictures after the first blast when suddenly the second blast hit after about 10
minutes. The second was the largest of
four," a journalist told The Jakarta Post.
He said the second blast was the one that caused the crater in the hotel's Sailendra Restaurant.
"I saw a hole in the floor of the restaurant going through to the basement.
"I also saw two smaller explosions on the upper floors of the
hotel," he said
As eyewitnesses report four blasts,
at least two of which took place on the upper floors of the Marriot Hotel, other
media is talking about just one carbomb :
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Jakarta blast linked with Bali
There have been warnings that more attacks can be expected
The explosives and methods used to bomb a luxury hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday were similar to those used in the Bali bombing last year, Indonesian police say.
Investigators sifting through debris for clues about the blast, which killed 14 people and injured about 150, say a similar cocktail of high and low grade explosives were used in Bali.
The BBC's correspondent in Jakarta, David Bottomley, says that immediately after the attack on the Marriott Hotel suspicion fell on Jemaah Islamiah (JI) - an Islamic militant group blamed for the Bali bombs.
Police say documents found in the possession of JI members arrested last month indicated an attack in the area around the hotel was imminent and police patrols were stepped up. Indonesia's top detective, Erwin Mappaseng, said traces of black powder, potassium chloride and TNT - all used in the Bali bombing - were found at the Jakarta bomb site. "From the modus, the materials and others, there are similarities," he said.
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The hotel is well-known as a place where foreigners and visiting diplomats stay. An adjacent building houses the embassies of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The attack came just two days before the expected verdict in the trial of a key Bali suspect, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim.
New warnings
Security has been tight in Indonesia since the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, and authorities have warned of similar threats.
Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has warned that new intelligence indicates there could be more terrorist attacks in the city and Indonesia as a whole in coming days.
"We think there is a real risk that there could be further attacks. We have particular concerns at the moment about central Jakarta and also other places in Indonesia," he said.
Urging its citizens to exercise caution, the Australian Government has re-issued its travel warning against all non-essential travel to Indonesia. The blast came during a busy lunchtime in the commercial part of city.
Police say the bomb is thought to have been inside a Toyota van parked outside the lobby of the hotel. Mr Mappaseng said that a body had been found in the van and that police had now drawn up sketches of the person based on their remains as well as the last known buyer of the vehicle.
Terror crackdown
The lower floors of the hotel were gutted and the windows above were blown out, right up to the 21st floor.
A Dutch citizen was killed in the blast - Hans Winkelmolen, 49, president of PT Rabobank Duta Indonesia, a subsidiary of the Dutch co-operative bank Rabobank.
Forensic teams have been searching the debris for evidence. He had been in Jakarta since 2000 and was preparing to follow his family back home to the Netherlands later in August. Many organisations in the country are already beefing up their security measures in response to Tuesday's attack.
Hotels and offices have tightened their search procedures and there are many more security staff on duty.
Foreign assistance
The United States and Australia, both of which played a key role in assisting the police in investigating the Bali bombing last October, have offered their expertise. "We will be willing to help in any way the Indonesians want to track down the people responsible and bring them to justice," Australian Prime Minister John Howard said.
Finance ministers from Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) meeting in the Philippines on Wednesday called on the region to adopt a firm stance against terrorism. Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who recently vowed to destroy terror networks in the world's largest Muslim nation, visited the scene of the attack late on Tuesday.
One of Indonesia's most influential Muslim clerics, Ahmad Syafii Maarif, called for tough action against the bombers - but added that hard evidence was needed before blaming Muslim militants. Correspondents say the government intends to take tough new security measures in the wake of the bombing.
The BBC's Tim Johnston, in Jakarta, says a warning by the administration's top security official, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, seems to imply that the measures might entail a further curtailment of human rights. - BBC
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Azahari Husin is thought to have run bomb-making courses
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Indonesia's bomb-makers at large
The men believed to have masterminded the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, and built the bombs used in other recent attacks, are still on the run. Police have been on their trail since the 2002 Bali bombings.
Two men are believed to have built the bombs used in that attack.
Azahari Husin, a 45-year-old Malaysian university lecturer, and Dulmatin, a 32-year-old electronics expert, were named as chief bomb-makers by another suspect, Ali Imron, who was given a life sentence for his role in the attack, and who has co-operated with the police.
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Both men are believed to belong to the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), accused of carrying out the Bali bombings.
JI, which has often been linked to al-Qaeda, is believed to control a network stretching across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Smaller cells might also exist in Cambodia, Vietnam, and even Australia.
Its principal goals are the establishment of Islamic governments across the region, followed by the formation of a unified South East Asian Islamic state.
University lecturer
The group is accused of the 2003 Marriott bombing as well...Azahari Husin is alleged to be JI's top bomb-making expert.
He gained a doctorate from Britain's University of Reading, and used to work as a former university lecturer in Malaysia. A married father of two, he is said by some to be a fanatic, ready to die for his cause. He is believed to have given bomb-making classes to JI militants, and to have issued precise instructions on how the massive car bomb used at the Sari club in Bali was to be manufactured. As well as technical bomb-making expertise, he is also alleged to have been a key figure at the JI planning meeting which selected Bali as a target. Dulmatin, also known as Joko Pitono and nicknamed Genius, is a technician and electronics expert.
He is believed to have worked with Azahari Husin to assemble the massive car bomb as well as the explosives vest used by a suicide bomber who attacked the nearby Paddy's Bar, just moments before the explosion at the Sari club. Indonesian police were successful in catching up with most of the group which carried out the bombings, and several are now in jail and facing execution.
But Azahari Husin and Dulmatin have managed to evade the police hunt, sometimes by the narrowest of margins - police think they have come within minutes of catching Azahari Husin on different occasions.
Since the Bali attacks, Azahari Husin has been more closely linked with another Malaysian, Noordin Mohammed Top. The two are believed to have built the bomb used in the 2003 attack on Jakarta's JW Marriott hotel, and to have masterminded the September attack on the Australian embassy.
Analysts point out that as long as such men remain at large, the threat of further attacks in Indonesia remains very much alive. The group they are alleged to belong to, JI, was formed in the mid-1980s by two Indonesian clerics. It evolved its terrorist edge in the mid-1990s when one of its founders, the late Abdullah Sungkar, established contact with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, academics and intelligence experts believe.
While Abdullah Sungkar oversaw JI's political and strategic development, several South East Asian intelligence agencies name Abu Bakar Ba'asyir as the group's spiritual leader.
He is currently on trial facing charges relating to the 2002 Bali attacks and the 2003 Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta. - BBC
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Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his involvement in the Bali bombings
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Indonesia to Expand Intelligence Powers
January 14, 2004 - Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri plans to authorize the expansion of the country's national intelligence agency. Officials defend the move as a way to prevent terrorist attacks in the sprawling Muslim country. Critics see it as a regression to Indonesia's recent past under longtime dictator Suharto. - NPR
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Bomb attacks could be done at anytime, anywhere
Abdul Khalik
Following the Sept. 9 bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Kuningan, South Jakarta, John Douglas, 40, who worked for a U.S.- based multinational consultancy here, decided to return to Canada despite unfinished business. "I was scheduled to stay here for at least three months but I decided to leave, although I had been here for three weeks only. The bomb attack terrifies me. From what I read, the terrorists can attack any place in the country," he told The Jakarta Post a week after the bombing, which claimed 11 lives, including the bomber, and injured more than 180 others.
Douglas, who consulted for a mining firm with several operations across the archipelago, recalled his condition after the blast. Every night, he was afraid a bomb could explode in front of him while he was hanging out with colleagues or friends at a cafe or hotel, even his office. He said many friends had left the country soon after the bomb went off. "Let alone working, I couldn't focus even when I was talking with my friends. I used to hang out in a place where many other expatriates gathered because I enjoyed that. I know that the bombers target places like this," he added.
From conversations with other expatriates, Douglas learned most of them felt insecure in the city after the Kuningan attack. The Australian Embassy was the second Western interest in Jakarta to be targeted by terrorists after the U.S.-run J.W. Marriott Hotel in the adjacent business district of Mega Kuningan. The hotel bombing on Aug. 5, 2003, left 12 dead, including the suicide bomber. Kusno, 34, who works at a five-star hotel in Jakarta, was also apprehensive that if the hotel was attacked, low-level employees like him would suffer the most.
"The hotel I work at can be a target of attack at any time, as many foreigners stay there. But it is always us who suffer. Look at the Marriott or the Australian Embassy bombings. Who were the victims? Who died in the blasts? We, the innocent and ordinary people," he said.
The prevailing atmosphere of fear and anger did not abate in the weeks following the Kuningan blast, during which a number of bomb threats were recorded on a daily basis, although they turned out to be hoaxes. Meanwhile, the police acknowledged they could do nothing to stop bomb attacks despite preventive measures, including the deployment of reinforcements at several potential targets, including the embassy.
After a quick glance at ground zero in Kuningan, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar concluded that the blast was the work of terror network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), known to have links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, and Malaysian bomb makers Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top. Azahari and Noordin are also believed to have masterminded the Marriott attack, as well as the 2002 Bali bombing that killed at least 202 people.
