Indonesia

[Casey]

Australia warns of possible attacks in Indonesia
19 Feb 2005 08:30:43 GMT

Source: Reuters

SYDNEY, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Australia warned on Saturday that Islamic extremists could be planning attacks against foreigners working on tsunami relief efforts in northern Sumatra but the Indonesia army said it knew of no credible new threats.

Australian said in an updated travel warning, issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, that its nationals should defer non-essential travel to Indonesia as a whole, and should avoid all travel to Aceh and Maluku provinces.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said information suggested bomb attacks against aid workers were possible.

"We've now found that some of the Islamic extremists are talking about mounting terrorist attacks in the region and that's tremendously disappointing," Downer told reporters in the Australian capital Canberra.

The Indonesian army said it had received no hard information about fresh threats to foreign aid workers.

"Not specifically to the aid workers. We heard some rumours but we haven't got any hard facts on the threat to foreign workers," Brigadier General Hotma Panjaitan told Reuters.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono toured the region amid tight security on Saturday.

He went to Lhok Nga, just to the west of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, to inspect a bridge built by the army to replace one washed away by the killer waves.

He traveled in a convoy which included armoured personnel carries. Elements of the police and army carrying automatic weapons guarded the road and every site he visited. Helicopters circled above during the 45 minutes he was in Lhok Nga.

Indonesia and separatists from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) will begin a fresh round of talks in Helsinki on Monday aimed at ending three decades of violence and securing a lasting peace in the gas-rich province.

The tsunami threw the warring sides together but there have been clashes, with at least four rebels killed by the military near Band Aceh, a hub for the relief operation, last week.

Panjaitan said security for foreign aid workers could be better in Aceh, especially along the stretch of road from Banda Aceh south to Lhok Nga and Meulaboh.

"Looking at the assessment by the military command here, and incidents that happened along the road from here to Meulaboh (we) can say that it's not secure enough for foreigners," he said.

"It doesn't mean that foreign workers couldn't go into this area as long as we could know their presence and we could provide security to guard them," Panjaitan said in Lhok Nga.

Aid agencies in Aceh said they were checking the Australian report. "We didn't have any kind of security incident until now in Banda Aceh or in the field," World Food Program spokesman Inigo Alvarez said.

The travel advisory said Australians should not travel to Banda Aceh or other parts of Aceh unless under the auspices of a recognised aid organisation, it said.

Australia, a close U.S. ally, has about 1,000 military personnel in Indonesia as part of the aid effort following the Dec. 26 tsunami that left 240,000 dead or listed as missing.

A suicide bomber killed 10 people in an attack outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last September.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD67324.htm

[Petronas]

Australian troops can't protect foreign aid workers in Aceh
February 21, 2005

SYDNEY, Australia (AP): Australian troops delivering aid in tsunami-hit Indonesia and helping rebuild the shattered Aceh province cannot also protect aid workers, Defense Minister Robert Hill said on Sunday, following a warning of a possible terror attack.

Australia's foreign minister said on Saturday that Islamic extremists could be planning to attack foreign aid workers in Aceh, which bore the full force of the massive Dec. 26 undersea quake and the tsunami it unleashed.

Hill said there was no direct threat to hundreds of Australian troops still in Aceh, as they had protection from the Indonesian military.

"So given the skills of our forces, plus the force protection that's being provided, the defense contributors in Aceh are in a very different position to that of aid workers," Hill told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television's Insidersprogram.

"We are worried that aid workers are more vulnerable," he added. It was not immediately clear how many Australian aid workers remain in Indonesia.

"The important thing for aid workers, those working through formal organizations, is to follow the guidance of the Indonesian police and the Indonesian military and obviously not take undue risk," he said. "Those who are not part of formal organizationsand don't have security plans and the like, it would be better if they weren't there."

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Saturday revised its travel advice for Indonesia, warning that Australians could endanger themselves by traveling to northern Sumatra island, where Aceh is located.

More than 121,000 people died in Indonesia when the earthquake and tsunami hit Aceh province, and many thousands more remain missing.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050220111204&irec=8

[Petronas]

Jihadists 'can be contained'
February 23, 2005

AUSTRALIAN hopes that jihadist terrorism in neighbouring Indonesia can be crushed will never be realised, a new reports says. But Jakarta's security forces should be able to contain radicals belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah terror network and prevent the nightmare of a radicalised Islamic state emerging on Australia's doorstep. An investigation by leading JI expert Sidney Jones warns a succession of Indonesian governments - including the 32-year Suharto dictatorship - has not been able to eliminate radical jihadists since they emerged in the 1950s.

Despite the usual wave of arrests following a terror attack like the 2002 Bali bombings in the Kuta nightclub strip, radicals were always able to regroup and find fresh recruits. That ability had been underscored by last year's Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta by JI terror mastermind Azahari Husin and suicide bomb recruiter Noordin Top, who planned the blast while alleged JI spiritual head Abu Bakar Bashir was in jail facing trial. Bashir, 66, is expected to walk free as soon as next week following another weak attempt by Indonesian prosecutors to tap him as the inspiration for JI's radicals.

Dr Jones, from the International Crisis Group, said today's radical terror cells were the offshoots of the 1950s group Darul Islam, or Islamic Kingdom, whose members fought to turn Indonesia into a hardline Islamic State. "Over the last 55 years, that movement has produced splinters and offshoots that range from Jemaah Islamiah to non-violent religious groups," her report said. "Every time the older generation seems on the verge of passing into irrelevance, a new generation of young militants, inspired by DI's history and the mystique of an Islamic state, emerges to give the movement a new lease on life. "If the pattern ... holds, Indonesia will not be able to eradicate JI or its jihadist partners, even if it arrests every member of the central command. But it ought to be able to contain it."

Elite counterterror police are currently hunting Dr Azahari and Noordin across Indonesia with the aid of Australian police. To carry out the embassy attack, Jones said the pair teamed up with a previously unnoticed group called the Banten Ring, headed by a man named Kang Jaja and operating in old Darul Islam strongholds in west Java. "Three of the young men recruited as suicide bombers from the Banten Ring, including one who died in the September bombing, had fathers in DI," she said. The new militants fought under the slogan of "victory or martyrdom" and forged lasting friendships in secret military-style training camps.

Bashir, whose trial continued today, is accused of presiding over a passing-out parade at one such camp in the southern Philippines in 2000. At another camp in Pandeglang, west Java, trainees learned to shoot, make bombs and use use knives and machetes in a one-hectare palm and banana plantation, Jones said.

She said while the endurance of JI and splinter groups like Komando Jihad was worrying, the truth was militancy was having difficulty spreading in the world's most populous but overwhelmingly moderate Muslim nation, even against the backdrop of the Iraq war. "The recycling of old DI members into JI or into partnerships with JI suggests that the recruiting base for jihadists may not be expanding significantly," she said. "There is no reason to think that the war in Iraq, for example, will produce a sudden spurt of new JI members, even though the unpopularity of that war and the anti-American sentiment it has fuelled will continue to complicate domestic counter-terror initiatives."

She said to combat the jihadists, Indonesian security forces needed to pay more attention to bonds forged in prison and among the children of detainees, as well as track what happened to militants once they were released. "The government needs to ensure that prisons do not become a place where radicalisation increases or is reinforced, that committed jihadists are not given free rein to influence other prisoners," she said.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12343435-2,00.html

[Petronas]

Gam 'may drop independence goal'
Tuesday, 22 February, 2005, 16:44 GMT

Aceh's separatist Free Aceh Movement (Gam) may be willing to drop their demand for full independence, sources close to talks in Finland have said.
Gam and the Indonesian government are reportedly negotiating on a special autonomy package Jakarta has offered the rebels instead. Both sides say they want a deal to help Aceh recover from last year's tsunami. In the past Gam has said it will accept nothing short of independence, which Jakarta has always ruled out.

Rebel spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah told the BBC: "We are still negotiating, we will only have a clearer picture after we have concluded the three days of talks". But earlier, sources close to the talks said the issue of independence had been put "to one side". "It's put aside as the dialogue process is going on, it doesn't mean we've dropped it," a Gam delegate at the talks said.

An adviser to the rebels, Australian academic Damien Kingsbury, hailed the move as a breakthrough. "It's huge, it's a fundamental shift of position, and in itself it probably constitutes the single biggest step in the whole process," he said. But Mr Kingsbury added that Gam would want "high guarantees" of a high-level of self-government instead of a special autonomy package Jakarta has offered. The rebel group has also demanded that Indonesian troops be withdrawn from the province as part of any deal.

Army chief Endriartono Sutarto warned earlier that Jakarta would take strong military action against the rebels if the two sides failed to agree. "If the peaceful means currently in place are heading in the right direction, that's fine. But if it's fruitless, then we should never hesitate to take strong action against these separatists," he was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.

The first round of talks in Helsinki three weeks ago was considered a big step forward, as the parties had not met at all for almost two years. The talks are being mediated by the former Finnish president and career diplomat, Martti Ahtisaari. He is expected to hold a news conference when the meeting ends on Wednesday.

Political analysts in Aceh have said the most important thing for now is that the parties agree on a permanent ceasefire to ensure safety for all involved in the aid operation after the tsunami which devastated the region in December. A de facto ceasefire has been in place since the disaster, but there have been recent reports of continuing clashes between Gam rebels and Indonesian forces. More than 12,000 people have been killed since Gam began its separatist campaign in 1976.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4286545.stm

[Casey]

Indonesian cleric Bashir likely to escape lightly if convicted
(AFP)

2 March 2005

JAKARTA - Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of leading a regional militant group blamed for deadly bombings, is likely once again to escape a tough sentence even if he is found guilty at the end of his second terrorism trial on Thursday.

Prosecutors have struggled to prove that Bashir, by virtue of his alleged leadership of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group, was involved in the 2002 Bali bombings and another attack on the Jakarta Marriott hotel the following year.

But few see the case they put forward as convincing.

Prosecutors have already dropped the main charge, which could theoretically carry the death penalty, that Bashir and his supporters planned the bombings.

Instead they sought an eight-year sentence—arguing he had failed, as head of the organisation, to prevent Jemaah Islamiyah militants from carrying out terror attacks.

Judges are not bound by the prosecutors’ recommendation. Even if they convict him, any sentence is thought unlikely to be longer than eight years in view of what analysts see as a flimsy case.

“They have a very weak case against him,” said Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group (ICG), who is an expert on Jemaah Islamiyah.

“It would have been a difficult case for any prosecutor to have to prove in a court of law that a connection took place between giving a lecture in 2000 and a bombing three years later,” Jones told AFP, referring to the Marriott bombing in 2003 which killed 12 people.

Prosecutors in their indictment said that as Jemaah Islamiyah chief, Bashir visited one of its training camps in the Philippines in 2000 and allegedly relayed a “ruling from Osama bin Laden which permitted attacks and killings of Americans and their allies”.

Several camp alumni later went on to conduct terrorist acts, the indictment said.

Muslim scholar and political analyst Azyumardi Azra believed the prosecutors “have failed to prove Abu Bakar Bashir’s role in the Marriott and Bali bombings”.

Bashir’s lawyers said they were confident judges would acquit him.

“We are very optimistic that the judges will exonerate him because there’s no evidence whatsoever to back up the prosecutors’ case,” said Wirawan Adnan.

“If that does not happen, it must be because of intervention from the government,” he said.

Bashir, 66, has maintained that US President George W. Bush, ”the enemy of Allah”, has pressured Indonesia to jail him to stop him campaigning for Islamic law.

Frederick Burks, a former US State Department translator, testified in Bashir’s trial in January that in 2002, a Bush envoy had asked then-Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri to arrest Bashir and hand him over to US authorities.

Jones believed it was very unlikely the new government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would interfere in Bashir’s case.

“This trial should not be seen as the test of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government on terrorism. All of the material was complied by prosecutors before he took office and the last thing his government would do is to intervene,” she said.

Azra said that in the post-Megawati era, “there seems to be no strong pressure from foreign governments on Indonesia to influence the court’s decision. This, perhaps, is due to (Yudhoyono’s) more decisive attitude in dealing with sensitive issues”.

Bashir was arrested a week after the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people, and went on trial in April the following year.

Prosecutors failed to prove that he waged a terror campaign to topple the government and led Jemaah Islamiyah but judges found him guilty of immigration offenses.

Police rearrested him in April last year as he left prison after serving the immigration sentence, citing new evidence of terror links and of his Jemaah Islamiyah leadership.

The network has been blamed for a series of terror attacks in the region, including a suicide bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last September that killed 11 people.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/March/theworld_March34.xml&section=theworld

[Petronas]

Militant Cleric Gets 30 Months for Bali Attack
Thursday, March 03, 2005

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The alleged leader of a militant Islamic group was sentenced Thursday to 2 ½ years in prison for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people but was cleared of more serious charges. The United States and Australia criticized the sentence. A five-judge panel cleared Abu Bakar Bashir of allegations that as head of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group he planned the 2003 bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people and that he incited his followers to launch terrorist attacks. The 66-year-old preacher could be released from prison by October 2006 with time already served in prison taken into account. He has been in jail since April.

Bashir had faced a maximum penalty of death over the Marriott charge, but most analysts had predicted his punishment would be far less — partly due to a weak case by prosecutors. During the five-month trial, only one witness directly testified that Bashir headed Jemaah Islamiyah, the group blamed in both attacks. "I'm being oppressed by people from abroad and at home," Bashir said after the verdict, surrounded by hundreds of cheering supporters. "They consider Islamic law to be a shackle and are slaves to immoral behavior. Allah, open their hearts or destroy them." "Smash America and its lackeys," shouted one supporter, his face covered by a red scarf.

Both sides said they would consider appealing the verdict, with Bashir's lawyers calling the sentence politically motivated. Bashir and his supporters have repeatedly claimed that Jakarta was under pressure from the United States to find him guilty.

The United States and Australia, which lost seven and 88 citizens respectively in the attack on Bali tourist nightclubs, consider Bashir the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah and were hoping for a lengthy prison term to deter terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation. "We respect the independence and judgment of the Indonesian courts," U.S. Embassy spokesman Max Kwak said. "But given the gravity of the charges on which he was convicted, we are disappointed at the length of the sentence." "We'd have liked a longer sentence," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. Indonesian Cabinet Secretary Sudi Sulalahi declined to comment on the case.

Intelligence officials say Jemaah Islamiyah has cells across Southeast Asia where it is believed to be seeking a pan-Islamic state. Alleged members jailed without trial in Malaysia are accused of helping two of the Sept. 11 hijackers during a visit to that country in 2000. U.S. terrorism expert Zachary Abuza said that Bashir supporters would be emboldened that the court dropped the serious charges. He said he'd expected the court to hand down an even lighter sentence. "They (Bashir's followers) are going to feel vindicated, that prosecutors have to drop many charges against him and indeed dropped demands for a fuller sentence," Abuza said.

The five-judge panel said in its verdict that there was no evidence nor witnesses to prove that Bashir took part in the plot to bomb the Marriott. Bashir was in jail at the time of the attack. "The perpetrators of Marriott bombings admitted they did that on their own will. ... Therefore the defendant has to be acquitted from primary charges," the judges said.

The conspiracy conviction relates to allegations that Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, who was convicted along with 35 other militants in the nightclub bombings, visited Bashir three months before the attacks to ask for his blessing — something which Bashir allegedly gave. Amrozi never testified during the trial, which began in November. Judges made their ruling based on a confession he allegedly made to police. Bashir denied the exchange ever occurred.