The police hunted down those responsible over the next few weeks, making arrests almost every day to discover that Azahari and Noordin had recruited over 100 people across East, West and Central Java. In the frenzy to capture the perpetrators, however -- pressured by public demand for justice and in some cases, vengeance -- several innocent civilians were detained for questioning and released, only to return to their neighborhood communities to find that they had been stigmatized by the terrorist label.
The Kuningan bombing could be said to be different from all others since 2000 in that it enraged the public and turned them completely against the terrorists. While Osama bin Laden T-shirts hit the streets of the capital after Sept. 11, 2001, those that emerged after the Kuningan blast were emblazoned with "F*** terrorists!"
The police were able to identify the car used in the suicide bombing as a Daihatsu through the chassis number, and traced the last owner of the car -- some trails led police back to the convicted Bali bombers. Three weeks later, the police arrested Agus Achmad Hidyat and Mustakin, two close aides of Azahari who had played key roles in the Kuningan bombing. From the two men, the police extracted much valuable information, but Azahari and Noordin were still out of reach. In mid-October, the police concluded via DNA testing that Heri Golun, a new recruit of Azahari and Noordin, was the sole suicide bomber in the case.
After a lull of a couple of weeks, the police raided a rented house in Cicurug village, Sukabumi, West Java, after a small explosive device went off and injured one of its tenants. The incident, however, was an indication as to the slowness of the police, as well as to the locals' neglect in keeping an eye out for suspicious characters and activities, particularly terror suspects. To their embarrassment, the police discovered that all the wanted terror suspects, including Azahari and Noordin, had used the house as a meeting point for several months without disturbing their neighbors.
Da'i admitted to the sluggish work of his investigators and vowed that it would not happen again.
Meanwhile, National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung Sudjono, who led the Kuningan investigation, conceded that the terrorists on the run possessed the capability to launch more attacks. "Our investigation has found that many suicide bombers were recruited by the two bomb experts, and that they are scattered (throughout the country). At the very least, they have a large box full of explosives," Suyitno said. He explained that most of the explosive materials used in the Kuningan bombing, such as potassium chlorate, could be procured easily at markets, while the TNT used in the Kuningan and Marriott blasts were either imported or procured through the military. "Considering the availability of the materials, anybody with minimal training can assemble bombs or at least detonate them. Azahari is the key to their training," he said.
At the end of November, the police announced they had captured four key members of Azahari's inner circle: Ansori, alias Hasan, alias Agung, alias Purnomo; Ansori, alias Sogir; Syaiful Bahri, alias Apuy; and Rois, alias Iwan Darmawan. Da'i said Rois was closest to the Malaysians and knew their whereabouts, and was optimistic that Azahari and Noordin could be captured within the first 100 days of the new government. However, the readiness and capability of the police to arrest the two are doubted.
A policeman cited one of the detained suspects, who said Azahari and Noordin were on a motorbike within the vicinity of the embassy at the time of the explosion, and were stopped by the police for a minor traffic violation. "But the traffic police let them go for a few thousand rupiah because they didn't recognize the terrorist suspects. How can we expect citizens to recognize the suspects if the police officers themselves can't," the policeman told the Post.
A sociologist from the University of Indonesia and a former police officer, Bambang Widodo, said the recurring bomb attacks proved that the authorities lacked the intelligence, capability and coordination to prevent them. "New suicide bombers can always be recruited because it is based on faith, economic disparities and injustices. And eradicating these is the government's job, not the police's. However, the large number of intelligence bodies has hampered the early warning system for terror attacks," Bambang told the Post. He said each institution, including the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), three military branches and the police, are authorized to conduct intelligence activities, but did not share crucial information with each other. Bambang suggested that intelligence bodies be coordinated, as terror threats continued.
Prior to the Kuningan bombing, BIN, or the antiterror desk at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, talked to the press about the possibility of a fresh attack, but which the police were unable to confirm nor deny. A week or two before the bombing, at least three countries, including the U.S. and Australia warned their citizens of possible attacks on their interests throughout the country.
Although BIN seems to agree with the early warning, on several occasions, the police has looked surprised in response to the information. Given the possibilities of terror threats and institutional problems within the police, expatriates like Douglas and local residents like Kusno have reason to feel insecure about living in Indonesia. - the jakarta post
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Trouble in the Philipines...
July 27, 2005-The Philippines is set to explode, as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo faces impeachment after being caught in the act of rigging her 2004 re-election, sparking outrage and threats of popular revolt.
Military intelligence agents opposed to Arroyo wiretapped conversations between Arroyo and a man believed to be elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. In one of the damning May 2004 conversations, Arroyo is heard asking Garcillano (addressed by Arroyo as "Garci") if she will win the election by more than 1 million votes:
"So, will I lead by more than 1 million?"
According to opponents of Arroyo, the infamous "Hello, Garci" phone call is definitive proof that Arroyo cheated in the election, which she won by about 1.1 million votes over Fernando Poe, Jr., (who died in December 2004 after allegedly suffering a stroke), amidst other allegations of vote manipulation.
Transcripts and digital files of the Arroyo wiretaps, and complete analysis of the scandal are available from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and the alternative investigative site Bulatlat.
Arroyo has admitted that it was her voice on the tape, an absolute confirmation of her guilt, according to her opponents and critics. Arroyo, however, has only apologized for a "lapse in judgment". Her attorneys and supporters have argued that the wiretaps were illegally obtained (therefore inadmissible as evidence). But the damage is done: just about every Filipino citizen has heard the tapes. The derision is so extensive, that the "Hello, Garci" call has been made into a popular cell phone ring tone.
The impeachment case against Arroyo will include charges of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the constitution, graft, corruption, and bribery. Vice President Noli de Castro may be the target of a separate impeachment. Arroyo will also be tried, as the commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, for the murder of political activists and other civilians, and death squad activities over the past three years. Ten cabinet members, who recently resigned their posts, have called on Arroyo to resign. The former cabinet members have expressed their willingness to testify against Arroyo.
Outraged lawmakers and citizens are promising a "people power" revolt, if pro-Arroyo majority forces obstruct or derail the impeachment. The regimes of Ferdinand Marcos (1986) and Joseph Estrada (2001) were ousted by popular revolts.
- Larry Chin
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One of the strongest calls for an investigation into Kissinger's status as a war criminal stems from his support for the Indonesian military's bloody 1975 invasion and subsequent occupation of East Timor, which by the early 1980s killed 200,000 East Timorese. With then-President Ford, Kissinger provided Indonesian dictator Suharto a political go-ahead for the invasion and was instrumental in continuing the flow of U.S. weapons. - CorpWatch
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[a] simple dream drives tens of thousands of low-wage workers [...] to travel to Iraq from more than three dozen countries. They are lured by jobs with companies working on projects led by Halliburton and other major U.S.-funded contractors hired to provide support services to the military and reconstruction efforts.
Called "third country nationals" (TCN) in contractor's parlance, these laborers hail largely from impoverished Asian countries such as the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, [..], as well as from Turkey and countries in the Middle East. Once in Iraq, TCNs earn monthly salaries between $200 to $1,000 as truck drivers, construction workers, carpenters, warehousemen, laundry workers, cooks, accountants, beauticians, and similar blue-collar jobs.
Invisible Army of Cheap Labor
Tens of thousands of such TNC laborers have helped set new records for the largest civilian workforce ever hired in support of a U.S. war. They are employed through complex layers of companies working in Iraq. At the top of the pyramid-shaped system is the U.S. government which assigned over $24 billion in contracts over the last two years. Just below that layer are the prime contractors like Halliburton and Bechtel. Below them are dozens of smaller subcontracting companies-- largely based in the Middle East --including PPI, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting and Alargan Trading of Kuwait, Gulf Catering, Saudi Trading & Construction Company of Saudi Arabia. Such companies, which recruit and employ the bulk of the foreign workers in Iraq, have experienced explosive growth since the invasion of Iraq by providing labor and services to the more high-profile prime contractors.
This layered system not only cuts costs for the prime contractors, but also creates an untraceable trail of contracts that clouds the liability of companies and hinders comprehensive oversight by U.S. contract auditors. In April, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of the U.S. Congress concluded that it is impossible to accurately estimate the total number of U.S. or foreign nationals working in Iraq. - David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch
Ford, Kissinger and 1975
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Blast No.3 in Bali
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Bombs hit Bali again: Oct 2005
Indonesia raises fuel prices by 126%
By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta Published: October 1 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 1 2005 03:00
Indonesia's government last night raised key fuel prices by a higher-than-expected average of 126 per cent and announced a plan to bring prices in line with the global market,in moves likely to test the patience of its people for tough reforms.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's decision to slash fuel subsidies and more than double prices just days before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan marks one of the most daring economic reforms launched by a leader in Jakarta since the 1998 fall of Suharto.
But in raising prices far more than the expected 50 per cent, Mr Yudhoyono's government also risks provoking an angry reaction from a public that for decades has been accustomed to heavily subsidised fuel.
Earlier in the day in Jakarta riot police fired teargas and warning shots into the air as they clashed with students protesting over the impending rise. The protest was the only sign of real violence among a series of demonstrations that hit at least 15 cities across the country.