Bashir was acquitted in a separate trial in 2003 of heading Jemaah Islamiyah. He served an 18-month prison term for minor immigration violations and was arrested on his release from jail. He has been behind bars since shortly after the Bali bombings. Before that attack, Bashir was chiefly known for his campaign to install an Islamic-based government in Indonesia and his criticism of U.S. policy toward Muslim countries. He has little active support in Indonesia, where hard-line religious interpretations are unpopular. But some mainstream clerics and government officials sympathize with him, saying he is a victim of foreign meddling.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,149265,00.html

[Casey]

Jakarta steps up security after terrorism warning

Indonesia have stepped up security at a shopping mall in the capital after the US embassy warned of a possible bomb threat, a spokesman for the complex said.

The embassy warned of the threat at the World Trade Centre Mangga Dua in northern Jakarta between March 11 and 14 in a terse statement posted on its website and circulated to Americans in Indonesia on Friday.

It gave no details on the information that led to the statement or who might be behind the threat.

Australia issued a similar warning today, asking its citizens to avoid areas surrounding the shopping mall.

"We have elevated our security level and alertness. We also have reinforcement from security personnel," Budi Santosa, general affairs manager at the complex, told Reuters Television.

"We cannot afford to take this lightly," he added.

The complex, which opened last year, is one of some half a dozen shopping malls in the area, one of the busiest for retail and wholesale trading in Jakarta, a sprawling city of some 10 million people.

Another spokesman said 100 policemen had arrived at the mall to reinforce a similar number of internal security personnel.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been hit by several bomb attacks in recent years blamed on Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda.

The deadliest, on nightclubs in the resort island of Bali in 2002, killed 202 people, many of them Australians.

The most recent, last September against the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killed 10.

Jemaah Islamiah, which has been called the south-east Asian arm of Al Qaeda, is blamed for both attacks.

An estimated 85 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslims, the vast majority of them moderates.

The US embassy has issued a number of warnings about possible bombings and other threats in Indonesia since the World Trade Centre attacks in New York in 2001, including a still-standing caution to Americans to avoid such places as hotels, nightclubs and shopping areas popular with Westerners.

-Reuters

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1322068.htm

[uchiuke123]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4860798,00.html

Indonesian Bomb Squad Searches 'WTC' Mall

Saturday March 12, 2005 10:16 PM


AP Photo JAK102

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Bomb squad officers searched Saturday for explosives in a Jakarta shopping mall known as the World Trade Center complex - the focus of a U.S. terror alert - but found no suspected bombs, so shops resumed business as usual.

On Friday, the U.S. Embassy warned American citizens to avoid the mall because of a ``possible bomb threat'' over the next three days. The Australian government released a similar warning Saturday.

Bomb squad officers searched the complex and 100 extra plainclothes officers were deployed at the facility, mall security officers said.

``Some police officers have been here since last night after they informed us about the threats,'' said Muhammad Ardhan, security chief at the mall. ``But in fact, they found nothing after searching the entire complex.''

Juli Bakti Irvanto, a spokesman for the building management, said they had requested additional police security.

The 12-story mall, which sells mostly discount designer goods, is well outside the downtown district and is not especially popular with foreigners.

[Bman]

Old news , but I hadn't heard about this


Pirates hijack Indonesian chemical tanker
Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:28 AM GMT
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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Gunmen armed with rocket launchers have stormed a chemical tanker in the Strait of Malacca at the weekend in an unusually daring attack, raising initial fears of a terrorist attack, an anti-piracy centre says.

Thirty-five pirates boarded the MT Tri Samudra, laden with an unknown flammable chemical, on Saturday, briefly taking control of the ship before making off with the captain and chief engineer who were being held for ransom, the centre said.

At the time of the attack, the Indonesian-owned ship was sailing for the Indonesian port of Belawan in the strait, one of the world's busiest sea lanes. More than a quarter of global trade and almost all of Japan and China's oil imports pass through the strait.

"It's the first time they have taken control of a ship like this for a long time... a couple of years maybe," said Noel Choong, regional manager of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, on Monday.

"The initial fear was of a pirate or terrorist attack."

He pointed out that pirates in the strait usually only seize softer targets like tug-boats that were slower and lower in the water, making them easy to board, Choong said.

After the pirates left with the captain and chief engineer, the ship sailed for the nearer Indonesian port of Dumai, southeast of Belawan along the coast of Sumatra island, he said. No one was injured in the attack.

"The (ransom) negotiations are underway," Choong said. He declined to give any details of the ransom demand.

One of the nightmare scenarios envisioned by security experts is where militants seize a tanker carrying highly flammable liquid, such as the Tri Samudra, and ram it into a port.

The three countries policing the strait -- Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore -- launched coordinated naval patrols last year in a bid to better secure the strait against piracy and potential militant attacks, but attacks on shipping are still on the rise according to the International Maritime Bureau.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-03-14T082802Z_01_DEN430397_RTRUKOC_0_INDONESIA-TANKER.xml

[Trinity]

U.S. and Australia issue travel warnings

CBC News
JAKARKTA - The United States has warned its citizens of an increased risk of terrorist attack in Indonesia over the Easter holiday period.

The warning comes as police say they are searching for several bomb-makers who, they believe, recently graduated from an al-Qaeda-linked training camp in the Philippines.

The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta says the threat of attacks by Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for a string of deadly attacks across Asia, could be higher during the Easter period.

It says the targets of the attacks could include restaurants, shopping malls, schools, places of worship, or any other locations where Westerners congregate.

Meanwhile, Australia has revised its travel alert for the Philippines, warning that authorities in Manila and key cities in Mindanao are on high alert for bomb attacks.

The travel warning notes that an extra 15,000 police have been deployed in Manila during the Easter holidays, to patrol shopping malls, churches and public transport.

The alert reflects reports that terrorists in the region may be in the final stages of planning an attack.

Earlier this week, Philippines authorities arrested a suspected Muslim militant and discovered explosives believed to be stored for attacks over the Easter period.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/03/24/warnings050324.html

[Petronas]

Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This information is current as of today, Fri Mar 25 18:44:40 2005.


INDONESIA
March 24, 2005

This Travel Warning is being issued to update security information in Indonesia and to note that the Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to the country. This warning supersedes the January 13, 2005 Travel Warning for Indonesia.

The Department urges Americans who choose to travel to Indonesia despite this Travel Warning to observe vigilant personal security precautions and to remain aware of the continued potential for terrorist attacks against Americans, U.S. or other Western interests in Indonesia. The potential remains for violence and terrorist actions against U.S. citizens and interests throughout the country.

The terrorist threat in Indonesia remains high. In late March arrests of terrorists with explosives in the Philippines, including an Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) member, who were planning to commit terrorist attacks there suggest that the threat of similar attacks by JI against targets in Indonesia continues. Attacks could occur at any time and could be directed against any location, including those frequented by foreigners and identifiably American or other western facilities or businesses in Indonesia. Such targets could include but are not limited to places where Americans and other Westerners live, congregate, shop or visit, including hotels, clubs, restaurants, shopping centers, identifiably Western businesses, housing compounds, transportation systems, places of worship, schools, or public recreation events. Reports suggest attacks could include targeting individual American citizens.

JI has cells in several Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, and connections with al-Qaeda. A terrorist bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta on September 9, 2004, killed eleven and injured more than 180 people. An August 2003 terrorist bombing at a major international hotel in Jakarta injured several American citizens, and seven Americans died in a terrorist attack in Denpasar, Bali in October 2002.

The U.S. Mission in Indonesia restricts U.S. government employees' travel to certain areas of the country and, at times, denies them permission to travel to Indonesia. For the latest security information, contact a U.S. Mission consular office. The U.S. Mission can occasionally suspend service to the public, or close, because of security concerns; in these situations, it will continue to provide emergency services to American citizens.

Sectarian, ethnic, communal and separatist violence continue to threaten personal safety and security in several areas. Over the past three years, domestically targeted bombings have struck religious, political, and business targets. In 2003, the Jakarta international airport, an open-air concert in Aceh, and other Indonesian government facilities were bombed.

Americans should avoid travel to Aceh. Northern parts of the island of Sumatra, and particularly the province of Aceh, suffered severe damage following an earthquake and series of tsunami waves on December 26, 2004. While reconstruction efforts have begun, communications infrastructure, roads, medical care and tourist facilities on the western and northern coasts of Sumatra, and on coastal islands off Sumatra, were seriously damaged and have not yet been restored. Adequate lodging facilities are difficult to find in Aceh. Regulations regarding entry into and permission to remain in Aceh can change at any time. Humanitarian workers should be cautious of their security when traveling in Aceh due to the continuing potential for separatist and terrorist violence.

Americans should not travel to Aceh to participate in humanitarian relief efforts except under the auspices of a recognized assistance organization that has permission to operate in Indonesia. Americans participating in relief efforts should make sure that their organization has facilities in place to accommodate and feed staff and a security plan approved by Indonesian authorities. All travelers to Aceh should follow health precautions for travelers to the tsunami area from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control at http://www.cdc.gov/travel.

Americans considering travel to the province of Papua should exercise extreme caution because of sectarian, ethnic, communal and separatist strife. Papua's on-going separatist conflict has the potential to become violent. In August 2002, two Americans were killed in Papua under as yet unresolved circumstances.

Americans should avoid travel to Maluku, in particular the capital city of Ambon. Since April 25, 2004, sectarian violence has killed at least 40 and injured more than 220 people.

Americans should avoid travel to Central, South and Southeast Sulawesi; those considering travel to North Sulawesi should exercise extreme caution. Sporadic violence occurred in Poso and in neighboring areas of Central Sulawesi in 2003 and 2004, resulting in several fatalities. Central Sulawesi's general security situation remains unstable; bombings and killings occurred in late 2004 in Poso and Palu.

The Philippine-based terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group poses an ongoing kidnapping risk/threat in areas near Malaysia and the Philippines.

Americans are urged to register with U.S. Embassy Jakarta, U.S. Consulate General Surabaya or the U.S. Consular Agent in Bali. Registration facilitates the U.S. Mission's contact with Americans in emergency situations.
Americans in Indonesia should maintain a low profile, vary daily routines, avoid crowds and demonstrations, and keep abreast of local news and developments that may affect the security situation. ...

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_918.html

[Alli]

Policeman charged over church blast
JAKARTA: A middle-ranking police officer, Adj. Comr. Saleh Iskandar, who has been declared a suspect for his alleged role in last December's church bombing and shooting attacks in Palu, Central Sulawesi, will be charged with negligence causing death.

National police spokesman Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said that Saleh had admitted that the gun, which was used to spray bullets into the congregation inside the church, belonged to him.

But Saleh claimed that he had not used the gun for years, and that he kept it in his house. He said that his wife might have taken the gun and given it to someone else.

Aryanto said that Saleh's wife had not yet told them to whom she gave the gun, and that police were still questioning both suspects about their role in the Palu incident.

Previously, Central Sulawesi police conducted ballistic tests on bullets found in the vicinity of the church, with the test results matching Saleh's gun. -- JP

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20050406.C06&irec=5

[Solo]

More to come before this is resolved.

---------------------------------------
Navy ships collide in dispute
From correspondents in Jakarta
April 09, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse

AN Indonesian navy ship has collided with a Malaysian vessel in an oil-rich maritime area claimed by both Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, a report said Saturday.

The incident off the coast off Borneo island happened Friday morning and involved Malaysia's navy ship KD Rencong and Indonesia's KRI Tedung Naga, the Sinar Harapan evening daily said, quoting an anonymous Indonesian navy officer.
The left side of the Indonesian ship's hull was damaged while the Malaysian ship's front was also damaged.

"Looking at the circumstances, it is clear that their ship hit ours, not the other way around," the officer told the daily.

He said the Malaysian warship had earlier circled an area where Indonesian workers were building a lighthouse and its crew made provocative gestures, including giving a thumbs down.

A navy spokesman with the Indonesian navy's eastern fleet said he had no knowledge of the incident.

Last month officials from Indonesia and Malaysia began negotiations to settle the dispute over the area. The two countries are set to meet again in May.

Warships from both countries have come into close contact several times since February 16 when energy giant Shell was given a concession by Malaysia's state oil company Petronas.

Jakarta says the blocks awarded by Petronas are outside Kuala Lumpur's sovereignty.

After initial tension, Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to hold peaceful dialogue to end the dispute.

The two countries have locked horns over the territory before. A dispute over the ownership of two islands ended in December 2002 with an International Court of Justice ruling that the islands belong to Malaysia.

Indonesia declared war against Malaysia following sporadic tensions over the future of Borneo island in 1963 after the British relinquished control. The conflict ended three years later as Jakarta focused on internal problems.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12805864-23109,00.html

[Casey]

Radio Australia - News - Indonesia sets July as date for Aceh peace deal

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1341762.htm (http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1341762.htm)]



Last Updated 09/04/2005, 14:53:51

Indonesia has reportedly set July as the time it hopes to sign a peace deal with Aceh separatists, ending three decades of conflict between the two sides.

In an interview published in today's South China Morning Post, Indonesian Vice President, Yusuf Kalla, expressed optimism over the peace process ahead of a third round of talks, due to start in Finland next week.

He said he hopes the substance of a peace deal can be dealt with at the talks and an agreement can be finalised in July.

The Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, has been fighting for 28 years for a separate homeland in the western province, accusing Jakarta of plundering the region's mineral wealth while leaving its people trapped in poverty.

The last formal ceasefire between the two sides broke down in May 2003, after Indonesia launched a major military assault to crush GAM rebel fighters.

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): Supporters of the Justice and Prosperity Party, an Islamist party that wants to establish Islamic Shariah law, staged anti-Israeli demonstrations in Jakarta and across Indonesia on 17 April 2005. Tens of thousands of people participated in the march in Jakarta, which began at approximately 0700 local time (2400 UTC), and rallied at the U.S. Embassy. During the march, one side of the main road in the city's business district was blocked. No incidents of violence were reported. Similar demonstrations took place in Surabaya in East Java, Jepara in Central Java, Makassar in South Sulawesi and Bandar Lampung in Sumatra.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 4/18/2005

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): Protests against the alleged desecration of the Quran by U.S. interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba have spread beyond Afghanistan. Approximately 50 protesters demonstrated outside of three hotels in Makassar, located in eastern Indonesia, on 13 May 2005. The protesters reportedly demanded that the hotels hand over any U.S. nationals so they could "warn them that their countrymen have insulted Islam." Reports do not specify the names of the hotels, and it is not known if any U.S. nationals were staying at the hotels. Reports further indicate that hundreds of protesters also gathered outside of the al-Azhar mosque in south Jakarta. There were no reports of violence or injuries.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 5/13/2005

[Petronas]

U.S. Closes Embassy, Offices in Indonesia
May 25, 2005 11:07 PM EDT

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The United States closed its embassy and all other diplomatic offices in Indonesia Thursday, citing a security threat. The decision comes a week after Australia urged its citizens to avoid traveling to Indonesia because of a warning by police in Jakarta about possible suicide bombings, particularly at embassies, international schools, office buildings and shopping malls.

In an e-mailed statement, U.S. officials said the American embassy in Jakarta, the consulate in the city of Surabaya and all other American government facilities would be closed. They also reaffirmed earlier warnings that the threat of terrorism in Indonesia "remains high," but did not elaborate on what led to the closings Thursday. An embassy spokesman refused to comment further. "Attacks could occur at any time and could be directed against any location, including those frequented by foreigners and identifiably American and other Western facilities or businesses in Indonesia," the statement said.

The United States and other countries - including Britain and Canada - have issued a string of travel advisories since the Oct. 12, 2002, Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. The attack was blamed on the all-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, which also is believed responsible for the Aug. 5, 2003, bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta which killed 12 and last year's attack at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta which killed 10 people. Dozens of militants have been convicted in the Bali and Marriott attacks but many top terror suspects remain free and are believed to be somewhere in Indonesia.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20050525/4293f840_3421_1334520050525-604989457

[Petronas]

Market blasts kill 19 in Central Sulawesi
May 28, 2005

PALU, Central Sulawesi (JP): At least 19 people died when two powerful bombs exploded in a crowded market in Tentena, a predominantly Christian town some 230 km east of here, police said. Local volunteers said the death toll, based on body counts at the Tentena General Hospital, had already reached 27, The Jakarta Post’s correspondent Ruslan Sangaji reported from Palu. Police said the two bombs exploded within the space of 15 minutes. The first one occurred just after 8 a.m., a peak time for markets in Indonesia. No further details are available.

National Police Chief Gen. Da’i Bachtiar is expected to visit the area later today to assess the situation, according to police in Palu. Tentena is considered as a safe haven for Christians, and many from out of town had found sanctuary there in the past to avoid the violent communal conflicts with the Muslim population. The latest explosions took place only a few weeks after the hardline leaders of the two conflicting communities made peace with each other in public view. In April, Ustadz Adnal Artad, the commander of the War Mujahiddin, and Reverend Renaldi Damanik, the head of the Central Sulawesi Christian Church, hugged each other to bury the hatchets. It is not clear who were the perpetrators of Saturday’s violence.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050528105116&irec=0

[Casey]

Parcel closes Indonesian embassy


CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- A suspicious package discovered at the Indonesian embassy in Australia has again forced the closure of the mission, police said on Tuesday.

The security scare is the second at the embassy in a week.

Police in the Australian capital Canberra said they received a telephone call about the package at 9:48 a.m. (2348 GMT Monday) on Tuesday.

Emergency services were at the scene a short time later and closed off the street, while one person went through a decontamination shower in the embassy yard.

No further details were immediately available.

The Indonesian embassy was shut down last week and its 46 staff quarantined for 12 hours after it received a package containing a white powder.

Police later said the powder was harmless.

The first incident occurred as a public backlash raged in Australia against the conviction in Bali of an Australian woman on drug charges.

On Friday, May 27, the woman, 27-year-old Schapelle Corby, was sentenced to 20 years jail for smuggling 4.1 kilograms (9 lbs) of marijuana into the resort island of Bali last October.

She has since lodged an appeal over the sentence.

Security at the Indonesian embassy and at its consulates in other Australian cities has been stepped up in recent weeks after staff received threats over the drugs case.


Copyright 2005 Reuters (http://edition.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#Reuters). All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/06/06/indonesia.embassy.scare.reut

[Casey]

Blast near Jakarta, no casualties
Wed Jun 8, 2005 1:37 AM ET



By Tomi Soetjipto

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A small bomb exploded harmlessly outside the house of an Islamic militant near the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Wednesday, amid heightened warnings of terrorist attacks in the country.

The blast was outside the home of an Islamic militant known as Abu Jibril, who is a friend of Abu Bakar Bashir, a cleric accused by Western governments of leading the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah militant network.

It was not immediately clear whether Jibril was home in the town of Pamulang, about 35 km (20 miles) south of Jakarta, at the time of the explosion. One local report quoted a neighbor as saying he had been praying in a mosque.

Police officials said the blast left a small hole in the ground and caused no casualties or serious damage.

"They are using low explosive devices," Jakarta police chief Firman Gani told El Shinta news radio, without elaborating on who he was referring to.

"According to the neighbors there has been a kind of tension between Abu Jibril and his neighbors," Gani said, again without clarifying.

He said police were trying to locate three vehicles and a motorcycle seen outside the house before the explosion. He told reporters that Jibril had been questioned at his house after the blast.

On Monday, police said Islamic militants from Jemaah Islamiah, including wanted Malaysian bombmaker Azahari bin Husin, might be hiding on the outskirts of Jakarta. Azahari, accused by police of being behind a series of bombings in Indonesia, is a senior figure in Jemaah Islamiah.

Western countries and Indonesian police have all warned in recent weeks of possible terrorist attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Jibril, alias M. Iqbal, was deported by Malaysia last year. He had been caught in 2001 in the state of Selangor and detained under the country's internal security act for his role in an Islamic militant group.

He is a member of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, a public organization that campaigns for the imposition of strict sharia Islamic law in Indonesia. Bashir leads the council.

Tensions have risen in Indonesia since May 28, when twin bomb blasts tore through a market in the predominantly Christian town of Tentena on eastern Sulawesi island. The attack killed 22 people, making it the bloodiest since the Bali blasts.

(With additional reporting by Supri Supriyatin and Telly Nathalia)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-06-08T053722Z_01_N08217458_RTRIDST_0_INTERNATIONAL-SECURITY-INDONESIA-DC.XML

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta issued the following Warden Message on 3 June 2005: "The U.S. Embassy informs American citizens in Indonesia that the embassy has learned that as of June 1, 2005, there were plans by extremists to conduct bomb attacks targeting the lobbies of hotels frequented by westerners in Jakarta. The attacks were to occur circa noon on an unspecified date. There is no additional information on the timing for the attack(s), or the method of attack. ..."

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/3/2005

[Casey]

Military hunt cars carrying bombs
From correspondents in Jakarta
13jun05

INDONESIAN soldiers were hunting around the West Java city of Indramayu for five cars believed to be carrying bombs made by al Qaeda-linked militants, a newspaper said today.

The Koran Tempo daily reported that the military believed the bombs were made by recruits of Malaysian terrorism fugitive Noordin Top, who is accused of being one of the masterminds behind recent bombings in Indonesia.

Military officials were not immediately available for comment.

The newspaper said its source was a military telegram in Indramayu that carried details of the five suspect cars.

The chief of the Indramayu district military command Lieutenant Colonel Bambang Heriyadi had confirmed the memo, Koran Tempo reported.

"All military personnel have been ordered to be more watchful and vigilant in monitoring strangers. This is an early prevention step against bombing threats," the paper quoted Colonel Heriyadi saying.

He said all five cars had Jakarta-issued licence plates.

Indramayu is on the northern coast of Java island, 175km east of Jakarta.

Police have said Top and fellow Malaysian Azahari bin Husin are among the perpetrators of a series of blasts in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali blasts that killed 202 people, the 2003 JW Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta which claimed 12 lives, and last year's blast near the Australian embassy that killed 10.

Indonesian police have warned that Azahari and Top, alleged key members of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah militant network, are currently recruiting people and planning another attack.

Last week, an Indonesian court jailed Top's wife for three years for hiding him when he was evading a police manhunt. Australia also said last week that it had reports suggesting that plans by terrorists to carry out attacks in Indonesia were in advanced stages.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15597255%255E1702,00.html

[Solo]

Hmm.....it seems from other Indonesian sources that Brigadier Jendral Sunarko is denying such rumours. "Police admitted to not knowing the source of the statement or information concerning this matter," he said.

Mabes Polri bantah isu tentang adanya mobil box yang membawa bahan peledak berada di Indramayu, Jawa Barat.

Demikian dinyatakan Wakil Kepala Divisi Humas Mabes Polri, Brigadir Jendral Sunarko hari ini, Senin (13/6).

Ia menjelaskan, Mabes Polri telah mengecek isu tersebut ke Kapolwil Cirebon dan tidak diperoleh pernyataan tentang isu adanya mobil yang bermuatan bom di wilayah Indramayu, Jabar.

"Polisi mengaku tidak mengetahui sumber pernyataan atau informasi mengenai hal tersebut," ujarnya.

[Casey]

Indonesia Not Confirm about Explosives-Laden Vehicles
2005-6-13 22:22:26 CRIENGLISH.com (http://www.crienglish.com/)

Indonesian police did not confirm on Monday about the reports that five cars carrying explosives made by Al Qaeda-linked militants were found in Indonesia's West Java Province.

"Until now, the police have not issued any statement directly about the cars. The police have not known the source of the information about the five mini-box vans surrounding in the Indramayu District," said police spokesman Brigade General Soenarko at the police headquarters.

The Koran Tempo Daily (http://www.korantempo.com/korantempo/index.html) once reported that the alert for the explosives-laden vehicles was issued to troops in the Indraymayu District in West Java.

A local military chief told the paper that all the five cars had Jakarta-issued licence plates.

The paper said most-wanted Malaysian terror coordinator, Noerdin Mohammad Top, made the bombs being carried in the cars.

Meanwhile, spokesman Soenarko said that the police will keep on alert on possible terror attacks in the country.

Western countries and Indonesian police recently said that terrorists' cells in Indonesia, led by two dangerous Malaysians, bomb expert Azhari Husin and terror coordinator Noerdin Mohammad Top, were increasing their activities for launching another strike in the country.


(Source: xinhua)

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/2239/2005-6-13/148@246992.htm

[Casey]

Terror alerts scare US rockers
14/06/2005 09:28 - (SA)

http://www.news24.com/News24v2/Images/tsp.gif
Jakarta - US rock band Good Charlotte has cancelled an upcoming Indonesian concert because of terrorism fears, concert promoters said on Tuesday.

The Maryland-bred outfit, scheduled to play the capital Jakarta later this month, cancelled because of a series of recent warnings from the United States and other countries that terrorists were poised to launch more bombings in the world's most populous Muslim nation, according to a statement from the promoters, Java Musikindo.

Foreign rock and pop bands are increasingly choosing to play in Indonesia, whose economy is now growing fast after several years of stagnation. Last-minute cancellations due to terror fears are common, however.

Al-Qaeda linked militants have struck three times at Western targets in Indonesia the last three years. The deadliest attack was the October 12, 2002, bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Entertainment/Abroad/0,,2-1225-1243_1720992,00.html

[Petronas]

Muslim Leaders in Indonesia Push for Implementation of Islamic Law
Friday, June 10, 2005 - 04:38 PM

Following the deadly May 28 bombing in Tentena, Indonesia, both Muslim and Christian leaders have expressed concern about corruption and violence in the country. Some Muslim leaders believe the best solution is the nationwide implementation of sharia (Islamic law). Congresses held in Jakarta in 2004 and Sulawesi in March 2005 recommended that sharia principles be introduced through a revision of Indonesia's criminal law. Meanwhile, provincial councils are including more sharia principles in local bylaws. In some provinces, governors have restricted freedom of worship for Christians.

http://hcjb.org/displayarticle3385.html

[Casey]

Assailants in Indonesian province linked to Al Qaeda: police
(DPA)
14 June 2005


JAKARTA - Authorities have accused assailants involved in a recent armed attack on a police post in Indonesia’s eastern province of Maluku of having links with Al Qaeda, an official said on Tuesday.

Maluku Police Chief Brigadier General Aditya Warman said the evidence came from the capture and interrogation of several suspects involved in the recent attack on a Mobile Brigade (Brimob) post that left five policemen dead.

“We are continuing to investigate them as they are indeed linked to Al Qaeda,” Aditya Warman was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency Antara after a meeting with local religious figures and political party leaders.

Those questioned by police were allegedly part of a network responsible for a series of violent incidents in the provincial capital of Ambon, 2,340 kilometres northeast of Jakarta, that included the assassination of a reverend and a number of bombings, the police chief said.

“I have long stated that the incidents were the work of well trained people, and I was right,” Aditya said. “They are civilians with extraordinary capabilities.”

Aditya requested during the meeting that religious figures help police deal with the incidents, and said the masterminds behind the violence came from outside Maluku province.

“But they also use local people in carrying out their missions. They have relations with a number of terrorists currently wanted by the security authorities, like Dr Azahari,” Aditya said, referring to the most-wanted Malaysian fugitive accused of links to the worst terrorist attacks on foreigners in recent years.

The police chief denied that local separatist group the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) was behind the incidents.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/June/theworld_June389.xml&section=theworld&col=

[Solo]

This article quotes Antara but can't find anything about this on Antara.



Assailants in Indonesian province linked to Al Qaeda: police
(DPA)
14 June 2005


JAKARTA - Authorities have accused assailants involved in a recent armed attack on a police post in Indonesia’s eastern province of Maluku of having links with Al Qaeda, an official said on Tuesday.

Maluku Police Chief Brigadier General Aditya Warman said the evidence came from the capture and interrogation of several suspects involved in the recent attack on a Mobile Brigade (Brimob) post that left five policemen dead.

“We are continuing to investigate them as they are indeed linked to Al Qaeda,” Aditya Warman was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency Antara after a meeting with local religious figures and political party leaders.

Those questioned by police were allegedly part of a network responsible for a series of violent incidents in the provincial capital of Ambon, 2,340 kilometres northeast of Jakarta, that included the assassination of a reverend and a number of bombings, the police chief said.

“I have long stated that the incidents were the work of well trained people, and I was right,” Aditya said. “They are civilians with extraordinary capabilities.”

Aditya requested during the meeting that religious figures help police deal with the incidents, and said the masterminds behind the violence came from outside Maluku province.

“But they also use local people in carrying out their missions. They have relations with a number of terrorists currently wanted by the security authorities, like Dr Azahari,” Aditya said, referring to the most-wanted Malaysian fugitive accused of links to the worst terrorist attacks on foreigners in recent years.

The police chief denied that local separatist group the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) was behind the incidents.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/June/theworld_June389.xml&section=theworld&col=

[Solo]

However, we move on....this also reported in Australian media
---------------------
Jun 15 11:32

"UNFRIENDLY" INDONESIAN AMBASSADOR TO AUSTRALIA: REPORT

Sydney (ANTARA News) - Indonesia`s ambassador to Australia is being recalled to Jakarta because he is not friendly enough to his hosts and does not reflect the recent thaw in relations between Canberra and Jakarta, it was reported Wednesday.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that ambassador Imron Cotan was being recalled after completing barely half of his three-year term because he seen as too abrasive and was disliked by Australian foreign affairs officials.

The newspaper said President Bambang Yudhoyono, who visited Australia earlier this year, wanted a more friendly envoy in Canberra.

"Whoever replaces him will definitely have to fit the new relationship and the new style of relations that have evolved between Indonesia and Australia and particularly the warm relations between President Yudhoyono and (Prime Minister) John Howard," Yudhoyono`s spokesman Dino Patti Jalal told the newspaper.

Diplomatic sources confirmed the recall to AFP.

After hitting a low point over Australia`s role in supporting East Timorese independence, relations between Canberra and Jakarta began to improve following Australian help in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings and Canberra`s billion dollar (770 million US) aid package after last year`s tsunami disaster.

They have been tested in recent weeks by the Australian public`s outraged reaction to the 20-year jail term imposed on convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby in Bali, which has led to a number of hoax security scares at the Indonesian embassy in Canberra.

Despite the incidents, Howard has been at pains to point out the strength of relations between the two countires, AFP reported.

http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=4444

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): Explosive materials assembled into a device were discovered at the Tanjung Barat train station in southern Jakarta on 14 June 2005. Police officers who made the discovery called in a bomb squad, and upon investigation the device was determined to be incomplete and could not be considered a bomb. It is not known who planted the device, which was made up of 300 grams of potassium, light bulbs, batteries, switches and nails.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/15/2005

[Petronas]

Assailants in Indonesian province linked to Al Qaeda: police
14 June 2005

JAKARTA - Authorities have accused assailants involved in a recent armed attack on a police post in Indonesia’s eastern province of Maluku of having links with Al Qaeda, an official said on Tuesday. Maluku Police Chief Brigadier General Aditya Warman said the evidence came from the capture and interrogation of several suspects involved in the recent attack on a Mobile Brigade (Brimob) post that left five policemen dead. “We are continuing to investigate them as they are indeed linked to Al Qaeda,” Aditya Warman was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency Antara after a meeting with local religious figures and political party leaders.