The fixed price of kerosene, the politically sensitive primary cooking fuel for Indonesia's poor, was raised by more than 185 per cent to Rp2,000 ($0.19, €0.15, £0.11) a litre, effective from today. Petrol rose 87.5 per cent to Rp4,500 a litre while diesel more than doubled to Rp4,300 a litre.
By doing so, government advisers said, Jakarta would slash $2.3bn off a subsidy bill expected to reach $11bn this year.
But, in a decree signed last night, Mr Yudhoyono took a step that would make today's unpopular price increase the last to be decided by an Indonesian president.
Under a new pricing system due to come into effect in January 2006, a committee of seven ministers led by the chief economic minister, currently the former tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, will decide how much to adjust fuel prices every quarter.
The target, government advisers said, is to bring petrol prices in line with market levels by January 2007, with diesel to follow by July 2007 and kerosene, the most heavily subsidised fuel, to be brought to market prices by January 2008. All would float freely once they reach market levels.
Mr Yudhoyono promised after a more modest 29 per cent increase in March that his government would not raise prices again.
Until market turmoil drove the rupiah to four-year lows last month, he was said by senior officials to favour waiting until January next year.
Mr Yudhoyono said: "I realise that this is not a popular policy, a bitter pill that we have to swallow, but we have to do it to save the nation's budget and the future of the country."
To ease the pain of a rise, Jakarta has promised monthly Rp100,000 payments to 15.6m poor families for the rest of this year. The increase unveiled last night will cause Indonesia's inflation rate to reach as much as 14-15 per cent this year, according to some estimates. - ft.com
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Bombs in Bali -
Police said the first blast tore through the Raja restaurant in the shopping district of Kuta, the scene of the 2002 bombings which left 202 people dead, mostly foreign tourists. Minutes later, two further explosions ripped through a pair of beachfront restaurants 30km away in the picturesque fishing village of Jimbaran. "The explosion in Kuta square took place at 19:30. At 19:40 was the first blast in Jimbaran and at 1941, the second blast," said Bali police spokesman A S Reniban. - the peninsula qatar |
The foreign ministry spokesman, Mr. Marty, says if the bombings are the work of terrorists, he hopes the terrorists will not succeed in driving people away from Bali, a popular tourist destination.
"This is again an attempt, probably if confirmed, an attempt at causing terror and fear among the public in Indonesia and among visitors who are coming to Indonesia," he said. "For those people, especially those attempting to come to Indonesia, we would like to appeal to them to stand by us as we have when attacks took place in New York, London, and Madrid and not to isolate us." - BNN
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Bali bombs 'were suicide attacks'
Suicide bombers carried out the attacks on three Bali restaurants that killed at least 19 people, a senior Indonesian anti-terror official has said. Maj Gen Ansyaad Mbai said the remains of three bombers were found at the scenes in the tourist areas of Jimbaran and Kuta. He said the attacks appeared to have been carried out by regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI).
JI was blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, which left 202 people dead.
In the latest attack, the authorities had said that 26 people were killed. They now believe the number of dead to be 22 - including the three suspected bombers. More than 100 people were wounded, 17 of them seriously.
Malaysians named
Gen Mbai said the three attackers went into the restaurants - two in Jimbaran beach resort, the third in Kuta - on Saturday evening wearing explosive vests, which they detonated. "I have seen them. All that is left is their head and feet," he told the Associated Press news agency.
The bombs appear to have been packed with ball bearings - a technique commonly used by suicide attackers to maximise casualties.
Vicky Griffiths, an Australian survivor, said X-rays had showed ball bearings were embedded in her back.
The BBC's Tim Johnston in Bali says the confirmation strengthens the assumption voiced by many Indonesian officials that JI was responsible for these bombings as it was for the attack three years ago.
Gen Mbai said two Malaysian fugitives were suspected of masterminding the strikes - Azahari Bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top. Both have been on Indonesia's most wanted list since the attacks in 2002.
The two are accused of orchestrating those blasts and two others in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, in 2003 and 2004.
"The modus operandi of Saturday's attacks is the same as the earlier ones," said Gen Mbai, adding that the remains of backpacks had also been found at the scene of the blasts.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
However, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Bali - a predominantly Hindu island popular with Western tourists - represents a soft and tempting target for Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaeda. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has vowed that those responsible will be caught.
"We will hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice."
The government has placed Jakarta on maximum alert, deploying extra forces at embassies and other strategic locations.
'Thunderous boom'
Police say the three blasts happened almost simultaneously just before 2000 local time (1200GMT) on Saturday.
Most of those killed were Indonesian, but casualties are also believed to include people from Australia, Japan, South Korea and the US.
The blasts come less than two weeks before the third anniversary of massive bomb attacks that killed 202 people - including 88 Australians. JI, the group blamed for the 12 October 2002 bombings, is also suspected of being behind a suicide bombing at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003, and a suicide bombing at the Australian embassy last September. The authorities had warned that militants had been planning further attacks on Western targets in Indonesia, although there had been no particular alerts over the past few days. - BBC
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Bruised Balinese hope for quick revival in tourism
02 Oct 2005 07:45:55 GMT By Achmad Sukarsono - JIMBARAN, Indonesia, Oct 2 (Reuters) -
Living in festival-loving Bali, Nyoman Gasin thought of firecrackers when he first heard loud bangs at beachfront cafes on the Indonesian island's scenic coast.
But the Saturday night blasts were from a series of bombs that killed 25 people and filled Gasin with "extreme anger".
"Our lives are dependent on these cafes. Ninety-nine percent of the income in this area comes from tourism and this will indeed hurt the people over here," Gasim said.
Once a sleepy fishing village, Jimbaran is home to dozens of open-air seafood cafes stretching on white sandy beaches which border luxurious world-class resorts. On Saturday under shining stars in Bali's clear sky and with candle-like lights glowing from resorts on a nearby hill, twin bombs ripped through chairs, tables and people as guests were enjoying grilled fish on the sand.
The bombs and an almost simultaneous one which ripped apart a packed cafe in the famed Kuta downtown together killed 25 people and injured 107 others.
"I don't know what the future will be. I hope the tourists are sensitive to this, that business will go down in Bali, and I hope they won't shun Bali," said Gasim, deputy head of civil security in the area.
It was the second series of attacks in Bali in three years and like most Balinese, Gasim has every reason to be edgy because his life heavily depends on tourism, which accounts more than 70 percent of Bali's economy. Business was starting to bustle again in recent months after recovering from the first attacks in 2002. Those blasts on the predominantly Hindu island, by Islamic militants who bombed crowded nightclubs in Kuta, killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Signs of travellers beginning to flock back to the island after a tough period following that disaster were everywhere from anecdotal evidence to official statistics. Overseas arrivals on the temple-studded island increased more than six percent in the first six months of this year to around 700,000 from the same period last year. That figure broke the island's all-time high set in 2001 and the trend had continued.
Saturday's bombs saw at least some tourists eager to leave and there were cancellations of package tours from Japan, which with Australia provides the bulk of Bali's overseas visitors. Mixed reports came from the island's main airport. Airport duty manager Muhammad Badrudin told Reuters: "So far things are going normally. No increasing number of passengers is leaving Bali." But Qantas Airways airport official Dewi said: "Indeed, we have received many bookings. For sure we have an extra flight to Sydney tonight." She said since her office opened on Sunday, the phone hadn't stopped ringing.
Australian tourist, Wayne Turner, said: "We're leaving tonight anyway but it is going to be a long day. We've got to get out as soon as we can, but I feel sorry for the Balinese because their business is going to go down." He and his family had been eating on Saturday night in a restaurant near another that was ripped apart by a bomb.
Sraedi, a supervisor at the Grand Bali Sunny Suite, a few kilometers from Kuta town centre, told Reuters: "It's not like the (2002) bomb blast time. I think the guests are not too worried. However, it is too early to tell. We are also worried about the impact to the industry."
Wayan Jipang, 33, a surfer and part-time tour guide for foreign visitors was worried about a worst-case scenario. "Now everything will become quiet. The foreigners will all run away. My business of escorting them to beaches will go away.
But on the palm-fringed island where mysticism and magic rituals rule the everyday life, some residents believed Bali would once again bounce back to business.
"I am angry and saddened," said security guard Putu Suyasa, 45.
"But I believe Bali still has a Taksu to lure back visitors," he said, referring to a local Hindu word which means magical power.
- alertnet.org
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decapitated Heads shown...
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[Above: Video footage shows a suspected bomber, who is wearing a black shirt & Left: images of the heads of the suspected 'suicide bombers']
Police seek Bali bombers' names
Indonesian police have released photos of the severed heads of the suspected Bali suicide attackers as they seek the gang behind the bombings.
Local newspapers ran the pictures with appeals for help in identifying the three men. At least 19 people died in Saturday's bombings of popular tourist resorts. Investigators said the bombers were recruited, trained and equipped by a back-up team, and hope that naming the bombers will unveil the masterminds.
Police believe radical group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) was behind the bombings at Jimbaran and Kuta. The three bombs exploded in tourist areas within moments of each other, nearly three years after bombs in Bali nightclubs killed 202 people, including many Westerners. Police chief Made Mangku Pastika said the bombs appeared to have been built using TNT and metal slugs.