Those questioned by police were allegedly part of a network responsible for a series of violent incidents in the provincial capital of Ambon, 2,340 kilometres northeast of Jakarta, that included the assassination of a reverend and a number of bombings, the police chief said. “I have long stated that the incidents were the work of well trained people, and I was right,” Aditya said. “They are civilians with extraordinary capabilities.” Aditya requested during the meeting that religious figures help police deal with the incidents, and said the masterminds behind the violence came from outside Maluku province. “But they also use local people in carrying out their missions. They have relations with a number of terrorists currently wanted by the security authorities, like Dr Azahari,” Aditya said, referring to the most-wanted Malaysian fugitive accused of links to the worst terrorist attacks on foreigners in recent years. The police chief denied that local separatist group the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) was behind the incidents.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/June/theworld_June389.xml&section=theworld&col=

[Petronas]

A fascinating look at the incubator school for jihadis founded by Abu Bakr Bashir, and the making of a terrorist.

Schooled For Jihad
By Noor Huda Ismail
Sunday, June 26, 2005

It is visiting hour at Jakarta's Cipinang Prison and its most famous inmate, the Muslim preacher Abubakar Baasyir, sits on a wooden bench surrounded by a dozen acolytes, assistants and lawyers. Several prisoners attend to him, including a confessed terrorist who has become the cleric's servant and coordinates a team of six to wash his clothes and cook his meals without pay. Prison officials allow Baasyir to teach a class on Islam to fellow inmates four times a week; about 100 prisoners attend each session.

Hasyim Abdullah, Baasyir's right-hand man, is posted outside the prison to run errands for the cleric, buy his food and help the friends, family members and supporters who visit nearly every day. They give messages to the cleric and take directions from him to his followers on the outside.

Baasyir is holding court in prison instead of his home or office because Indonesian prosecutors have accused him of being the emir of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. In a 65-page indictment, they alleged that he was involved in "planning and/or encouraging other people to commit terrorism" including the 2003 bombing of the J. W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, where 12 people were killed, and the 2002 bombing of a resort in Bali, where 202 people were killed. A court cleared Baasyir in the Marriott attack and found him guilty of approving of (but not of ordering) the Bali bombings.

For the international community, the case is a litmus test of the Indonesian government's resolve in the war on terrorism. Despite the severity of the charges against him, Baasyir received only a 30-month sentence. His lawyers say the sentence ran out on June 4 and they are suing the government for his release.

But for me, Baasyir's case poses a different question. That's because he was a co-founder of the Islamic boarding school, Al Mukmin Ngruki, where I spent six years studying in sweltering classrooms. While I chose a career in journalism, many of my fellow students made a different choice. Dozens of Ngruki's alumni have been accused of taking part in a wave of terrorist attacks against Westerners in Indonesia. Security analysts and police investigators believe that the link is no coincidence. Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group has called my alma mater an "Ivy League" for Jemaah Islamiyah recruits.

All of which makes me wonder: Why did so many of my fellow students end up choosing terrorism while I ended up writing about them? To begin to answer that question, I decided to meet Abubakar Baasyir in jail. I contacted Hasyim, his soft-spoken liaison man, whose cell phone is constantly on. "Please come in," he said when I arrived. Using the word for teacher, he added, "Ustadz is ready."

After 10 minutes, the white bearded cleric entered. In his mid-sixties, he appeared in a white shirt and worn eyeglasses; a white box cap was perched on his head. Abdul Jabar, a JI member who admitted to blowing up an explosives-laden van at the house of the Philippine ambassador in 2000, accompanied him. Baasyir, who proclaims himself an admirer of Osama bin Laden but still denies that he is a terrorist leader, said that he is just a victim of "the infidel Bush's America." Then he quoted a verse from the Koran: "The infidels will never stop fighting us until we follow their way." I know that verse by heart. We learned it in school.

I was never the typical Ngruki student, so in some ways it's no surprise that I didn't follow a path toward Islamic extremism. My father, who is a parole officer, sent me there in 1985 when I was 12. Only later did he tell me that he did so in order to get an inside look at the place because so many of his cases were Islamic militants who had studied there before landing in prison. "It made it easy for me to come and observe the school," my father later explained. Moreover, I came from a secular family with a diverse background. My father is a Muslim who was just 9 when his father died. Afterward my father's eldest brother, who married into a Catholic family in central Java, looked after him and sent my father to school. My mother came from a strong Javanese family. Her grandfather was a dalang -- a puppet master.

Yet it was still hard to avoid being swept up in the spirit of Ngruki. The only music we heard was nasyid , Arabic religious songs, from loudspeakers in the corners of the school buildings. On the dormitory wall hung Arabic calligraphies. One said: "Die as a noble man or die as a martyr." The school's facilities were spartan. I slept on the floor with a simple plastic mattress and pillow in a dingy dormitory with 20 other students. The dorm's head boy was only three years older than I. He introduced himself as Fadlullah Hasan. He had straight black hair, brown skin and a blue bruise on his forehead from bowing to pray five times a day. Like me, he came from the city of Yogyakarta and because of this bond, we grew quite close.

Even at age 15, he was zealous. He always got up earlier than the rest of us and would carry out his duty of waking up all the students in our dorm. After prayers in the mosque, he would lead us in reading the Koran and then encourage us further back in our rooms. In his speeches, he said that we were there to study Islam and that when we graduated we would have to do dakwah -- proselytize -- to bring other people to "true" Islam. Hasan was gregarious and smart. His classmates would come to ask him questions. Among them were Fathur Rohman Al Ghozie, a JI member who later died in the Philippines, and Aris Munandar, who was later alleged to be a JI fundraiser and who is still at large. After two months in the school, I realized that Hasan hadn't introduced himself with his real name. He had used an alias. His real name is Utomo Pamungkas. It is a tradition in the school to change the names of students if their names are not considered Islamic. It is up to the student to choose, usually the name of one of the prophet's friends or one of God's 99 names.

In many ways, Ngruki, founded in 1972, is not unusual. For years there have been thousands of Islamic boarding schools around the country. But only in the past two years, since the bombs exploded on Indonesia's resort island of Bali have these schools come under close scrutiny. Ngruki encouraged anti-Semitism. On Thursday nights when I was there, students practiced public speaking. Their favorite topic would be "Islam under threat." Their speeches typically quoted the verse of the Koran that says that the infidels and Jews will never stop fighting us until we follow their religion. When I was 15, it was my favorite topic too.

The teachers were campaigners for an Islamic state and the implementation of Islamic law. "Indonesia is still under secular law," they would say. "Therefore there is no obligation for us to obey Indonesian law." To back up their arguments, they quoted the Koran: "Whoever does not follow God's law is an infidel." They lacked national spirit. They refused to fly the national flag or to accept Pancasila, the Indonesian national philosophy. Shortly before I enrolled, two of the school's founders, Baasyir and Abdullah Sungkar, had gone into exile to avoid being imprisoned for subversion under the Suharto regime. They didn't return until the late 1990s.

During my final year at the school, one of the teachers, an expert in Chinese martial arts named Abdurrohim (alias Abu Husna), explained to a group of graduating students, including me, about the importance of togetherness among Muslims. "A Muslim must be in an Islamic group called Darul Islam," he said. He stressed to all of us that this organization was a clandestine movement devoted to establishing an Islamic state. Later, sitting on a green carpet in his poorly lit house, he recited an oath, which I repeated. I was only 18. After graduation, some Darul members asked me to donate 2.5 percent of my earnings and to attend meetings to deepen my knowledge of Islam, but I drifted away.

Given this background, it's a wonder that more of us didn't turn to extremism. Despite my mixed family background, I remain a Muslim who prays five times a day, reads the Koran and hopes to visit Mecca. But at the same time, I have worked for the American media, hosted Jewish American friends in my home and spent Friday nights in bars having drinks. Recently I won a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom.

The majority of my fellow alumni are more or less like me. They are successful in the secular world. They must realize that some of the school's teachings are unrealistic. To survive in the real world, we have to work and interact with people who don't share our ideas. We have to acknowledge a pluralism in our daily lives that is not consistent with a strict interpretation of Islam. Of the 88 percent of Indonesians who are Muslim, most lead secular lives. In my case, I had to get a personal ID card from the same government with which we were taught not to cooperate. I continued my studies at two government colleges where I had to sing the national anthem and fly the national flag, which I never did during my years at Ngruki.

But some of my fellow alumni, according to recent interviews I conducted with those detained by the Jakarta police, had a different sort of post-graduate education. They went to military training camps, either Dar Al Ittihad Al Islamy in Afghanistan or Camp Hudaibiyah in the Moro region of the Philippines, as part of a Jemaah Islamiyah program to prepare as many young people as possible for jihadi operations. In their daily lives, they didn't mingle with people who didn't share their ideas and they believed that they were on "the proper path." To earn a living, most worked for themselves as entrepreneurs selling sandals or clothes, or running small cafeterias.

Fifteen years after I graduated from Ngruki, I met again with my dorm mate Hasan -- this time in the Jakarta police jail in 2004. I was working for the media that he considers an extension of the infidels, while he was, and remains, behind bars because of his alleged involvement in the Bali blast. According to police, Hasan was the moneyman for the Bali bombers. Gold stolen from a bank was converted to cash that was deposited in Hasan's bank account before being used by terrorists. At first, Hasan was surprised to see me and didn't know how to react. I could tell that he wanted to embrace me, but he hesitated after learning that I was working for The Washington Post. I spoke to him in Arabic, asking how he was. He was still uncomfortable. Only after a number of meetings could we communicate normally.

Hasan is the fifth of seven children from a simple peasant family in a remote village in the Yogyakarta area. His father sent him to Ngruki expecting him to become a religious teacher in the village. "I have disappointed him," Hasan said during one of my visits. "Instead of being a religious teacher, I'm being a terrorist. Now I'm locked in here." After graduating from Ngruki, he taught for a year. But soon he fell under the spell of the Jemaah Islamiyah emir, Sungkar, whom he had met at Ngruki. "He was like father to me," he said of Sungkar. Starting in 1990, Hasan traveled to Malaysia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Philippines to study, wage jihad and do missionary work. Hasan quickly became a senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah.

In 2000, Hasan moved to an Islamic boarding school in East Java, where, he told me, he had met all the perpetrators of the Bali bombings. Later he went into hiding in Kalimantan, where the police caught up with him. Sitting cross-legged on his reasonably clean black plastic mattress, Hasan talked about his wife and two children who still live at the school. "Each time I remember them, I feel so sad," he said. Hasan isn't alone in police detention. He is with other Ngruki alumni, including Muhammad Saefudin and Muhammad Rais. Saefudin and Rais met bin Laden in Afghanistan several times in 2001. Rais, who allegedly conveyed a bin Laden message to Baasyir, was arrested for storing explosive materials for the Marriott hotel bombing; Saefudin was allegedly being groomed as the future JI leader.

For them, the world is divided clearly between good and evil, victim and oppressor. They believe God is on their side. "We saw many of my brothers in Islam killed brutally in Afghanistan and Moro, so it is our calling to destroy the enemy of Islam, all the infidels," Hasan said.

It was a calling some of us never heard.

Author's e-mail:
noorhudaismail@yahoo.com
Noor Huda Ismail was a research assistant for The Post's Jakarta bureau from 2003 to 2004. He is a research analyst at the Institute of Defence and Security Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/25/AR2005062500083.html

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): National Police officials announced on 4 July 2005 that suspected terrorists were reportedly plotting to bomb the National Police and Jakarta Police headquarters. An investigation of 17 suspected terrorists previously detained in Central Java and Jakarta led to information of the alleged bomb plot. The terror suspects were reportedly involved in the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and are thought responsible for harboring Azahari bin Husin, a key member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 7/5/2005

[Petronas]

Death sentence over embassy blast
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Posted: 1008 GMT (1808 HKT)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- An Indonesian militant has been sentenced to death for helping plan and carry out last year's suicide bombing at the Australian Embassy -- the harshest penalty yet over the attack that killed 10 people. Iwan Darmawan, 30, said Tuesday he would appeal the verdict, which was the latest in a series of tough sentences against militants found guilty of terror attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation. "Your punishment will be worse than mine," Darmawan shouted as he was being led to a prison van.

Presiding Judge Roki Panjaitan said Darmawan surveyed the heavily fortified mission three times before the truck bombing and bought the explosives used in the attack, which killed mostly Indonesian passers-by and guards. The judge repeated allegations that the attack was funded by al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and was carried out "to avenge the slaughter of Muslims by America and its allies in Iraq." Darmawan, also know as Rois, is the most senior of six people arrested in connection with the attack.

Three have already been sentenced to prison terms of between 3 1/2 and seven years, and prosecutors have asked for the death sentence for another man accused in the bombing. Darmawan has always denied any involvement in terrorism, and said that his trial was part of attempts by Indonesia's secular government to silence Islamic clerics who have stepped up their campaign for the imposition of Shariah law. "It is a grand scenario that all Muslim clerics who make speeches must be detained and labeled as terrorists," he said.

Police have blamed the embassy attack on al-Qaeda linked regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, which is also accused in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, and a 2003 blast at Jakarta's J.W. Marriott hotel that killed 12. Three terrorists have been sentenced to death in the Bali blasts, and more than 30 others received prison terms ranging from three years to life.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/09/13/indonesia.militant.ap/

[Casey]

Terror expert warns of JI attack
By Max Blenkin
28sep05

THE Indonesian terror group behind the Bali bombing could be planning another attack soon, an Australian terror expert said today.

Jemaah Islamiah (JI) appeared to be undergoing a split but its hardline elements remained dangerous, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) program director Aldo Borgu said.
JI had been hard hit in the post-Bali bombing crackdown but it could still carry out terror attacks, he said.

"But, importantly, it's still got the capability ... to undertake annual attacks," he said.

"There is still a possibility that one might be in the offing some time soon."

The al-Qaeda-linked JI bombed two Kuta nightclubs in October 2002 killing 202 people, including 88 Australians.

It was also behind the Jakarta Marriott Hotel attack in August 2003 which killed 11 people, and the Australian embassy attack in September last year which also killed 11 people.

The dates indicate an operational cycle of about 12 months.

In an ASPI report on terrorism in Indonesia, Mr Borgu and Australian National University Indonesia expert Greg Fealy noted that JI, founded in 1993, was South-East Asia's largest and most sophisticated terror network.

But evidence was emerging of a internal split between hardline elements who favoured mass casualty attacks and the central leadership who favoured a return to the original vision of achieving an Islamic state by more gradual means.

Should JI's non-bombers emerge on top, they would probably return to their 25- to 30-year plan for an Islamic state using preaching, education and military training to defend against attacks from infidel forces, Dr Fealy said.

"However, there is a risk here. Once you give people military training in how to make bombs and do assassinations, they may not be patient enough to wait for the realisation of your 30-year plan," he said.

"They may want to go out and do something next month. They may well be very angry and alienated people.

"JI is becoming less of a lethal threat. The threat is now in other kinds of networks that the bombers have moved to. They are recruiting from groups who have been closely involved in the Muslim-Christian conflicts in places like Maluku and Central Sulawesi."

Dr Fealy said this would mean more scattered terror networks.

"They (security organisations) have to be open to the possibility that people they've never heard of before can in a very short space of time be recruited to an operation and become the foot soldiers in a major terrorism attack," he said.

Mr Borgu said future JI operations could have more to do with sectarian and communal conflict and that could more directly threaten Indonesian national stability.

"One of the things that has characterised JI over the last five years is that it hasn't directly attacked the Indonesian state," he said.

"If that does change, in some respects it could actually be a greater challenge to Australia's interests that directly targeting individual Australian citizens."


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16749920%255E1702,00.html

[NYer]

Balinese Wonder: Why Us?

After having now been the target of al-Qaeda terrorist attacks at least four times over the last three years, the people of Bali openly wonder why Islamist terrorists have focused so much of their efforts on them. The French press service AFP reports that anger has risen among the Balinese as they survey the damage from this latest atrocity:
Anger is mounting over the latest bomb attacks by Islamic extremists in Indonesia, where yet again most of the dead have been locals and most of the damage has hit local businesses. ...