On Sunday, video footage was released showing one of the suspected bombers walking into a restaurant in Kuta, moments before an explosion. The footage, taken by a tourist, shows a man dressed in a black shirt and jeans walking into a restaurant with something on his back. He disappears from screen just seconds before there is a bright flash as the bomb explodes. Black smoke fills the frame and people can be heard screaming.
Revised death toll
Authorities had previously put the total at 26, but later revised it down to 19 plus the three bombers. Most of those killed were Indonesian, but casualties are also believed to include people from Australia, Japan, South Korea and the US.
More than 100 people were wounded, 17 of them seriously.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Bali offers an attractive target for JI because it is full of Western tourists in a predominantly Muslim country.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has visited the scene of the blasts, told reporters the attacks would only strengthen his government's resolve in fighting terrorism. Two Malaysian fugitives have been named as the suspected masterminds of the attacks.
They are Azahari Bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top - suspected JI leaders who have been on Indonesia's most wanted list since the attacks of 12 October 2002. Their group is also suspected of being behind a suicide bombing at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003, and a suicide bombing at the Australian embassy last September. - BBC
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Security officials blamed Al-Qaeda's local affiliate, Jemaah Islamiya (JI), which carried out the Bali bombings of three years ago in which 202 people died, including 28 Britons. Its top bombmaker, Azahari bin Husin, who completed a doctorate at Reading University in the 1990s and is known in his native Malaysia as "Demolition Man", is suspected of involvement in the latest bombings. - timesonline
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Game of global jihad that's too simplistic
Simon Tisdall - Monday October 3, 2005 - The Guardian
For the Bush administration a seamless link exists between the Bali bombings and a host of similar post-September 11 atrocities in places as far apart as Iraq, Afghanistan, north Africa, Madrid and London. Speaking from the headquarters of the "global war on terror", the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was quick to make the connection. "The United States stands with the people and government of Indonesia," she said.
John Howard, Australia's prime minister, suggested the Bali bombers' primary targets were democracy and the west. Al-Qaida, whose south-east Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is believed responsible for the bombings, has also encouraged the idea of a worldwide conflict.
In a statement after the Bali attacks of 2002, al-Qaida detailed its "achievements" in a dozen or more countries and vowed yet wider havoc. "The mujahideen have kept their promise to the umma [the Muslim faithful] to end its humiliation and degradation by launching painful strikes and victorious operations ... against the treacherous coalition of Jews and Crusaders wherever it is to be found," al-Qaida said.
South-east Asia's militant Islamists have much in common with counterparts elsewhere. Jemaah Islamiyah espouses an Islamic caliphate embracing Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand and parts of the Philippines. This idea of establishing regional hegemonies of the faithful is shared in the Middle East by al-Qaida in Iraq, Gamaa Islamiyah in Egypt, and by Islamists in central Asia.
Violent hardliners in south-east Asia have also exploited faultlines similar to those existing in the Arab world, according to a dissertation by Xinsheng Wang, a regional specialist: "Extremist groups are using south-east Asia as an operations base and attack target," he said.
Poor living and educational standards, porous borders, corrupt and unrepresentative governments, and armed resistance movements (as in Mindanao in the Philippines and south Thailand) have all been used to spread fundamentalist influence, Professor Wang said. JI activists had received training in Afghanistan and elsewhere. "There are Indonesian alumni of the Chechen war. Al-Qaida claims, in Karachi, to have 100 Indonesians in training. The JI is not restricted to southern Asia."
But clear differences between south-east Asia and other terrorist "hotspots" also suggest the idea of an all-embracing worldwide conflict is simplistic. Violence has little discernible public support in most countries.
There have been some notable counter-terrorist successes, such as the 2003 arrest in Thailand of the alleged JI leader, Hambali. And democratic institutions, though brittle, have taken root in the region.
Crucially, moderate Islamist parties such as Pas in Malaysia, and Indonesia's Justice party, which could become a major parliamentary force by 2009, are permitted to be active in politics. Despite worries about growing intolerance, expressed by Indonesia's former president, Abdurrahman Wahid, officials say encouraging this kind of internal democratic evolution rather than playing al-Qaida's game of global jihad, may prove the best way to disarm JI and other killers on the fringe. - guardian.co.uk
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Officials: Intel community aware of planned terror attack
But say they had no specifics
First posted 05:44pm (Mla time) Oct 02, 2005 By Jim Gomez Associated Press
FOR MONTHS intelligence officials had received information about a terrorist attack like the latest Bali bombing--but the plot's details were not uncovered in time to thwart it, Philippine security officials said Sunday.
Ric Blancaflor, executive director of a Philippine anti-terrorism task force, said Southeast Asia's intelligence community was aware that the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group was orchestrating a major strike, possibly in the Philippines or Indonesia.
"The fact that there's going to be an attack was known to the intelligence community," Blancaflor said. "The problem always is how to get the exact details, like where."
Suicide bombers wearing explosive vests carried out attacks on three crowded restaurants on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Saturday night, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 100. No one claimed responsibility but suspicion fell on the Southeast Asian group Jemaah Islamiyah, which officials also blamed for the Oct. 12, 2002, Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
A police intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his work, said Indonesia was warned by Western security officials of a possible attack before Saturday's deadly bombings. He didn't elaborate. The official also said Jemaah Islamiyah has been trying to solicit funds from the Middle East to finance a major strike in the Philippines. "The threat has not diminished," said Blancaflor.
Philippine security officials warned last month that at least two Jemaah Islamiyah would-be suicide bombers may have already slipped into the country to carry out an attack with the help of Abu Sayyaf Muslim militants.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo urged the public to help thwart attacks. "The new Bali attacks after the London attacks show the resiliency of terrorists to strike targets when our guard is down," she said in a statement.
National police Director General Arturo Lomibao placed the 115,000-strong police force on "heightened alert," requiring at least half of the force to be on stand-by in camps, following the latest Bali attacks. Intelligence gathering would be intensified and security in resorts frequented by foreigners would be further strengthened as a precaution, he said. The Philippines has been regarded as a terrorist breeding ground. Western nations have expressed concern over the presence of Jemaah Islamiyah training camps in the country's south, fearing they could produce militants who could strike anywhere.
Officials, however, say that troops have overrun those camps and were pursuing Indonesian militants and Abu Sayyaf guerrillas fleeing from a months-long offensive. The Abu Sayyaf, which is on a U.S. list of terrorist groups, has been blamed for high-profile kidnappings and deadly assaults, including a bombing that set a ferry ablaze last year, killing 116 people in the country's worst terrorist attack. - news.inq7.net
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Experts sees parallels in Bali and London attacks
Mon Oct 3, 2005 11:06 PM ET By Jason Szep BOSTON (Reuters) -
The common traveler's backpack carrying small bombs may now be among the leading threats to world security, experts said on Monday, drawing a link between this weekend's bombings in Bali to those in London in July.
Militants from the United States to Europe and Southeast Asia have used car and truck bombs and even planes to make dramatic statements. But now small, easily made bombs like those used in London appear to be the new trend.
The al Qaeda-linked group at the heart of an Indonesian probe into the three bombs that tore through restaurants packed with Saturday evening diners and killed 22 people likely drew inspiration from the London attack in July, the experts said. "It shows a shift to small, London-style suicide bombers (like those) in Indonesia from large truck bombs," said Zachary Abuza, an expert on Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia at Boston's Simmons College.
U.S. authorities warned people of threats posed by small, home-made bombs after the July 7 attack in London's transit system that killed 56 people, putting New York on its highest level of alert since the September 11, 2001, attacks. But much of that security has been rolled back. Police have dismantled checkpoints, scaled back subway patrols and pulled bomb-sniffing dogs off New York commuter trains.
Security experts such as Arnold Howitt of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government said a Bali-style attack involving hard-to-detect bombs would be remarkably easy in the United States. Bomb-making materials are easy to find and security loopholes in restaurants and trains are plentiful. But he said one element appears missing: suicide bombers.
"The limiting factor in the United States is that the most effective way of carrying out this kind of attack is through suicide bombers and we don't seem to have a supply of indigenous suicide bombers," he said.
Abuza said the simplicity of stuffing bombs into backpacks likely influenced the Bali bombers. Chilling video footage released in Bali late on Sunday showed a man entering a restaurant, followed almost instantly by an explosion.
The attack contrasts with a truck bomb detonated in the Indonesian capital Jakarta near Australia's embassy on September 9, 2004, killing three people, and to a suicide car bomb outside the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003 that killed 12.
"The shift from large truck bombs to people with a small 5 kg (11 lb) bomb on their back is very significant. To me it says a lot about the resources that they have or don't have. The truck bombs were very expensive operations," said Abuza. He said the simplicity made it easier to launch attacks. "I think we're going to see a lot more of this," he added.
Initial investigations into Saturday's attack -- the second on Bali since a series of blasts on October 12, 2002, killed 202 people -- are focused on Jemaah Islamiah, a network linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, which has been blamed for past bombings in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Australian police involved in the probe said the style of bombs and materials used appeared new to the region. An Indonesian official said they included TNT and ball bearings.
"They are reverting to more simplified weapons usage because they can't mount the big one but they want to stay in the game," said retired U.S. Brigadier General Russell Howard, a counter-terrorism expert at Tufts University, who believes Jemaah Islamiah's resources are shrinking.
"It is an admission that they are not as strong as they were. But the simpler form of warfare is easier to prosecute and more difficult to detect," he said. - reuters |
Agreement near to allow Australian troops to train in Philippines
MANILA (AFP) Oct 18, 2005 - The Philippine government is close to an agreement that will pave the way for Australian troops to take part in training exercises in the Philippines, defense officials said Tuesday. The announcement was made by the visiting Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill and his Philippine counterpart Avelino Cruz. The "status-of-forces agreement" provides a legal framework for Australian troops to train in the Philippines and is similar to one now in force with the United States, Cruz said.
The United States maintains a team of Special Forces advisers to train Filipino soldiers on Mindanao and nearby islands.
"The Australian counter-draft is with us and we'll be ready to submit our draft to Australia by November, after which there will be a negotiating panel to finalize the details," Cruz said. "We welcome the move because we think joint exercises would be a benefit to both sides," Hill added.
Hill warned the two countries were now facing a common enemy in "terrorism." "Terrorism is a very real threat to Australia," Hill said. "And the possibility of terrorists moving in to the southern Philippines is also very real. We have a real vested interest to work with the Philippines to overcome that threat," he added.
Cruz said the Philippines was also examining similar agreements with Singapore, Malaysia and eventually other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), saying this would boost the regional effort against terrorism.
"We intend to negotiate and conclude a status-of-forces agreement with all the members of ASEAN," Cruz said, adding that he hoped the accords would be completed "as quickly as possible."
However, Cruz stressed such agreements are considered treaties in the Philippines and would need the concurrence of the Philippine Senate to become binding. Earlier Hill, who is on a four-day visit to the Philippines, said Australia would boost its security cooperation amid concern over Islamic militants on the southern region of Mindanao. He expressed concern over alleged activities of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group in Mindanao. - spacewar.com
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Speedy Bali executions could spark terrorism-police
DENPASAR, Indonesia, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Speeding up the execution of three Indonesian militants on death row for the 2002 Bali blasts could provoke a backlash and trigger more attacks, the police officer who probed the bombings, said on Tuesday. Residents on the resort island, incensed at the latest suicide bombings on Oct. 1 that killed 20 people, have staged nearly daily protests in the past week demanding the three be executed immediately before their appeals have run out. Last week, hundreds of protesters stormed a jail where many of those convicted over the 2002 attacks are serving time.
But Bali police chief Made Mangku Pastika said protesters should think twice about the possible consequences of putting Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Ali Gufron, alias Mukhlas, in front of the firing squad too soon. "I understand the demands of the Balinese to have a speedy execution of Amrozi and his friends. But have they thought about the repercussions?" Pastika, himself a Balinese, told reporters in the island's capital Denpasar. "Terrorism could increase. This is what we need to consider and are we ready to face it?" said Pastika, who led the 2002 bombing probe and was later installed as Bali's top policeman.
The three have been on death row for around two years after courts convicted them of playing leading roles in the nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, most of them tourists.
Some political analysts have said their execution could make them martyrs in the eyes of Indonesia's militant fringe and a tool for recruitment. Citing security concerns, authorities moved the three militants from their Bali jail just a day before it was attacked by protesters last week. They are now on a prison island off Java. Their appeals have almost been exhausted. Asked about a lack of success in cracking the Oct. 1 blasts, Pastika said there had been little public input in identifying three suicide bombers whose sketches have been distributed across the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Pastika said the men who strolled into three restaurants wearing backpacks laden with explosives were believed to be Indonesian. Police have not identified them. "From their facial features, they were Indonesians, not Filipinos or Thais. The question is with such clear pictures why has nobody recognised any of them?" Pastika said. "Their families ... probably are afraid or ashamed but how about their neighbours? How come, with more than 200 million Indonesians, nobody knows these three people?"
Police caught Amrozi, the first militant arrested over the 2002 bombings, a month after finding leads from the remnants of the car bomb used.
In the latest investigation, police have detained several people but most have been released for lack of evidence. Hundreds of people have been questioned.
- alertnet.org
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Abdurrahman Wahid now has questions about that attack as well. While some regard him as an Eccentric, he is the former president and is often described as the conscience of the nation, revered by tens of millions of moderate Muslims. As such, he's one of only a few people publicly prepared to canvass the unthinkable - that Indonesian authorities may have had a hand in the Bali atrocity. He believes that the plan for the second, massive at the Sari Club, which caused the majority of casualties, was hatched way above the head of uneducated villagers like Amrozi.
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Amrozi was involved in the lighter bomb. That's a problem always. Even though I agree that he should be given a stiff punishment, but it doesn't mean that he is involved. No, no, no.
REPORTER: So you believe that the Bali bombers had no idea that there was a second bomb?
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Yeah, precisely.
REPORTER: And who would you suggest planted the second bomb?
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Well, it looks like the police.
REPORTER: The police?
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Or the armed forces, I don't know.
Wahid's speculation is chilling and again there's no evidence to support it. But there's no doubt that he's a barometer of how many Indonesians view the whole terror campaign.
read the transcript of the SBS Australia program
Inside Indonesia's War on Terror
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U.S. will extradite Hambali to Indonesia
JAKARTA, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- The United States will hand over terrorist suspect Hambali to Indonesia, AsiaNews reported Wednesday.
Hambali was captured by U.S. Intelligence in 2003. The decision, which Jakarta greeted with some surprise, was announced Tuesday night by Henry A., Crompton. the Counter-Terrorism Coordinator of the State Department.
Crompton, currently visiting Indonesia, said: "We had a clear gesture to extradite Hambali to his home country." However, he did not elaborate further about when the extradition will take place.
On Aug. 11, 2003, the CIA captured Hambali with the help of the Thai security forces while he was hiding in Ayyuthaya in Thailand. Since then, Indonesia asked several times to be able to interrogate him directly. However, Washington always appeared reluctant to give the green light.
The 38-year-old integralist preacher, Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, was born in West Java; he is a senior figure in the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and is a veteran of the Afghanistan war. He is beleived to be the msot senior al-Qaida figure active in Asia with close links to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the presumed mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, who was captured by the United States. Washington claims he is responsible for organising the meeting in Malaysia in January 2000 between Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmii, two hijackers in the Twin Towers attack.
- upi.com
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Indonesia-Malaysia Standoff planned
A political and military confrontation between these two nations in the petroleum-rich Sulawesi Sea (both claim the oil-rich area of Ambalat as their territorial rights) was the topic of a much-animated discussion amongst several American and European Bilderbergers during an afternoon cocktail hour. An American Bilderberger waving his cigar suggested using the UN to "further a peace policy in the region." In fact, Bilderbergers at the lounge table all agreed that such a conflict might well give them an excuse to garrison the disputed area with UN "Peacekeepers" and thus ensure their ultimate control over the exploitation of this treasure, meaning untapped oil reserves. - source
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Malaysia says beefing up security at Thai border
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Malaysia is beefing up security on its border with southern Thailand, the Malaysian defence minister said on Saturday, after his armed-forces chief complained of suspected espionage by military on the Thai side.
Relations between mainly Muslim Malaysia and its Buddhist neighbour have soured over heavy-handed Thai tactics in trying to stamp out a Muslim insurgency on the Thai side of the border.
On Friday, ties felt even more strain when Malaysia's defence forces chief told local media that men in black balaclavas, who he suspected belonged to the Thai military, had recently climbed trees on the border to spy on Malaysian troops.
"We're adding more personnel to monitor the situation at the border so that no one can encroach for whatever reason," Defence Minister Najib Razak was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama on Saturday. "If they enter to get information, we won't allow it because they must respect Malaysia's border."
More than 900 people have died in 21 months of unrest in the Buddhist kingdom's south, which has strong ethnic, religious and family ties to Malaysia. The area has a history of separatism.
Malaysia is concerned about Thai tactics to suppress the violence, fearing instability on its northern border, while Thailand feels Malaysia should do more to prevent Muslim insurgents retreating into Malaysia to escape capture.
- alertnet.org
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Indonesia says Malaysian terror leader is dead
09/11/2005 - Malaysian terror leader Azahari bin Husin was believed to have been killed in a shoot-out with police today, a top Indonesian investigator said. Local TV stations reported Azahari, one of Southeast Asia's most wanted terrorists, had blown himself up in an apparent bid to avoid being captured alive. An elite anti-terror police unit raided a suspected terrorist hide-out in Malang, a small resort town on Java island, General Gorries Mere, the national detective deputy chief said.
Azahari was thought to have been killed in the raid, he said. "We suspect it is him," Mere said, citing "men in the field".
Azahari, 43, is believed to be a key member of the al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah. Together with fellow Malaysian Noordin Mohamed Top, Azahari is believed to have been directly involved in four deadly terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. He is also is suspected in a triple suicide attack on the same resort island last month that killed 20 people.
Witnesses told the SCTV network they heard two explosions and gunfire before police moved in on the house that was harbouring suspected terrorists. The roof was blown off the house, according to Jakarta's Metro TV news station.
Police have previously said Azahari always wore explosives around his waist to avoid being captured alive.