"Why is it only us? Why is Bali again the target of bombs?" asked I Gede Wiratha, the head of the Bali chapter of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Wiratha said strong rumors were circulating in predominantly Hindu Bali that witnesses heard one of the suicide bombers shouting "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great" before blowing himself to smithereens.

Made Mangku Sudita, 36, who owns a beach restaurant just next door to the cafe where the first blast occurred in Jimbaran, expressed the public mood when he called for vengeance against those responsible.

"We have to kill those terrorists", he told AFP.

Similar sentiments were aired by many others, including taxi driver Wayan Rampa who lost his job in the silver industry after the October 2002 bombings devastated Bali's tourism sector.

"There is no need to take them to prisons... they should be taken to Bali to be turned into skewered meat or be grilled," he said of the culprits.

The Balinese have, up to now, exhibited a kind of phlegmatic resignation in the face of the violence similar to that of the British in World War II during the Blitz. That now appears to have given way to some anger, and a questioning of motives that will sound oddly familiar to Americans. After the one devastating attack on the US that left thousands dead, many asked the same question: why us? The American Left had many answers ready for that question. Perhaps we can see whether they apply to the Balinese.

* A policy of support for Israel? Well, Bali remains part of Indonesia, which can hardly be accused of being an Israeli ally. Like all Muslim nations, it opposes Israel's occupation of the West Bank and does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

* Supporting Middle East tyrants in order to steal the oil from the devout Muslims of the Arabian peninsula? Indonesia has plenty of its own oil.

* Occupation of holy lands? The Balinese do not have troops on Saudi soil, or anywhere else other than Bali.

* Occupation of Iraq? Not hardly.

It seems that all the usual answers Americans hear for their responsibility in provoking the Islamists' rage don't apply to Bali or the Balinese. What could keep al-Qaeda coming back to bomb the people and businesses of Bali? Perhaps the fact that Bali, part of mostly Muslim Indonesia, has a majority Hindu population could have something to do with Jemaah Islamiyah's obsession with bombing the Balinese. It provides the only consistent thread for AQ's attacks around the world: an all-out holy war against all non-believers, simply on the basis of their non-belief.

This should dispense with all of the blather about how our foreign policy of global engagement creates terrorism. Let's quit blaming the victims and start really fighting the war that the terrorists have declared on us.
Posted by Captain Ed
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

[Solo]

Balinese Wonder: Why Us?

What could keep al-Qaeda coming back to bomb the people and businesses of Bali? Perhaps the fact that Bali, part of mostly Muslim Indonesia, has a majority Hindu population could have something to do with Jemaah Islamiyah's obsession with bombing the Balinese. It provides the only consistent thread for AQ's attacks around the world: an all-out holy war against all non-believers, simply on the basis of their non-belief.



Having sat through many hours of Indonesian chat today, seeing much anger and aggression between Balinese and Muslims, there appears to be only one answer.

Did you guess the answer? Bali is one of the stumbling blocks for a Caliphate in SE Asia.

[NYer]

Having sat through many hours of Indonesian chat today, seeing much anger and aggression between Balinese and Muslims, there appears to be only one answer.

Did you guess the answer? Bali is one of the stumbling blocks for a Caliphate in SE Asia.

Mark Steyn agrees with you ...

Mark Steyn: Islamist way or no way

04oct05

IT'S not just the environmentalists who think globally and act locally. The jihadi who murdered Newcastle woman Jennifer Williamson, Perth teenager Brendan Fitzgerald and a couple of dozen more Australians, Indonesians, Japanese and others had certain things in common with the July 7 London Tube killers. For example, Azahari bin Husin, who police believe may be the bomb-maker behind this weekend's atrocity, completed a doctorate at England's Reading University. The contribution of the British education system to the jihad is really quite remarkable.

But, on the other hand, despite Clive Williams's game attempt to connect the two on this page yesterday, nobody seriously thinks what happened in Bali has anything to do with Iraq. There are, in the end, no root causes, or anyway not ones that can be negotiated by troop withdrawals or a Palestinian state. There is only a metastasising cancer that preys on whatever local conditions are to hand. Five days before the slaughter in Bali, nine Islamists were arrested in Paris for reportedly plotting to attack the Metro. Must be all those French troops in Iraq, right? So much for the sterling efforts of President Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, as the two chief obstructionists of Bush-Blair-Howard neo-con-Zionist warmongering these past three years.

When the suicide bombers self-detonated on Saturday, the travel section of Britain's The Sunday Telegraph had already gone to press, its lead story a feature on how Bali's economy had bounced back from the carnage of 2002. We all want to believe that: one terrorist attack is like a tsunami or hurricane, just one of those things, blows in out of the blue, then the familiar contours of the landscape return. But two attacks are a permanent feature, the way things are and will be for some years, as one by one the bars and hotels and clubs and restaurants shut up shop. Many of the Australians injured this weekend had waited to return to Bali, just to make sure it was "safe". But it isn't, and it won't be for a long time, and by the time it is it won't be the Bali that Westerners flocked to before 2002.

I found myself behind a car in Vermont, in the US, the other day; it had a one-word bumper sticker with the injunction "COEXIST". It's one of those sentiments beloved of Western progressives, one designed principally to flatter their sense of moral superiority. The C was the Islamic crescent, the O was the hippie peace sign, the X was the Star of David and the T was the Christian cross. Very nice, hard to argue with. But the reality is, it's the first of those symbols that has a problem with coexistence. Take the crescent out of the equation and you wouldn't need a bumper sticker at all. Indeed, coexistence is what the Islamists are at war with; or, if you prefer, pluralism, the idea that different groups can rub along together within the same general neighbourhood. There are many trouble spots across the world but, as a general rule, even if one gives no more than a cursory glance at the foreign pages, it's easy to guess at least one of the sides: Muslims v Jews in Palestine, Muslims v Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims v Christians in Nigeria, Muslims v Buddhists in southern Thailand, Muslims v (your team here). Whatever one's views of the merits on a case by case basis, the ubiquitousness of one team is a fact.

"Men of intemperate mind never can be free; their passions forge their fetters," wrote Edmund Burke. And, in that sense, Bali is more symbolic of the Islamofascist strategy than London or Madrid, Beslan or Istanbul. The jihad has held out against some tough enemies: the Israelis in the West Bank, the Russians in Chechnya; these are primal conflicts. But what's the beef in Bali? Oh, to be sure, to the more fastidious Islamist some of those decadent hedonist fornicating Westerners whooping it up are a little offensive. But they'd be offensive whoever they were and whatever they did. It's the reality of a pluralist enclave within the world's largest Muslim nation that offends. It's the coexistence, stupid.

So even Muslims v (your team here) doesn't quite cover it. You don't have to have a team or even be aware that you belong to any side. You can be a hippie-dippy hey-man-I-love-everybody-whatever-your-bag-is-cool backpacking Dutch stoner, and they'll blow you up with as much enthusiasm as if you were Dick Cheney. As a spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden put it in 2002, explaining why they bombed a French oil tanker: "We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels."

No problem. In our time, even the most fascistic ideologies have been savvy enough to cover their darker impulses in sappy labels. The Soviet bloc was comprised of wall-to-wall "people's republics", which is the precise opposite of what they were: a stylistic audacity Orwell caught perfectly in 1984, with its Ministry of Truth (that is, official lies). But the Islamists don't even bother going through the traditional rhetorical feints. They say what they mean and they mean what they say. "We are here as on a darkling plain ..." wrote Matthew Arnold in the famous concluding lines to Dover Beach, "where ignorant armies clash by night".

But we choose in large part to stay in ignorance. Blow up the London Underground during a G8 summit and the world's leaders twitter about how tragic and ironic it is that this should have happened just as they're taking steps to deal with the issues, as though the terrorists are upset about poverty in Africa and global warming.

So, even in a great blinding flash of clarity, we can't wait to switch the lights off and go back to fumbling around on the darkling plain. Bali three years ago and Bali three days ago light up the sky: they make unavoidable the truth that Islamism is a classic "armed doctrine"; it exists to destroy. The reality of Bali's contribution to Indonesia's economic health is irrelevant. The jihadists would rather that the country be poorer and purer than prosperous and pluralist. For one thing, it's richer soil for them. If the Islamofascists gain formal control of Indonesia, it won't be a parochial, self-absorbed dictatorship such as Suharto's but a launching pad for an Islamic superstate across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Can they pull it off? The reality is that there are more Muslim states than a half-century ago, many more Muslims within non-Muslim states, and many more of those Muslims are radicalised and fundamentalist. It's not hard to understand. All you have to do is take them at their word. As Bassam Tibi, a Muslim professor at Gottingen University in Germany, said in an interesting speech a few months after September 11, "Both sides should acknowledge candidly that although they might use identical terms, these mean different things to each of them. The word peace, for example, implies to a Muslim the extension of the Dar al-Islam -- or House of Islam -- to the entire world. This is completely different from the Enlightenment concept of eternal peace that dominates Western thought. Only when the entire world is a Dar al-Islam will it be a Dar a-Salam, or House of Peace."

That's why they blew up Bali in 2002, and last weekend, and why they'll keep blowing it up. It's not about Bush or Blair or Iraq or Palestine. It's about a world where everything other than Islamism lies inruins.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,16801982,00.html

[Solo]

Thanks NYer :)

I do dislike the word Islamism that Mark Steyn uses, like a blanket over every muslim, covering everything and everyone.

However, I found the following more balanced and less emotional. Same newspaper, different attitude, but same end result. (I only read this a few hours ago, but if I didn't know better, Greg Sheridan could have been reading my mind......LOL)

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16792583%255E25377,00.html

JI may be disrupted but its pro-bombing faction can't be underestimated
Greg Sheridan, foreign editor
October 03, 2005

SO, once again, Indonesians and Australians are attacked in common in an act of obscene terrorism. These attacks have many lessons -- none of them is pleasant.

The first is that the terrorists remain as implacably bent on their program as they ever were. Their desire is to set up a new caliphate in which their vision of true Islamic law is adhered to. Moderate Muslim states such as Indonesia are as much the enemy as Western states such as Australia.

These deadly attacks show how fatuous are the arguments of those Australians who claim it is our participation in the war on terror or our closeness to the Bush administration that makes us a target.

If that is the case, how is it that Indonesia is a target, or Turkey, or France, or Saudi Arabia, or The Philippines or Thailand or Malaysia -- or anywhere else that al-Qa'ida inspired jihadist terrorism has struck or tried to strike?

John Howard and his British counterpart Tony Blair were criticised by the liberal media elite in the wake of the London bombings for identifying the primary cause of the bombings as extremist Islamic ideology. The two leaders were said to be offering a simplistic solution rather than dealing with the complex "root causes" of Muslim alienation.

In fact, it is the "root causes" explanation that is simplistic and fails to take heed of the many millions of words of self-explanation, debate and internal instructions issued by the jihadists themselves.

At an Australian Strategic Policy Institute conference in Canberra two weeks ago, the International Crisis Group's Jemaah Islamiah expert Sidney Jones said she did not believe the Iraq war had had any significant effect on increasing the number of terrorist recruits in Southeast Asia.

The causes of Islamist terror in Southeast Asia are indeed complex -- and include the deep social roots of the earlier Islamist extremist group, Darul Islam, the long-running ambition among extremists for a pure Islamic state, the cosmology of Islamic victimhood taught in jihadist circles, the influence of Middle East-based jihadist propaganda and the existence of personal and educational networks that can be mobilised by a single charismatic leader.

Many JI terrorists fought together in Afghanistan. But many also fought in purely Indonesian sectarian conflicts in Poso and Ambon.

Such experiences contribute to terrorism in several ways. They give people deep personal connections they can call on. It gives people experience and capability in, and a taste for, violent conflict. And if often leaves them at a loose end, with nothing exciting to do, when one episode of conflict ends.

The new Bali bombings show how little comfort we can take from recent reports that JI has been disrupted. There is no doubt that excellent police and intelligence work has made a big, positive contribution. The fact that bombings continue is not a sign of our weakness in the war on terror. That they are not much worse, and that they do not involve much greater destruction, is a sign of our success.

However, analysts had recently said JI had been severely disrupted. The JI leaders who favoured a continued bombing campaign were said to be losing out to those who favoured a more low-key approach of building support for an Islamic state.

This more low-key group, analysts believed, was also bent on acquiring military capabilities but did not want an immediate campaign of terror. Instead, they would look to build up a secure base within Indonesia in support of an Islamic state.

This group is focused to some extent on the known 18 Islamic schools in Indonesia with close affiliations with JI. Typically, promising youngsters are recruited into JI from about the age of 14 and undertake repeated courses in jihad. Religious and ideological education at this stage is infinitely more important than any martial training such as bomb-making or the like. But people indoctrinated so deeply from such a young age are very difficult to talk out of their beliefs.

But the pro-bombing faction of JI and its associates is clearly not to be underestimated. The two notorious Malaysian JI bombers, Noordin Top and Azahari Husin, have conducted repeated bombings and eluded capture.

JI is still able to send small numbers of recruits to training camps run by like-minded extremists in the southern Philippines. The run of sectarian conflicts within Indonesia means that there are many groups, beyond JI but with similar aims, that can be recruited to jihadist terror.

Bombings in Sulawesi in May did not attract much international attention because they were not targeted at Westerners, but they show how easy it is to kill large numbers of people with really simple bombs. These amorphous groups show a tendency to produce ad hoc "combat groups" that can be very hard to penetrate or stop.

All this suggests that reports of JI being damaged, while true, are a small consolation. Yes, things could be much worse, but they are bad enough.

But precisely because of the vigour of the campaign waged by the US, Australia and many other nations, there are few territories left in which the jihadist terrorists could prepare, for example, a weapon of mass destruction. Some parts of Pakistan, Iraq itself, Syria near the Iraqi border and parts of the southern Philippines are among the few remaining areas where terrorists operate fairly freely. Parts of some governments, notably Iran and Syria, co-operate with terrorists but no government works openly with the most extreme jihadists.

These latest bombings are a body blow to the moderate, stable, predominantly Islamic nation of Indonesia, and to the fragile, recovering economy of Bali.

Only a fool would trivialise the terrorist threat. Certainly no one in Bali does.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been the most effective foe of terrorism in Indonesia. He has much work ahead.

[NYer]

The reason Steyn uses Islamism is no doubt because they're, well, not Buddhists. Islamofascism might be closer to the truth. But that's just me ...

[Petronas]

Cops: Bali Bombing Mastermind Escapes Raid
October 07, 2005 9:50 AM EDT

BALI, Indonesia - Indonesian police raided a house Friday where one of the suspected masterminds of last week's Bali bombings was believed to be hiding out, but the Malaysian fugitive fled three hours earlier, officials said. The pre-dawn raid occurred at a house in central Java province used by Noordin Mohamed Top, one of the most-wanted men in Southeast Asia, police said. Acting on a tip, about 20 officers moved in on a house in Purwantoro at about 4 a.m., only to learn that Noordin fled hours before, said Abdul Madjid, a police chief in the city of Solo. "We can confirm it was him," Madjid said, adding that police delayed the raid by several hours because they were concerned Noordin was armed with explosives. By the time reinforcements arrived, "it was too late," he said.

Noordin, 35, is one of two Malaysians accused of planning Saturday's near-simultaneous suicide bombings on three crowded restaurants on the Indonesian resort island that killed 23, including the bombers. More than 100 people were wounded. The other suspected mastermind is Azahari bin Husin. Both are believed to be key leaders of the regional al-Qaida-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah. Both men also were allegedly behind the 2002 nightclub Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people, and suicide attacks in Jakarta in 2004 and 2003 that killed at least 22.

The pair has eluded capture for years by renting cheap houses in densely populated areas, with nearby back alleys for quick escapes. Police have claimed several times in the last few years to have narrowly captured the Malaysian fugitives, most recently in the West Javanese city of Bandung almost exactly two years ago.