Major General Ansyaad Mbai, a top Indonesian anti-terror official, confirmed that a major anti-terror operation was under way in Malang targeting Azahari and his group. He said he did not know whether Azahari was killed. One policeman was shot and injured, he said.
Azahari apparently joined Jemaah Islamiyah in the late 1990s and was sent for training in an al-Qaida camp in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The explosives expert, who had studied engineering in Australia and received a doctoral degree in Britain, later moved to Malaysia, Thailand, and then Indonesia, where he has eluded a massive police dragnet for years.
Ken Conboy, a Jakarta analyst who wrote a recent book on Jemaah Islamiyah, said Azahari was among the top five leaders of the Southeast Asian terror group.
"It's a huge success if they got him," Conboy said. "Unfortunately, if he's been shot dead there would nothing to exploit unless they found something in his safe house." -IOL
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Indonesian terror chief threatens US, Britain, Australia, Italy
17/11/2005 - A video found in the hideout of one of Asia's most wanted militants shows a masked man threatening attacks against the US, Britain and Australia.
Police suspect the man in the video could be Malaysian fugitive Noordin Mohamad Top, considered a key leader of the al-Qaida-linked south-east Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.
"As long as you keep your troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslim people, you will feel our intimidation and our terror," the man said in the video. "You will be the target of our next attack."
Noordin has been accused of direct involvement in at least four deadly bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 and 2005 suicide attacks on the resort island of Bali that together killed 222 people, many of them foreign tourists.
National police chief General Sutanto said authorities were convinced the man in the video was Noordin.
"Judging from his accent, we believe it was Noordin," he said.
Police said the video was found along with several other recordings one week ago in a hideout in central Java province that had been used by Noordin, who fled before officers arrived.
At about the same time, anti-terror police raided the safe house of Azahari bin Husin - Noordin's right hand man - killing him.
"Our enemy is America, Australia, England and Italy," the masked man said, pointing his finger at the camera.
Later he singled out Australian prime minister John Howard and foreign minister Alexander Downer.
"Especially you," he said. "Remember that."
Earlier in the video, three men who carried suicide attacks on three crowded Bali restaurants last month told their families that they expected to be rewarded in heaven. It is believed to be the first time suicide bombers in Indonesia have made a video before launching an attack, said Bali police chief Major General I Made Mangku Pastika. Jemaah Islamiyah, which wants to establish an Islamic state spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines, has been weakened by a regional crackdown in recent years. - IOL
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US restores full military ties with Indonesia
By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta and Guy Dinmore in Washington - November 23 2005
The US has resumed full relations with the Indonesian military by lifting a six-year-old arms embargo and announcing it was ready to provide additional defence funding and counter-terrorism assistance to Jakarta.
Washington's move on Tuesday drew immediate condemnation from rights groups concerned that lifting the embargo imposed after Indonesia's withdrawal from East Timor in 1999 would ease pressure on Jakarta to punish senior military officers involved.
"US support for an unreformed military which remains above the law is not in the interest of the United States or Indonesia," the Washington-based East Timor Action Network said in a statement. "This is a profoundly disappointing and sad day for human rights protections everywhere but especially in Indonesia, East Timor, and the US."
US military ties with Indonesia were scaled back in 1992 after a massacre of civilians in East Timor. They were further curtailed after about 1,500 people were killed by pro-Jakarta militias and the security forces in connection with an August 1999 vote for independence by East Timor's 800,000 people.
The arms embargo has hurt Indonesia's military, leaving most of the F-16 fighters it bought from the US grounded and prompting it to seek alternative sources of weapons in China and Russia. The government of Megawati Sukarnoputri bought four Sukhoi jets and two helicopters from Russia in a $200m counter-trade deal in 2003 while Beijing earlier this year agreed to help Jakarta revive a programme to develop short- and medium-range missiles.
But the embargo has done little to force Jakarta to hand over senior military officers indicted on charges of crimes against humanity by UN prosecutors in East Timor or conduct credible trials of its own. That, together with more recent allegations of military atrocities committed during the fight against separatists in the provinces of Aceh and Papua, has led to charges the Indonesian military still enjoys the impunity it had under strongman Suharto. Defending the change in policy, the US State Department said it attached the "utmost importance" to its relationship with Jakarta and called Indonesia "a voice of moderation in the Islamic world."
It insisted that Jakarta had made significant progress in reforming its democratic institutions and practices, while playing a key role in securing strategic sea lanes in southeast Asia. Through its increased aid, the US "will help modernise the Indonesian military, provide further incentives for reform of the Indonesian military, and support US and Indonesian security objectives, including counterterrorism, maritime security and disaster relief," the State Department said.
In a reference to East Timor, the State Department insisted that Washington "remains committed to pressing for accountability for past human rights abuses." It also said US assistance would be "guided by Indonesia's progress on democratic reform and accountability."
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said to a local radio station while on a state visit to New Delhi: "This is a new page, a new chapter in the strategic relations between Indonesia and the United States which have since 1999 gone through substantial ups and downs in relation to its defence cooperation." "The essence is that the sanction, or embargo imposed by the United States, has been lifted."
Mr Yudhoyono said the US International Military Education and Training (IMET), Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF) programmes were now "back to normal." - ft.com |
Journalist shot dead in the Philippines
Big News Network.com Friday 2nd December, 2005 (UPI)
A radio journalist who criticized official corruption has been shot and killed by a lone gunman at a market in central Philippines.
George Benaojan, 27, was shot while talking to a man in front of a store in Cebu City Thursday night, local news media reported. He was shot at least three times with a .45-caliber pistol, and died from his wounds in the hospital around midnight.
A woman passerby also was wounded by a stray bullet.
Witnesses said the gunman had been seen loitering in the area for several hours before Benaojan arrived.
Police suspect that Benaojan's killing was linked to his criticism of customs officials in his weekly commentary program on DYBB Bantay Radyo. He also wrote a column in the newspaper Bantay Balita.
Benaojan is the 10th reporter killed in the Philippines this year. Last month a reporter for the local tabloid Katapat, Roberto Ramos, was shot in the head near Manila. Police arrested two brothers who allegedly killed the reporter after he revealed that they were selling pirated DVDs.
The majority of media homicides in the Philippines remain unsolved. Most are believed to be retaliation for criticism of officials, politicians, police and military figures. - bignewsnetwork
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Philippines Leader: Coup Plot Quashed
By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press 24th Feb 2006 - MANILA, Philippines - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced she had quashed a coup plot Friday and declared a state of emergency, gambling that the backlash wouldn't leave her crippled.
It was one of the toughest and longest days yet for Arroyo, who already has withstood two coup attempts and numerous other crises during five tumultuous years in power. She started with a pre-dawn meeting of her national security council and was still in the presidential palace in the evening, as opponents accused her of suppressing dissent.
Imposing a state of emergency is a dangerous move in a country still smarting from the martial-law decrees used by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Riot police quickly used force to disperse two protests before they could gather steam. An army general was arrested and a police commander was relieved of his duties as military chiefs moved to quash the rebellion before it could get started.
The military has played major roles in two "people power" revolts and has a recent history of restiveness, so Arroyo ordered a massive security clampdown, with military camps barricaded to keep troops from joining the demonstrations.
Military chiefs said they backed Arroyo and that they had eased the threat of a coup, but hadn't wiped it out completely. Arroyo vowed she was in control but clearly was worried about losing her grip on events as her opponents tried to hijack commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the "people power" revolt that ousted Marcos.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye told reporters that the commemorations have been canceled and that the military was ordered "to prevent and suppress lawless violence."
Arroyo said the political opposition, along with extreme elements of the political left and right, were determined to bring down the elected government. "This is my warning against those who threaten the government: the whole weight of the law will fall on your treason," Arroyo said in a nationally televised statement in which she appealed for calm.
Her chief of staff, Mike Defensor, said no curfew will be imposed but the declaration bans rallies, allows arrests without warrants, permits the president to call in the military to intervene and lets her take over facilities - including media outlets - that may affect national security.
Arroyo's aides linked former President Joseph Estrada and several others to the coup plot.
Estrada laughed off the allegations, saying he's been out of work and under detention for five years and didn't have the money to finance a coup. "I don't have any work, how can I finance?" he asked.
Former President Corazon Aquino and about 5,000 people were allowed to march peacefully to a memorial to her late husband Benigno, whose assassination in 1983 sparked massive protests that led to the revolt against Marcos. But Aquino, a one-time Arroyo ally, criticized the emergency declaration and reiterated a call for the president to "make the supreme sacrifice" and resign. "I believe that during these times, we should not forget that many sacrificed to regain our democracy," Aquino said. "We cannot just keep quiet because that is what happened during martial law. Our dictator then believed that he can do anything to keep himself in power."
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the country's largest lawyers' group, said it will question the legality of Arroyo's declaration before the Supreme Court, according to its president, Anselmo Cadiz. "It could result in more political hemorrhage and security risk," said Rep. Roilo Golez, Arroyo's former national security adviser, who withdrew support from her. "This could get out of control ... if her crisis team doesn't manage this well."
Rep. Teodoro Casino, a leftist leader, said anti-Arroyo protests won't end.
The Philippine stock market and the peso both plunged.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus said: "We are monitoring the situation carefully. We firmly support the rule of law and constitutional government. Violence should be avoided."
Arroyo survived three impeachment bids in September, when her dominant allies in the House of Representatives used a technicality to block complaints of alleged massive corruption and vote-rigging. Police already were on heightened alert nationwide as reports of a coup plot have been circulating for more than a week; even elementary school students were discussing it in detail. - news.yahoo.com/ |
Indonesia and Britain Agree to Strengthen Anti-Terror Ties
By Nancy-Amelia Collins - Jakarta - 30 March 2006
The leaders of Indonesia and Britain have agreed to boost cooperation in the fight against terrorism during a visit by the British prime minister to Jakarta.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged to work more closely with Indonesia, the nation with the world's largest Muslim population, to strengthen bilateral ties. Mr. Blair met with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyno for an hour-long discussion and said both leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation against terrorism and expand defense ties.
"We want in defense terms now to treat Indonesia as it should be, as our friend and our ally," he said. "In respect of counter-terrorism, both our countries have suffered from terrorism, both have a common interest in defeating it and we are going to work closely together to do that."
Indonesia has suffered a spate of terrorist bombings over the past several years blamed on the regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah. More than 200 Islamic extremists have been arrested for the bombings and several of them have been sentenced to death.
London was hit by bombings last July in two underground train stations and a bus that claimed 56 lives. Radical young British Muslims were blamed for the suicide attacks.
Indonesian President Yudhoyono says his government is working hard to prevent terrorist attacks, but says that extremism can be found in any country and must be dealt with in accordance with the law.
"In any country, in any society, in any religion, there are groups that are more radical, more extreme, more fundamental. And we have to deal with this group properly, wisely, justly," he said.
The leaders inaugurated the Indonesia-United Kingdom Islamic Advisory Group, composed of Muslim leaders from both nations aimed at promoting tolerance and countering extremism. The British prime minister also met with five moderate Islamic leaders who urged him to withdraw British troops from Iraq. Mr. Blair called the meeting with the Muslim leaders "inspiring and at times moving."
The prime minister took a grilling from students at an Islamic boarding school. They asked if he had tried to prevent the invasion of Iraq and told him to pressure Israel to bring peace to the Middle East. His visit to Indonesia is the first by a British prime minister since 1985 and it is the last leg of a week-long tour that has taken him to Australia and New Zealand. - voanews.com
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Howard, Bush discuss global security
From correspondents in Washington - May 17, 2006 - daily telegraph.news.com.au
Australian PRIME Minister John Howard met with US President George W. Bush at the White House for talks on international security, the war on terror, and developments in Iraq.
At a White House ceremony ahead of their summit, Mr Howard heaped praise on Mr Bush for his leadership of the "war on terror".
"The world needs an involved, committed, concerned United States years into the future," Mr Howard said shortly after arriving at the White House. "The world needs a president of the United States who has a clear-eyed view of the dangers of terrorism and the courage and the determination - however difficult the path may be - to see the task through to its conclusion. "And in you, sir, the American people and the world have found such a leader and such an individual," Mr Howard told Mr Bush.
For his part, the US President praised Australia as one of America's closest allies, particularly in promoting peace, fighting terrorism and ending the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
"Our two nations are closer than ever. And Americans admire Australians' strong leader. Australia has been on the front lines of every offensive in the war on terror," Mr Bush said.
Talks between the two leaders were expected to be dominated by international security, the war on terror, and developments in Iraq.
Mr Bush praised the "timeless values" shared by the people of Australia and the United States.
"On opposite sides of the Pacific, our peoples created lands of opportunity and offered millions the hope of new beginnings. As frontier peoples, we cherish the spirit of discovery. We believe that men and women who dream big and work hard can create a better world," the US president said.
"Australians and Americans also believe in the power of freedom. Our two nations were once remote outposts of liberty, lands where those escaping tyranny could find a better life," he said.
"Today freedom is on the move. Australians and Americans celebrate freedom's advance, because nations that respect the rights and dignity of their own people are the best partners for peace and the strongest anchors of stability in every region of the world."
Mr Bush and other senior US officials are expected to confer with Mr Howard on developments in Iraq and Afghanistan, where both countries have troops, Iran's disputed nuclear program and China's growing political and trade influence.
Mr Bush was to fete the Australian leader at a formal White House dinner on Tuesday, to be attended by prominent business and political figures.
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Peacekeepers due in East Timor as gun battles rage
25/05/2006 - Ireland Online
Fierce gun battles raged in East Timor's capital today, killing at least three people and wounding more than a dozen, as international troops headed to the tiny nation to help it quell a rebellion by disgruntled ex-soldiers.
A South Korean bystander was shot in the neck, Yonhap news agency said, as dozens of foreigners fled the country on the third day of violence in Dili. The death toll in this week's unrest stood at five.
"This is tragic, it's tragic that the East Timorese are fighting each other like this," said Australian Malcolm Cooler, 40, as he waited with his wife at Dili airport for a flight out. "I'm shocked and sad."
Firefights between the country's 800-member army and a band of about 600 dismissed soldiers erupted in several areas around Dili and homes and business were torched.
Black plumes of smoke rose over virtually-deserted streets as residents hid in their homes or with aid workers.
East Timor is the world's youngest nation and has been plagued by unrest since March when a third of its armed forces were fired after going on strike to protest alleged discrimination in the military.
Some hard-liners fled from the capital last month after participating in deadly riots, bunkering down in surrounding hills and threatening guerrilla warfare if they were not reinstated.
Two former soldiers and an army captain have been killed since late yesterday, said the military and Letnan Gastao Salsinha, a spokesman for the ex-soldiers. Fourteen ex-soldiers were wounded, Salsinha said.
One soldier and of the ex-soldiers died in gun battles on Tuesday.
The fighting - the worst to hit East Timor since the violence surrounding its bloody break with Indonesia in 1999 - has prompted the fledgling nation's government to ask for international troops.
"We can't control the situation," said Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta, adding that his country needed help disarming "renegade troops and police rebelling against the state".
Neighbouring Australia sent helicopters, a C-130 Hercules aircraft and 150 commandos to secure Dili's airport, and they were expected to arrive late today, said Australian prime minister John Howard.
"These Australian forces will take immediate action to secure the perimeter of Dili International Airport," he said, amid reports that the main road leading to the airport was briefly cut off by gunfire.
"It's our expectation that this will ensure that the airport remains open and functioning normally," he added
Australia, which has said it does not intend to be drawn into any firefights between the two sides in East Timor, has offered up to 1,300 troops, as well as ships, aircraft and armoured personnel carriers.
New Zealand said it was sending 60 police and soldiers. Portugal - the tiny nation's former coloniser - also agreed to send forces as has Malaysia.
Preparing for the worst, dozens of foreigners were fleeing East Timor. One witness said more than 100 had already left.
"We can't stay here any longer," said Cooler, the Australian.
Meanwhile, the commander of the renegade forces - whom East Timor's top military chief said he wants captured dead or alive - said bringing in peacekeepers was the only way to prevent an outbreak of civil war.
"This is the only solution," said Maj. Alfredo Reinado, commander of the 600-strong breakaway force.
"There is no other way, or it will be war forever. The government has taken too long. It is not capable of resolving this," he said.
At the heart of the conflict are the former soldiers' claims they were being discriminated against because they came from the west of the small country, while the military leadership originated from the east.
Indonesia rued East Timor with an iron fist for 24 years. Human rights groups say as many as 200,000 were killed under its occupation.
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Oil for empire
Just after Australia Prime Minister John Howard's trip to see Bush in Washington: a major rebellion occurs in oil-rich East Timor. Cause and effect? Bet on it.
Wayne Madsen May 24, 2006 --
The current rebellion in East Timor, where significant off-shore oil reserves have been discovered, threatens to weaken that nation's independence, which came at a tremendously bloody cost. One major opponent of East Timor is World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, a human vampire that would like to retaliate against the new nation for its successful independence fight against Wolfowitz's chums in Indonesia, the nation where he served as US ambassador and where he helped coordinate US military assistance for Indonesian counter-insurgency troops who massacred over 100,000 Timorese. Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, and Australia have pledged to send troops to put down the rebellion, which has all the markings of a "made in Washington and Houston" destabilization effort to get at Timor's oil.
Just after Australia Prime Minister John Howard's trip to see Bush in Washington: a major rebellion occurs in oil-rich East Timor. Cause and effect? Bet on it.
According to Australian sources, East Timor's long sought independence is in severe jeopardy as a result of collusion between the United States, Australia, Indonesia, and the World Bank under pro-Indonesian president Paul Wolfowitz. More astounding are reports that Indonesian intelligence has thoroughly penetrated the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), by using blackmail techniques involving pedophilia and bribes. These techniques have also been used to target former Australian and U.S. ambassadors and other diplomats and military personnel assigned to Indonesia. Wolfowitz is a former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia.
May 25, 2006 -
Australian sources report that Woodside, Australia's largest oil and natural gas company, has been playing hardball recently with East Timor's government over disputed oil blocks in the Timor Sea. Woodside has also been active in oil deals in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, a major reason for Australia's troop deployment to that war-torn nation.