There was no way to confirm if the man who escaped Friday was in fact Noordin. "The people living there did not know it was him," said Madjid, adding that the suspect shaved his mustache. Azahari is known as "Demolition Man" for his knowledge of explosives, while Noordin has been dubbed "Moneyman" for his ability to raise money and recruit bombers. They are said to be motivated by anger at U.S foreign policy toward the Muslim world, but most of the victims in Saturday night's attacks were Indonesians. Jemaah Islamiyah wants to establish an Islamic state across Southeast Asia.

Authorities said Friday they were making progress in other areas of the investigation. Maj. Gen. Chairul Rasyid, central Java's police chief, said authorities were close to identifying two of the suspected three suicide bombers. Photographs of the suspects' severed heads, found yards from the blast sites, have been circulated in the media and shown to several jailed Jemaah Islamiyah members. None claim to recognize them. Police said Thursday that investigators have taken DNA samples from several relatives of the suspected bombers.

Rasyid also said the wife of another top terror suspect made phone calls to the island days before the attacks. The calls were made by the wife of Zulkarnaen, an Indonesian believed to be Jemaah Islamiyah's operations chief. "We have given the phone numbers that she contacted to the Bali police for them to trace them," Madjid told The Associated Press.

Indonesia's vice president said Friday that religious leaders must condemn terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation. "Suicide bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq are perhaps understandable because there is an 'opponent' there," Yusuf Kalla said after prayers in the capital Jakarta on the Muslim holy day. "But here in Indonesia, it makes no sense. Why do they kill their own people, who have done nothing wrong?" he asked, calling on Islamic leaders to condemn the practice as being "not in line with the religion we hold."

Bali police chief Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said the bombers likely were recruited recently to carry out the weekend attacks. "There is an indication they are a new generation," he said Friday. Ali Imron, imprisoned for his role in the 2002 bombings, told the Jawa Pos newspaper they could be "freshly recruited." Nasir Abbas, who trained scores of militants in the 1990s, told The Associated Press he had never seen them. Identifying the bombers could help police track down the masterminds.

Police said they intended to boost security on the island - already high in the aftermath of the weekend blasts - for a memorial service next Wednesday to mark the third anniversary of the 2002 nightclub bombings. Eighty-eight of the victims were Australians. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is due to attend the event, details of which have not been released. In previous years, many relatives of those killed and survivors returned to the island for the memorial.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for Saturday night's coordinated attacks, but suspicion immediately fell on Jemaah Islamiyah. If proven, the strikes show how dangerous the group remains despite a regional security crackdown that has arrested hundreds of alleged group members. It also would show that the group apparently has changed tactics, switching to softer targets, smaller bombs and cruder methods. Most previous Jemaah Islamiyah attacks were carried out with car bombs, but Saturday's bombers wore belts or backpacks laden with explosives.

http://start.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20051007/4345f2c0_3421_1334520051007-1008566323

[Petronas]

The swamp in which future terrorists are hatched...

School that nurtured the Islamic call to arms
October 10, 2005

IT is just on dusk at the Al-Islam boarding school, or pesantren, and the place is bustling. Earlier in the day, it might as well have been deserted, but with the call to evening prayers, the students have emerged, eager to break their Ramadan fast and chatter among themselves. The Islamic school in Tenggulun has some of the most notorious alumni in the world, having been a place of learning, preaching and refuge to many of the key protagonists in the October 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people. Today, it has 150 students from all over the far-reaching archipelago and, according to its founder Muhammed Khozin, he teaches his students to do with words what his brothers chose to do with bombs.

The students The Australian met there yesterday quizzed this reporter about his religious beliefs and debated the issue of whether the holy trinity in Christianity was false. They muttered among themselves about whether I was really a reporter or an Australian intelligence agent. They are used to being treated with suspicion by the media and receiving visits from police. But after a while, they relax and behave largely like high school students anywhere.

Welcome to the breeding ground of radical Islam in Indonesia. It started with Jemaah Islamiah spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir's Ngruki school in Solo, Central Java, and has spread into other pesantren across the country. The schools are popular with poor families for their discipline and thorough religious curriculums. For the price of a cheap meal out in Australia, a family can send their son to this pesantren for a year. A boy from the island of Flores told The Australian his tuition cost 300,000 rupiah, about $40. For poor villagers, some of whom live on subsistence rice farming and have annual earnings of just a few hundred dollars, it gives them the opportunity for their children to aspire to a better life, Airlangga University of Surabaya Associate Professor of Indonesian Culture, Kacung Marijan, said.

Al-Islam is on the outskirts of the village of Tenggulun, a two-hour drive west of Surabaya in East Java. Khozin, as well as being one of the school's founders, is the brother of three of the 2002 Bali bombers, Ali Gufron, known as Mukhlas, Amrozi and Ali Imron, who all attended and taught at the school. As head of one of Indonesia's most notorious families, he is keen to distance his community from the second Bali bombings, which he says are "different" to the first. His brand of Islam, he says, is different. He says the community has moved on and does not want to be linked to the new "tragedy".

But to Khozin, there is no difference in his ideology and his brothers'. The difference is in how they chose to act on their anger at Westerners flaunting their liberal values. He refers to the non-Muslim community as Kaffir Dhimmi, the name the prophet Mohammed gave to the non-Muslim communities. He says it is the responsibility of Muslims to fight this group by convincing them to behave with respect towards their Muslim neighbours. He says the fight should not be "physical" but a fight with words.

Khozin does not believe that Westerners and Muslims can live side by side while Westerners continue to believe, for example, in allowing women to wear bikinis at the beach and to drink alcohol. It is a "morality war" brought on by Australians and Westerners in general refusing to respect his culture. He said his school "prepares the student to make sure foreigners do not do that in Indonesia". You only have to talk to his son, 19-year-old Afif, to know that the young people coming through the Islamic schooling system take that message to heart and maybe even beyond.

He says Bali will not be safe from terrorism until Australians and other Westerners visiting there behave in a way that is respectful of Muslim culture. Ask Afif what he wants to do when he grows up, the answer is simple: "Fight for Islam." This is probably best interpreted as youthful spirit and not a declaration of jihad but his commitment is to ending what he sees as a Western corruption of his country. It shows that with such a hardline philosophy on what is and what is not acceptable, it is a fine line between fighting with words and fighting with bombs.

While Afif's uncles, Mukhlas -- the commander of the 2002 bombings -- and Amrozi, who played a key role procuring most of the equipment they needed, are facing the death penalty, he doesn't view what they did as wrong because they scared away many Westerners. He considers the Muslims who died as martyrs; he says the Westerners who died are not his concern because they were unbelievers.

Khozin said his brothers, Mukhlas and Amrozi, did not fear the death penalty and were not interested in an amnesty. He said the eldest of the three, Mukhlas, or Ali Gufron, remained devoted to JI's Bashir. "Gufron wants to become the next Bashir," Mr Khozin said. Police investigating the latest tragedy have not visited Khozin. "If they want to come here, that's OK, we have nothing to hide," he said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16865599%255E2703,00.html

[Cali/Yank]

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Unidentified assailants attacked a group of high school girls on Saturday in Indonesia's tense province of Central Sulawesi, (search) beheading three and seriously wounding a fourth, police said.

The students from a private Christian high school were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota (search) subdistrict on their way to class, police Maj. Riky Naldo said. The rural area is close to the provincial capital of Poso, about 1,000 miles northeast of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

He said the heads of the three dead girls were found several miles from their bodies.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,173913,00.html

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): Government authorities announced on 24 October 2005 that they are increasing security throughout the country during Aid al-Fitr (known in Indonesia as Idul Fitri) on 3-4 November due to "a high possibility of bomb attacks." More than 33,000 police officers will be deployed throughout the country, and security forces will dispatch additional patrol helicopters, ships and vehicles. Bomb squads will be placed at 18 locations in Jakarta, including at airports and at public transportation stations. Security forces will also be concentrated in Java, Bali and Lampung as police officials continue to search for those responsible for the 1 October bomb attacks in Bali. The extended operations will be in effect from 26 October until 11 November.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS - 10/25/2005

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): Reports issued on 11 November 2005 indicate that a van containing an explosive device was found at the car wash section of Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (WIII/CGK) at approximately 0940 local time on 10 November. Police officers defused the device and detained the driver of the van. No further information is available.

The incident comes after Jakarta police officials announced on 11 November that they will remain on full alert throughout the New Year holiday; they were placed on heightened alert following the 1 October 2005 Bali bombings. The decision to extend the alert was announced in anticipation of possible terror attacks in response to the 9 November killing of Jemaah Islamiyah leader Azahari bin Husin during an anti-terror raid.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 11/11/2005

[Petronas]

Indonesian video threatens West
Last Updated: Thursday, 17 November 2005, 10:09 GMT

A masked man - believed to be one of South East Asia's most wanted Islamic militants - has appeared in a video threatening attacks against the West.
The video singles out the US, the UK, Australia and Italy as targets. Officials believed the man was Noordin Mohammad Top, a key figure in Jemaah Islamiah, the radical group blamed for bomb attacks on Bali and elsewhere. Police found the video in a house they raided last week, when Noordin Top narrowly escaped being captured. A near-simultaneous raid on another house, in East Java, ended in the death of his associate, Azahari Husin.

"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 in the video said. Pointing at the camera, he said: "America, Australia, England and Italy. You will be the target of our next attack." Such video messages have regularly surfaced in the Middle East, but this is believed to be the first to come to light from South East Asia. The message of the video focused particularly on Australia. "Especially for Australia, as long as its troops are in Afghanistan and Iraq and engage in intimidation there, you will also feel our intimidation," the man said.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer dismissed the message. "No democratic country like Australia should be intimidated by a fanatic like Noordin Top," he told reporters in the Australian city of Adelaide.

The video also showed three other men who were identified as the suicide bombers who attacked the Indonesian resort island of Bali on 1 October. One of them, Muhammad Salik Firdaus, addressed his family in the video. "My brother and wife, God willing, when you see this recording I'll already be in heaven," he said.

Bali police chief I Made Mangku Pastika said three people were currently being questioned over their role in those bombings, which killed 20 people. "They are people that had direct contacts with Azahari and Noordin Top. They are certainly also linked to the Bali bombs," he said. Police have named the three as Cholily alias Yahya alias Hasan, Anif alias Pendek, and Abdul Aziz.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4444738.stm

[Casey]

Militant website shows how to stage attacks in Jakarta
18 Nov 2005 05:10:42 GMT

Source: Reuters
JAKARTA, Nov 18 (Reuters) - A website purportedly set up under orders from a leading Asian militant gives instructions on how to shoot foreigners in the streets of the Indonesian capital or throw grenades at motorists stuck in traffic.

The Web site, called Anshar El Muslimin (www.anshar.net) and seen by Reuters on Friday, contains diagrams of several locations and why they would be ideal for attacking people and how to escape.

Police called the website a "work of terror" and said it had been set up by one of three men named suspects this week over the Oct 1. restaurant bombings on Bali that killed 20 people.

Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda have carried out a number of car bombings against Western targets in Indonesia in recent years, but there have been no shootings of foreigners on the streets, a practise seen in parts of the Middle East.

Antonius Reniban, police spokesman on the resort island of Bali, said a militant he identified as Abdul Aziz, one of three named suspects over the latest Bali attacks, had confessed to designing the website, which would soon be shut down.

"This is a work of terror," Reniban said.

SHOOTING FOREIGNERS

A lawyer for Aziz said his client had been approached several months ago by several people including Malaysia's Noordin M. Top, a senior figure in Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy group seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda.

"Several people came to him and asked him to create that website. One of them was Noordin M. Top," lawyer Muhammad Rifan told Reuters by telephone.

"But he only received material supplied by others. A webmaster is not responsible for the content of the website. He is not part of their group."

Rifan added that Aziz had no link to the Bali attacks.

One diagram on the Web site showed a computerised schematic of central Jakarta where it said foreigners liked to walk from an office and hotel area to a popular shopping mall. It showed a blue section that it said was the place to attack foreigners.

Another showed how foreigners could be shot when they use overhead pedestrian bridges to cross Jakarta's busy roads.

It gave specific examples of places in Jakarta where traffic banked up, saying this was ideal to shoot motorists or throw grenades or small bombs at targets.

"Grenades can be used to make sure the injured are dead, God Willing. Grenades can be normal grenades or fire bombs so that the car burns," it said.

News of the Web site comes one day after a video was broadcast on local TV showing a masked militant whom police believe is Top. On the video, found last week by Indonesian anti-terrorist police, the masked man warns Western countries, especially Australia, of more attacks.

Ken Conboy, a security expert in Jakarta who has seen some of the Web site material, said while it was a concern, it did not mean the types of attacks shown would materialise.

He said militants would still need to find good weapons, funding and willing participants to carry out such attacks.

"It's obviously disturbing. You don't want to see this sort of stuff on the Internet because you don't want to inspire anyone," Conboy said.

The video was among several found last week as part of raids that resulted in the killing of Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, the master bombmaker of Jemaah Islamiah. It was discovered in central Java at a house police have said was rented by Top.

Police have been hunting Azahari and Top since the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Both men have also been blamed for other attacks.

While Malaysian Azahari was Jemaah Islamiah's bombmaker, police say Top is an expert in recruiting suicide bombers.


AlertNet news is provided by
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/JAK285226.htm

[Petronas]

Terrorists to target churches over Christmas
17 November, 2005

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Indonesian national police Chief General Sutanto has issued a nation-wide order to tighten security measures around public buildings and churches against possible terrorist attacks that might occur during the Christmas season. All local commanders should remain vigilant and not underestimate the danger that Islamist terrorists might plant bombs near churches and public buildings during the religious holiday. The police will set up country-wide checkpoints and village chiefs will be required to report the presence of any outsider who spends more than 24 hours in their communities.

Jakarta police chief Inspector General Firman Gani said that whilst “it is not possible to guarantee total security in the large cities, we are doing our best”. However in the capital, police “will come down hard on anyone who refuses to submit to house checks”. In a city of nine million people where wages have been eroded by inflation many people end up living with friends and relatives often illegally and unbeknownst to landlords and other tenants. This is being done because protective measures for Christian places of worship have become necessary as threats against Christian communities mount.

An anonymous phone call yesterday claimed that the Mardi Yuwana Catholic Educational Centre in Depok, 30 kilometres south of Jakarta, was going to “suddenly explode when you least expect it”. This warning joins mounting evidence released by police that the late terrorists Azahari bin Husin was planning attacks against churches in Malang and that the Bethlehem Church in Puhsarang, Kediri (East Java province) was going to be targeted. Concerns over the threats have pushed religious leaders in target areas to meet with East Java police Chief Inspector General Edi Sunarno to discuss what might be done.

In the meantime, Azahari bin Husin’s family has broken its silence. “On behalf of the whole family in Malaysia, I would like to say that we are very sorry for the misconducts done (by Azahari bin Husin),” said his brother Bani bin Husin. “We ask Indonesians for forgiveness, primarily the Bali bomb victims—both killed and injured—and all the victims in the Hotel Marriott bombing and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.” The terrorist’s brother came to Indonesia from Malaysia to collect the dead man’s remains for burial and spoke live on local television. Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry authorised the repatriation.

In Maluku police found two Islamist paramilitary camps on West Seram Island. Located some five kilometres from the nearest residential area, the compounds were used by members of the Laskar Mujahidin or mujahidin troops. Members of the anti-terrorist unit that raided them found nothing, except signs that they had been occupied. Moreover, police Captain Endro Prasetyo said that local residents very often heard shots coming from the area. Similarly, mujahidin presence in and around the island’s Mount Naga and Mount Lidah Anjing has been confirmed.

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=4647

[Casey]

Indonesia clerics to fight militants in ‘war of ideas’

Date: Nov 22, 2005 - 06:41 AM
JAKARTA, Nov 21: A move by Indonesia’s mainstream Muslim groups to form a team to counter militant ideas, work with the police and review radical publications is an important step but must be more than just rhetoric, analysts said on Monday. The special team was set up last week after the discovery of videos showing three suicide bombers using Islam to justify attacks on restaurants in Bali on Oct 1 that killed 20 people.

It is the first time moderate groups have agreed to play a decisive role in tackling terrorism. In the past, they have been reluctant to criticise militants or have said fighting terrorism was the responsibility of the government and the police.

Sidney Jones, director of the International Crisis Group in Indonesia and an expert on the country’s radical fringe, praised Vice President Jusuf Kalla for summoning mainstream clerics to view the videos of the young suicide bombers last week.

“That’s a real new step and we haven’t had this level of government involvement before in any of the cases that have come up from Bali onwards,” Jones said, referring to the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.

“It’s taken this long for some of the (Muslim) organisations to realise the extent of the problem in Indonesia and to realise it’s got a kind of staying power.”

All major bomb attacks in Indonesia in recent years have been blamed on Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy network seen as the regional arm of Al Qaeda. It usually recruits young, poor Muslims from teeming Java island as its foot-soldiers.

Jones said it would be interesting to see how the team challenged militant arguments and whether it addressed issues of how and where bombers and others were recruited.

The head of the team, Ma’ruf Amin, told El Shinta radio that clerics wanted to devise a strategy that looked at Islamic boarding schools known as pesantrens in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, the youth and also publications.

“We will clarify these ideas with pesantrens, especially those alleged to have indications of influences from radical terror views,” said Amin.

He also referred to a book written by Imam Samudra, one of three bombers on death row over the 2002 Bali attacks, which he said was “everywhere” in Indonesia. Samudra wrote his book in jail, setting out his arguments for the attacks.

The team gathers top preachers from the two mainstream Islamic groups in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, that have a combined 70 million members.

The minister of religious affairs said the team would be involved in tracking information about terrorist suspects and search for books that promote radicalism so they could be banned, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported on Monday.

However, it was unclear if it would review curriculum in Islamic boarding schools. The International Crisis Group has listed several where Jemaah Islamiah members send their children and where some convicted bombers studied.

Andi Widjajanto, a security analyst from the University of Indonesia, said the team could be effective in dealing with formal, registered organisations and schools.

Underground groups were a different matter.

“Its effectiveness against fringe groups that are the main recruitment ground will be difficult,” Widjajanto said.

Anti-terrorism campaigns in Indonesia have often faced challenges because of a widespread belief that the United States wants to attack Islam.

While Islamic groups across the spectrum condemn bombings, memories also remain fresh of the persecution of Muslim leaders and activists by former President Suharto during 32 years of military-backed rule that ended in 1998.

Indeed, officials are still reluctant to use the term Jemaah Islamiah, which means Islamic community, believing it could be seen as putting the general Muslim populace under watch.

And Indonesia has not followed Western countries in banning Jemaah Islamiah. Officials say they cannot ban an organisation that does not have a concrete structure or address.—Reuters


http://www.dawn.com/2005/11/22/int11.htm

[Solo]

Indonesia clerics to fight militants in ‘war of ideas’

Date: Nov 22, 2005 - 06:41 AM
JAKARTA, Nov 21: A move by Indonesia’s mainstream Muslim groups to form a team to counter militant ideas, work with the police and review radical publications is an important step but must be more than just rhetoric, analysts said on Monday. The special team was set up last week after the discovery of videos showing three suicide bombers using Islam to justify attacks on restaurants in Bali on Oct 1 that killed 20 people.

It is the first time moderate groups have agreed to play a decisive role in tackling terrorism. In the past, they have been reluctant to criticise militants or have said fighting terrorism was the responsibility of the government and the police.

Sidney Jones, director of the International Crisis Group in Indonesia and an expert on the country’s radical fringe, praised Vice President Jusuf Kalla for summoning mainstream clerics to view the videos of the young suicide bombers last week.

“That’s a real new step and we haven’t had this level of government involvement before in any of the cases that have come up from Bali onwards,” Jones said, referring to the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.

“It’s taken this long for some of the (Muslim) organisations to realise the extent of the problem in Indonesia and to realise it’s got a kind of staying power.”

All major bomb attacks in Indonesia in recent years have been blamed on Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy network seen as the regional arm of Al Qaeda. It usually recruits young, poor Muslims from teeming Java island as its foot-soldiers.

Jones said it would be interesting to see how the team challenged militant arguments and whether it addressed issues of how and where bombers and others were recruited.

The head of the team, Ma’ruf Amin, told El Shinta radio that clerics wanted to devise a strategy that looked at Islamic boarding schools known as pesantrens in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, the youth and also publications.

“We will clarify these ideas with pesantrens, especially those alleged to have indications of influences from radical terror views,” said Amin.

He also referred to a book written by Imam Samudra, one of three bombers on death row over the 2002 Bali attacks, which he said was “everywhere” in Indonesia. Samudra wrote his book in jail, setting out his arguments for the attacks.

The team gathers top preachers from the two mainstream Islamic groups in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, that have a combined 70 million members.

The minister of religious affairs said the team would be involved in tracking information about terrorist suspects and search for books that promote radicalism so they could be banned, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported on Monday.

However, it was unclear if it would review curriculum in Islamic boarding schools. The International Crisis Group has listed several where Jemaah Islamiah members send their children and where some convicted bombers studied.

Andi Widjajanto, a security analyst from the University of Indonesia, said the team could be effective in dealing with formal, registered organisations and schools.

Underground groups were a different matter.

“Its effectiveness against fringe groups that are the main recruitment ground will be difficult,” Widjajanto said.

Anti-terrorism campaigns in Indonesia have often faced challenges because of a widespread belief that the United States wants to attack Islam.

While Islamic groups across the spectrum condemn bombings, memories also remain fresh of the persecution of Muslim leaders and activists by former President Suharto during 32 years of military-backed rule that ended in 1998.

Indeed, officials are still reluctant to use the term Jemaah Islamiah, which means Islamic community, believing it could be seen as putting the general Muslim populace under watch.

And Indonesia has not followed Western countries in banning Jemaah Islamiah. Officials say they cannot ban an organisation that does not have a concrete structure or address.—Reuters


http://www.dawn.com/2005/11/22/int11.htm


Very very difficult call. Still a long way to go before all the past hatred catches up with current thinking.

The following is still a cause for concern.

Anti-terrorism campaigns in Indonesia have often faced challenges because of a widespread belief that the United States wants to attack Islam.

While Islamic groups across the spectrum condemn bombings, memories also remain fresh of the persecution of Muslim leaders and activists by former President Suharto during 32 years of military-backed rule that ended in 1998.

Indeed, officials are still reluctant to use the term Jemaah Islamiah, which means Islamic community, believing it could be seen as putting the general Muslim populace under watch.

And Indonesia has not followed Western countries in banning Jemaah Islamiah. Officials say they cannot ban an organisation that does not have a concrete structure or address.

[Petronas]

Terror Expert Expelled from Indonesia
Friday, November 25, 2005

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia expelled an American expert on Southeast Asian terrorist networks for one year, an official said Friday, saying her activities could cause public disorder. It is the second time that Sidney Jones, the project director for the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, has been barred from the country in as many years. "I don't understand," said Jones, who was turned back at Indonesia's airport Thursday on return from a short trip to Taiwan. She is now in Singapore. "If there was a problem, you would have thought they would have called me in or raised the question while I was in Jakarta, giving me some ability to respond," she said.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group opened an office in Indonesia in 2000 and has issued detailed and well-researched reports on separatist conflicts in Indonesia and the activities of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah. Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for at least four deadly bombings in Indonesia since 2002, including last month's triple suicide attacks on the resort island of Bali that killed 20 people.

Immigration department spokesman Supriatna Anwar said Jones would be barred from the country for one year. "According to the law, anyone who enters Indonesia should be useful and not cause public disorder," he said without elaborating. "Maybe the government feels that at the moment she is not fulfilling those conditions."

Jones, of Albany, N.Y., is frequently interviewed by local and international media, but it is not clear what she may have said in recent weeks to anger the government. Since the Oct. 1 attacks, she has been largely complimentary about Jakarta's successes in cracking down on terrorists. Jones was expelled from Indonesia in 2004 under the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri for allegedly publishing false reports damaging to the country's image. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government allowed her to return in July, providing her with residence and work visas. Jones arrived in Jakarta after attending a Time magazine awards ceremony honoring her think tank's work, and said she was told that an Oct. 7 letter banned her from entry.

The International Crisis Group describes itself an independent, nonprofit organization working to prevent and resolve conflicts. It is funded by foreign governments and private foundations. The group said it was "shocked and mystified" by the decision to expel Jones.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176679,00.html

[Petronas]

Indonesia’s VP vows war against militant ideas
12:22 a.m. ET Nov. 26, 2005

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia will take tough action in its newly declared war on militant ideas that could include shutting an Islamic school co-founded by hardline jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir if serious teaching deviations are found, the vice president said on Saturday. Jusuf Kalla said the government would soon ban a widely circulated book of militant ideas written by one of the 2002 Bali bombers, Imam Samudra, who is on death row. He said that would be one of a number of steps the government and mainstream clerics would take in response to the discovery of videos showing three suicide bombers using Islam to justify attacks in Bali on Oct. 1 that killed 20 people.

"There has to be two wars. Firstly, a physical war by the police and secondly an ideological war carried out by Muslim clerics," Kalla said in an interview. Kalla summoned Muslim clerics from all major groups to view the tapes of the young bombers last week, prompting them to form a team to counter militant ideas and work with the police. He said clerics had to correct or review religious curriculum and evaluate religious books in circulation.

The Religious Affairs Department had already been in contact with some Islamic boarding schools about their teachings, which would be corrected, said Kalla. Asked about the al-Mukmin boarding school near the city of Solo, which was co-founded by Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah militant network, Kalla said: "Yes al-Mukmin is certainly one that needs to be further analysed and given information so their curriculum will be in line with the national curriculum." Asked if the school, where some convicted Islamic bombers have studied, could be closed, he said that would depend on the Religious Affairs Department. "If there are some serious (deviations), automatically it has to be (closed). I mean serious deviations, if they have wrong teachings. It could come to that (closure)," he said. Kalla cited one example where the school's 2,000 students were not allowed to salute the Indonesian national flag.

His comments are the strongest yet from the government against al-Mukmin, which the International Crisis Group has described as at the top of Jemaah Islamiah's "Ivy League" of schools where members send their children. All major bomb attacks in Indonesia in recent years have been blamed on Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy network seen as the regional arm of al-Qaida. It usually recruits young, poor Muslims from teeming Java island as its foot soldiers. Bashir is serving a 30-month jail term for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Kalla said he could not believe the images of the young suicide bombers on the videos. He said this had erased any doubts among clerics that they had a problem on their hands. "I was shocked, not just me, but all of the clerics were too, (seeing) youths laughing and then saying that they would die and go to heaven the next day," Kalla said. "There were a lot of doubts before, but having watched the video then all the clerics finally said this was the case."

Mainstream Muslim organizations would meet in Jakarta on Dec. 2 to kick-start a national effort to fight this war against militant ideas, Kalla added. There would also be a meeting of major Islamic boarding schools, known as pesantrens in Indonesia, but it was unclear if that would be incorporated in the Dec. 2 event.

The move by clerics is the first time moderate groups have agreed to play a decisive and united role in tackling terrorism. In the past, they have been reluctant to criticise militants or have said fighting terrorism was the responsibility of the government and the police. The special team gathers top preachers from the two mainstream Islamic groups in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, that have a combined 70 million members. Anti-terrorism campaigns in Indonesia have often faced challenges because of a widespread belief that the United States wants to attack Islam.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10208357/

[Ono]

Last Update: Friday, December 2, 2005. 8:22am (AEDT)

Bali bombing detainee directly involved, say police

Indonesian police say a man they have been holding in connection with the Bali bombings in October is now suspected of direct involvement.

Bali police spokesman Antonius Reniban says the 33-year-old, known as Wiwid, was arrested just over a week ago and was facing up to 15 years in prison under Indonesia's 2002 anti-terrorism laws.

Police believed he harboured those suspected of carrying out the bombing.

But they now believe he knew of the bombing plan and was part of it.

The spokesman says Wiwid was taken into custody in Semarang in Central Java.

He is now being questioned at Bali's central police headquarters, along with two other suspected militants linked to the Malaysian bomb expert Azahari.

Azahari was killed in November and his accomplice Noordin Top is still on the run.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1521290.htm

[Petronas]

Website's blueprint for terror
November 23, 2005 - 6:15AM

Australian Federal Police are investigating a website linked to the Jemaah Islamiah group that tells would-be terrorists how to attack westerners. The website, called Anshar El Muslimin, warns of attacks at a locations across Jakarta, including shopping centres, sports venues, hotels and the zoo. It showed detailed maps and attack sites and escape routes, singling out the Kuningan area where the Australian embassy, International Trade Centre and Marriott hotel are located.

The website - reportedly set up on Jemaah Islamiah mastermind Noordin Top's orders by one of the Bali suicide bombing suspects - advises attacks in lunch areas, overhead walkways and traffic snarls, where westerners would be trapped in their vehicles. AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty and Indonesian National Police chief General Sutanto discussed the website last week. An AFP spokesman reportedly said today that Australian officers were working closely with their Indonesian counterparts to trace the origin of the website and its author.

Security guards at the upmarket Plaza Senayen and the Ambassador Mall, popular for electronic goods and pirated DVDs, said they had increased searches. "We have been told by managers to search everyone with extra care," a guard named Idris said, adding that foreign shoppers had stayed away over the weekend. National police spokesman Sunarko Danu Ardanto described the website, which has since been shut down following fresh travel warnings by Australia, Britain and the US, as a "threat to national security".

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/websites-blueprint-for-terror/2005/11/23/1132421689107.html

[NYer]

Still more bad news for Zawahiri. (http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2005/12/11/good_triumphs_over_evil.php)

[Casey]

Christmas Terror Warning for Indonesia
Patrick Goodenough
International Editor

(CNSNews.com) - The Australian government has warned citizens of a "very high threat of terrorist attack" in Indonesia during the Christmas season, adding to prevailing concerns about the possibility of Islamist violence targeting Christians during the holidays.

"We continue to receive a stream of reporting indicating that terrorists are in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Western interests in Indonesia," the foreign affairs department said in a new advisory.

"These attacks could be targeted at places where Westerners gather, such as churches."

It urged Australians intending to visit Indonesia over Christmas and the New Year to reconsider their plans, or if they choose to go, to "exercise extreme caution."

The advisory also cited postings on an extremist website discussing possible attacks against foreigners in a district of Jakarta where the Australian Embassy and the J.W. Marriott Hotel are located. Both have been targeted by terrorists before.

Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorists have carried out four big bombings in Indonesia between October 2002 and last October - at the embassy and the hotel in Jakarta and twice on the resort island of Bali. They killed more than 250 people, including 92 Australians.

Canberra's advisory again pointed to Jakarta and Bali as key targets, but said attacks elsewhere in Indonesia could also not be ruled out.

Last month, a leading JI fugitive was killed in an explosion during an armed standoff with police at a hideout in East Java.

A video clip found by police at the time featured a masked man Jakarta identified as another most-wanted JI terrorist, who threatened new attacks against Australia for deploying "invader troops" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While the JI attacks have primarily targeted Westerners -- although killing dozens of Indonesians in the process -- other radical elements have focused on Indonesia's Christian minority.

A series of coordinated church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000 killed at least 19 people.