Fighting continues between loyal East Timorese government troops and rebel troops loyal to Maj. Alfredo Reinado, who is said to have been supported by secret contracts, arms, and training supplied by covert Australian private military contractors with a wink and a nod from the Bush and John Howard administrations. Bush and Howard met in Washington just prior to East Timor's military rebellion. Australian sources report that the scenario is the same as employed by Autralian neo-colonialists in the civil war-plagued Solomon Islands: secretly support a rebellion, force the government to call on Australian military assistance, and then declare the country a "failed state" and permanently establish a military and political presence in the country.
Australian neo-colonialists (operating on behalf of Bush neo-cons) target East Timor's oil, launch a rebellion against East Timor's government
East Timor's government led by Xanana Gusmao, wise to this Australian ploy, a first denied entry to Australian troops, instead calling on help from Malaysia (as a counter to Indonesia) and Portugal (one of the few nations East Timor can trust). However, after the denial of Australian troop entry, Gusmao witnessed a drastic upturn in the rebellion by ex-East Timorese military rebels that directly threatened the entire East Timor government with a coup. The East Timor executive was then forced to accept Australian troops, which are now pouring into the country ahead of troops from Malaysia, Portugal, and New Zealand.
Quietly looking on is Indonesia, which hopes that a new government in East Timor beholden to the multinational oil industry will give former President Suharto's family's oil firms, trading firms that deal with the state-owned Pertamina, lucrative deals for East Timor's off-shore oil blocks. Meanwhile, big oil has now re-introduced war to East Timor, a nation that lost 100,000 of its people in a brutal war with Indonesia, supported by the past Republican administrations of Ford, Reagan, and Bush I.
Washington realized Indonesia's intention of taking East Timor by force far earlier than previously recognized, was aware of - and discounted or suppressed - credible reports of ongoing Indonesian atrocities from 1975 to 1983, turned a blind eye to the extensive use of U.S. weapons in East Timor, and through 1999 viewed the crisis in East Timor primarily as a distraction from its priority of maintaining close relations with the Indonesian government and armed forces. - The United States Role in the Invasion of East Timor 1999 National security archive
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East Timor fighting eases
By David Fox DILI (Reuters) - source
The streets of Dili were quiet and nearly deserted on Friday afternoon, a day after violent clashes between rival East Timorese factions, with no local police or military presence seen.
Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta told New Zealand Radio the warring parties in the tiny nation might be brought together for talks over the weekend, and that in the meantime government forces and the fighting factions had agreed to leave the city.
"By Sunday, I hope for a roundtable chaired by the President, Xanana Gusmao," he said.
Nine people were killed and 27 wounded on Thursday in clashes sparked by a government's decision to sack almost half the country's military after they protested against poor conditions.
Most of those killed were shot when rebel army elements opened fire on unarmed police being escorted out of Dili police headquarters after a negotiated cease-fire, officials said. |
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At least six people had already been killed in Dili, the capital, before Thursday as protests by many of the almost 600 dismissed soldiers spiralled into violent clashes with government troops and police.
Officials said the fighting appeared to have quieted down after commandos from Australia, one of several countries asked to help, landed on Thursday.
The Australian military presence at the airport was strong on Friday and more troops were arriving. Those already there appeared relaxed, smoking and lounging in the shade of trees.
Shops were closed in Dili on Friday afternoon and residents said there had been no signs of gunbattles anywhere.
However, some media reported shooting earlier in the day, and Dionisio Babo Soares, Timorese co-chairman of the Timor-Indonesia truth and friendship commission, told reporters in Bali that while the situation in the East Timor capital was under control "there were a few sporadic shooting incidents on the outskirts".
Some Dili residents -- many of whom had huddled in their homes throughout Thursday's fighting -- were feeling secure enough in the late afternoon to move to the city's waterfront to look at two Australian warships patrolling offshore.
GOVERNANCE PROBLEM
Australian Prime Minister John Howard was critical of the way East Timor has been run.
"There is a significant governance problem inside East Timor. There's no point in beating about the bush, the country has not been well governed," he told Australian Radio on Friday.
The truth and friendship commission's Soares said: "The parliament plans to convene today to decide further steps that need to be taken by the president and the prime minister."
East Timor, which shares a land border with Indonesia's West Timor, became the world's newest nation in 2002 after a bloody 1999 vote to break free from nearly 25 years of Indonesian rule.
Asked by reporters on Friday whether Indonesia felt uneasy with the large presence of Australian troops in East Timor, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said: "Absolutely not."
"We see this entirely as an issue for Timor Leste."
Tiny East Timor, barely bigger than the Bahamas and one of the world's poorest nations despite potentially lucrative oil and gas reserves, requested international help on Wednesday.
Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N.'s undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, said in a briefing to the U.N. Security Council in New York that East Timor's national police force was reported to be in total disarray.
The Security Council backed the deployment of foreign troops.
MORE HELP ON WAY
Australia is sending 1,300 troops. New Zealand is sending two military aircraft and some soldiers to the northern city of Darwin to assist with evacuations and troop transport.
Portugal is sending 120 military police. Malaysia plans an eventual combined team of 500.
Meanwhile tens of thousands of Timorese have been displaced by the violence, aid agencies say.
Oxfam Australia programme manager in Dili, Keryn Clark, said: "We think in Dili we have probably got 30,000 at the moment. It's very hard for us to get the numbers."
Aid group World Vision said in a statement that gangs of armed youths were threatening to attack at least two compounds containing thousands of internally displaced people.
World Vision is working in three compounds with up to 25,000 internally displaced people.
Australia led a U.N.-backed force in 1999 to quell violence after East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia. An estimated 1,000 people died in that violence, blamed mostly on pro-Jakarta militia backed by Indonesian military elements.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in Canberra, Michael Perry in Sydney, Jalil Hamid in Kuala Lumpur, Achmad Sukarsono in Jakarta and Irwin Arieff at the U.N.)
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now its ethnic violence
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Violence explodes in ETimor capital as ethnic gangs battle
by Victor Tjahjadi DILI (AFP) - 27th May 2006 - via news.yahoo.com
East Timor's capital erupted in violence as ethnic gangs battled in the streets against a backdrop of automatic weapons fire and thousands of people fleeing for safety.
Smoke billowed from houses and cars set alight by mobs from different parts of the tiny country, and security appeared to be breaking down in areas close to the centre of the city.
The task of bringing peace to Dili was slipping from the grasp of Australian and other foreign troops as youths armed with daggers, machetes and slingshots rampaged through Dili.
Terrified people armed with machetes stood guard outside their homes as communities turned on each other and rumours abounded of mobs moving in.
The UN ordered the evacuation of non-essential staff as people on the streets said they feared the violence would explode into civil war.
AFP correspondents in Dili said that peace prevailed only where and when foreign troops were present. As soon as the troops moved on, mob violence broke out anew.
"This is a communal dispute that's escalated because of the overall situation," a UN official said. "It's basically payback time between the different groups."
Australian troops began arriving Thursday after East Timor's government called for international help to stop bloodshed in and around Dili between soldiers and renegade troops.
The renegades, numbering almost half the 1,400-strong Timorese military, were sacked last month after protesting what they alleged was discrimination against soldiers from the west of the country.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) said its commander on the ground, Brigadier Mick Slater, would meet rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado Saturday after receiving agreement from other factions to cooperate with peace efforts.
"We will get the military to return to its barracks. We will get the police to return to their barracks and we will get the different dissident groups that are apparent on the scene to move back into their home environments," ADF vice chief Lieutenant-General Ken Gillespie told reporters in Canberra.
But he said the international troops were not in Dili to disarm the ethnic gangs, rather "to simply cause disengagement, cause the violence to stop, to allow trust to redevelop".
Witnesses to the violence said the situation had gone beyond the military rebellion as violent mobs were dividing along ethnic lines and attacking each other.
"It's east against west, soldiers against soldiers, police against soldiers, everyone against everyone," said Father Lalo, a Catholic priest who was on the streets urging people to put down their weapons. "It's total madness."
Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta condemned the mob violence, saying it was damaging East Timor.
"Today's incidents are truly saddening because the youths have destroyed the image of tolerance and peace," he told reporters. "Therefore I am urging these youths to stop their actions because they will only create damage, discredit their family, their homeland and this country."
The violence sparked panic as thousands of residents with cars, carts and suitcases packed with possessions choked the main road to the airport, where the international military presence is strongest and safety is assured.
UN spokeswoman Donna Cusumano said non-essential staff and dependents, totalling about 390 people, would be evacuated to Darwin, in northern Australia, on Saturday or Sunday.
A skeleton staff of about 50 would continue operating the UN mission to East Timor (UNMISET), she said. She said gunshots were heard around the UN compound at Obrigado Barracks, although they ceased after international peacekeepers from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia stepped up patrols around the area.
The media were targeted for the first time when an AFP car -- with two reporters and one photographer inside -- also containing an AP photographer was attacked after one easterner forced his way into the vehicle and another jumped on the roof while attempting to escape a pursuing mob of westerners. The group of westerners attacked the car, which was clearly marked as an international press vehicle, throwing rocks and swinging swords at the vehicle. The passengers were shaken but escaped serious injury.
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