Northeast of Indonesia's main island of Java, the two provinces of Maluku and Central Sulawesi have born the brunt of anti-Christian violence in recent years.

Thousands died in clashes between Muslims and Christians between 1999 and 2002.

Sporadic attacks have occurred since peace agreements were concluded, and a deadly market bombing took place in Sulawesi last May.

Rumblings of new tensions as Christmas approaches have prompted stepped-up security in those areas. The Australian travel warning strongly advised against visits to Maluku.

In recent weeks, as both Catholic and Protestant church organizations expressed concern over possible Christmas attacks, members of a youth wing of Indonesia's largest mainstream Muslim organization pledged to guard churches across the archipelago around the festive days, in a bid to prevent further attacks.

Jakarta police have announced they will deploy 18,000 officers in the capital over the Christmas-New Year period.

The U.S. government on Nov. 18 updated a travel warning recommending that Americans defer non-essential travel to Indonesia.

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1368127.html?view=print

[Solo]

Last Update: Tuesday, December 13, 2005. 9:17pm (AEDT)
Indonesia sends troops to monitor Australian surfies

By foreign affairs editor Peter Cave

Indonesia has sent a small detachment of troops to a remote island to secure it against an invasion of Australian surfers and to monitor their activities.

Seventeen Indonesian soldiers have been sent to Mengkudu Island, one of almost 700 small, largely uninhabited islands which lie between Bali and West Timor.

Indonesia's Antara newsagency quotes Colonel APJ Noch Bola, the military commander in the province of East Nusa Tengarra, as saying the Australians came to the island to surf, but one of them had married the daughter of the tribal chief.

He says the group had now put down roots and built five houses.

They had been excluding local people from their compound and he says this is unacceptable because the island belongs to Indonesia, not Australia.

Local community leaders have accused the Australians of being intelligence agents.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1530264.htm

[Solo]

Bali Police to deploy 15 boats for Christmas, New Year holidays

DENPASAR (Antara): The Bali provincial police will deploy 15 boats and 130 officers from the water police division to safeguard the waters around Bali during the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, police spokesman Sr. Comr. A.S. Reniban said on Sunday.

"The boats will be based in four harbors of Benoa, Celukan Bawang, Gilimanuk and Padang Baai. They will taking turns doing sea patrol," he said.

"The officers will also intensify their patrols in areas prone of crime and smuggling activities in Badung, Buleleng, Jembrana and Karangasem regencies which also prone to illegal wildlife trade."

The deployment is also aimed to prevent other bombings from happening on the island. Bali suffered from two bombings in 2002 and 2005.

On the ground, metal detectors have been installed while 20 ambulance and fire engines are on alert.

A total of 6,000 police officers and 500 soldiers from the Udayana Military Command are deployed to safeguard the holidays.

http://www.thejakartapost.com

[Petronas]

Bizarre.

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): On 20 December 2005, an Indonesian court found a pilot of Garuda, Indonesia's national airline, guilty of assassinating human rights activist Munir Thalib in September 2004. The pilot was sentenced to 14 years in prison. The pilot was found guilty of premeditated murder and of forging a security document that authorized him to work as an aviation security officer on Munir's flight from Jakarta to Singapore. While working on the flight, the pilot poisoned Munir's orange juice with arsenic. An investigation into the possible involvement of government agents and two flight attendants continues. It is not known if Garuda officials have reacted to the finding.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 12/20/2005

[Petronas]

Bomb Squads Sweep Indonesian Churches
Sat Dec 24, 1:48 AM ET

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Bomb squads searched for explosives Saturday at churches in the capital Jakarta and its satellite cities hours before Christmas Eve celebrations amid fears that terrorists might carry out attacks to mar the holiday. Police Lt. Sulianto, who uses only one name, told The Associated Press that 80 bomb squads were being deployed at dozens of churches in Jakarta, Bekasi, Tangerang and Depok. "We have been prepared to sweep churches in the capital to make sure they are safe," he said.

The Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah have been blamed for at least five suicide bombings targeting Western interests since 2002 — including Oct. 1 restaurant attacks on Bali island — that together killed more than 240 people. It is also accused in Christmas Eve church bombings five years ago that left 19 dead.

Sulianto said his men also will sweep two main Catholic Cathedral Church and Protestant Immanuel Church, both located in downtown Jakarta. Some 15,000 churchgoers are expected to worship at the churches on Christmas Eve.

Some 17,000 police have been deployed to guard Jakarta, where terrorists "could carry out (attack) tonight," Maj. Gen. Firman Gani, the Jakarta Police Chief told reporters. Tens of thousands of police are on duty nationwide, and churches in many Indonesian towns have been checked, intelligence officials said. In Poso, where three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded last October, police tightly guarded dozens of churches. Gani has warned that terrorists might use Christmas and New Year celebrations to carry out attacks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051224/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_tense_christmas_5;_ylt=AvQ3qGe3mqGoyGQu0 LGrXzraHXcA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[Petronas]

Deadly market blast in Indonesia
Dec. 31

A suspected bomb blast rocked a crowded market selling pork in eastern Indonesia. Renae Bunney reports. Police say they believed a bomb caused the explosion in the town of Palu, capital of volatile Central Sulawesi province. The blast comes amid a spate of warnings from authorities about militant violence during the Christmas and New Year season in the world's most populous Muslim nation. El Shinta news radio station reported that unexploded bombs had also been found in two provinces on Sumatra island in the country's west. The bomb squad had been called to both.

http://today.reuters.com/tv/videoStory.aspx?isSummitStory=false&storyId=d4c4c603df3a89d690b1b2011bb75efc198dd204

[Petronas]

Indonesian police arrest another terror suspect
24 January 2006

JAKARTA - Indonesian police on Tuesday said they had arrested another man suspected of assisting a fugitive Malaysian extremist involved in last October’s Bali suicide bombings. A man named Catur was arrested in the Central Java capital of Semarang by elite anti-terror police and their local counterparts, national police deputy spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam told reporters. Several other Bali bombing suspects have been nabbed in the same city.

Alam said that Catur was suspected of assisting Malaysian fugitive Noordin Mohammad Top, but police were still interrogating him. Alam said Noordin would “hopefully soon be captured. He moves around, but we already know who the people around him are,” he said, adding that Noordin tapped into networks in each area he visited.

Noordin and his compatriot Azahari Husin are blamed for masterminding the triple suicide bombings, which killed 20 bystanders and have left tourism reeling on the resort island. The pair were key leaders of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), also blamed for the October 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202, and a string of other bombings. Alam said one man arrested last week in connection with the attacks had been released due to a lack of evidence but must periodically report to police.

Ten people were currently detained on suspicion of involvement in the latest Bali bombings, six on Java and four on the island of Bali itself, while police continued hunting for more suspects, he said. One of the detained suspects had been in possession of a revolver used by two others to rob a cellular phone shop, he added.

Experts believe Noordin and Azahari, who was killed by police in a raid on his hideout in Java last November, may have split from JI to form an even more radical offshoot.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/January/theworld_January554.xml&section=theworld&col=

[Petronas]

Muslims attack Danish embassy building in Jakarta
Fri Feb 3, 12:43 AM ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) - About 300 militant Indonesian Muslims went on a rampage inside the lobby of a Jakarta building housing the Danish embassy on Friday in protest over cartoons that Muslims say insult Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.

Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), the white-clad protesters from the hardline Islamic Defender's Front (FPI) smashed lamps with bamboo sticks and threw chairs around in anger at cartoons originally published by a Danish daily. They also threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at the Danish embassy symbol inside the lobby. The embassy is on the 25th floor of the building and protesters were unable to get past security in the lobby, a Reuters photographer said.

Outrage has erupted in the Middle East after more European newspapers published the cartoons, which were originally published by Danish daily Jyllands-Posten last September. Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous. About 100 Indonesian policemen watched the FPI protesters as they made fiery speeches calling on the government of the world's most populous Muslim nation to sever diplomatic ties with Denmark and evict its ambassador. The protesters dispersed after an hour. There were no arrests.

Newspapers in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Hungary have reprinted the caricatures this week, saying press freedom was more important than the protests and boycotts they have provoked. Many Arab commentators said the European defense rings hollow because, they said, European media protected Judaism and Israel from criticism.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060203/wl_nm/religion_cartoons_indonesia_dc_1

[Petronas]

Muslims Target U.S. Embassy in Indonesia
Sunday, February 19, 2006

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy on Sunday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured.

Pakistani security forces, meanwhile, sealed off the capital of Islamabad to block a planned mass demonstration and fired tear gas and gunshots to chase off protesters. In Turkey, tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States.

Protests over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been republished in other European publications and elsewhere, have swept across the Muslim world, growing into mass outlets for rage against the West in general, and Israel and the United States in particular.

Christians also have become targets. Pakistani Muslims protesting in the southern city of Sukkur ransacked and burned a church Sunday after hearing accusations that a Christian man had burned pages of the Koran, Islam's holy book.

That incident came a day after Muslims protesting in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri attacked Christians and burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage that killed at least 15 people. Some 30 other people have died during protests over the cartoons that erupted about three weeks ago.

In Jakarta, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. mission in the center of the city, behind a banner reading "We are ready to attack the enemies of the Prophet." Protesters throwing stones and brandishing wooden staves tried to break through the gates. They set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush and smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes. The U.S. Embassy called the attacks deplorable, describing them as acts of "thuggery."

A protest organizer said the West, and particularly the United States, is attacking Islam. "They want to destroy Islam through the issue of terrorism ... and all those things are engineered by the United States," said Maksuni, who only uses one name. "We are fighting America fiercely this time," he said. "And we also are fighting Denmark."

In Pakistan, where protests last week left five people dead, police put up roadblocks around Islamabad to keep people from entering the capital for a planned mass protest called by a coalition of six hard-line Islamic parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal — United Action Forum. Authorities also detained several lawmakers and Islamic leaders during raids in three cities and announced they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five people to prevent the demonstration.

Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a senior figure in the Islamic coalition, was eventually given permission to lead a small rally through a square in the city center. The protesters chanted "God is great!" and "Any friend of America is a traitor." But when about 100 other protesters tried to reach the square, officers fired tear gas and at least one gunshot to chase them off. More gunshots were heard later in the city, but it wasn't clear who fired them. At least two policemen were injured, one bleeding from the head. Several demonstrators also were hurt.

A crowd of 700 people, some throwing stones at police, tried to march toward Islamabad's heavily guarded diplomatic enclave about 1.3 miles from the square but with blocked by troops in armored personnel carriers. Police also blocked about 1,500 protesters from reaching Islamabad from the city of Peshawar by putting shipping containers and sandbags on a bridge along a highway leading to the capital, said Mohammed Iqbal, a key member of the religious alliance. Elsewhere in Pakistan, about 600 people staged a protest in Chaman, a town near the Afghan border, burning Danish flags and an effigy of the Danish prime minister.

Such protests prompted Denmark on Sunday to temporarily recall its ambassador to Pakistan, Bent Wigotski, because it was impossible for him "to perform his job duties during the present circumstances," the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185329,00.html

[Petronas]

INDONESIA: HIGH RISK OF ATTACKS WITH RELEASE OF TERRORISTS, SAYS ANALYST
Mar-16-2006 12:16 am

The recent release from prison of dozens of terrorists in Indonesia, has sparked concern that this may be a prelude to a new wave of attacks. "They served their time according to the law and there is not much that can be done about it," Ken Conboy, a seasoned expert on terrorism in the region told Adnkronos International (AKI). "It is right that they are released but the danger of them falling back into terrorism is real," he said.

Dozens of terrorists arrested in Indonesia in the past few years were released in the past few months after they had served their short sentences in the prisons of Jakarta. Among them was Abu Rusdan, who experts believe is the one who took control of the regional terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) after the arrest of their spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir in 2002. According to the Indonesian police, Rusdan himself was succeeded by Abu Dujana as the leader of the group.

"Dujana has been known for a while but I am not too sure whether he is the new operative head of the group," said Conboy who is also the author of a book entitled “The Second Front: Inside Jemaah Islamiyah”, a book that traces the recent history of the Asian terrorist organisation, which has links to the al-Qaeda network.

Like Abu Rusdan, who was released on good behaviour in January after serving three and a half years in jail for having hidden one of the fugitives of the 2002 Bali Bombings, tens of other convicted terrorists are now at large. "There are lots of them who are being released. The Indonesian intelligence does not have the resources to follow them all," said Conboy, stressing yet againt that the "danger is high". In an attempt to ease public concern, the Indonesian police said that all those released are still being closely monitored.

Conboy is however not particularly concerned about the imminent release of Abu Bakar Bashir, the radical cleric and spiritual leader of JI and was condemned to 30 months in prison for having "instigated" that attacks in Bali in 2002 which killed more than 200 people. After a series of remissions of his jai sentence, Bashir will be freed later this year in June. "Bashir has never been directly involved in running the organization. If anything, he is the ideologist and whether in prison or out it does not make much difference," said Conboy.

Jemaah Islamiyah is a terrorist group that has been fighting to create an Islamic state in Southeast Asia. The group has been held responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in Indonesia including the one in Jakarta which targeted the Marriot Hotel and the Australian embassy as well as the Bali bombings both in 2002 and 2005. More than 250 people have been killed in these attacks.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.275485162&par=0

[Petronas]

Support for suicide bombing surprisingly big in Indonesia
March 16, 2006

A survey released Thursday shows that terrorism acts, including suicide bombings on civilian targets, are supported by one in 10 Indonesian Muslims. "Religious radicalism, when it is interpreted into violent methods in the name of religion, has received enough support," the survey on the pros and cons of Islamic radicalism shows. "It seems small, but big enough to support extreme acts...," the report adds. Since 2002, suicide bombings have killed hundreds of people in Indonesia, including attacks in Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, many of them holidaymakers.

Based on direct interviews with 1,173 people in the country's 33 provinces, the survey found 9.6 percent of the respondents believe "suicide bombings and other violent acts on civilian targets to defend Islam from its enemies" are sometimes justifiable. Of the respondents -- 87.6 percent of them Muslims -- 1.6 percent said the acts can be frequently justified, while 0.5 percent said they can always be justified.

The survey also shows 8 percent of the respondents agreed that bombing attacks committed by some terrorist suspects, such as Malaysian nationals Azahari and Nurdin Mohammad Top, are permissible as a form of opposition by Muslims against the West.

Azahari, believed to be a mastermind of a series of bombing attacks in Indonesia, was killed during a police raid in East Java Province last year. Top, who is now the most-wanted terrorist suspect in Southeast Asia, is still at large. Top, as Azahari was, is believed to be one of key leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah, allegedly the Southeast Asia wing of international terrorist network al-Qaida.

According to the survey, 28 percent of respondents supported anti-American sentiment by Muslims in Indonesia and 29 percent agreed that the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq were attacks against Islam. Although the majority of respondents interviewed in the survey did not support Islamic radicalism and anti-U.S. sentiment, 62 percent shared a similar view that Western culture has brought a bad impact for Muslims in Indonesia.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/03/16/1464335.htm

[Petronas]

Where Indonesia is headed is a bellwether. Indonesia is the only major Muslim country on which Islam was not imposed by the sword. Historically, Indonesian Islam generally has been more tolerant of other faiths, and less militant, than Islam in places like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Iran.

Bali battles the Muslims who want an Indonesian cover-up
April 02, 2006

SUNBATHING tourists in Bali and barely clad tribesmen in Papua are caught up in a cultural war between a minority of puritanical Indonesian Muslims and the country’s tolerant majority. The battle appears to be frivolous, involving, as it does, learned arguments over whether a navel is indecent, or a penis gourd, which guards the modesty of the Papuan male, constitutes nudity.

However, it is serious for dozens of people who have fallen victim to zealous prosecutors, police harassment and mob violence in a battle for the destiny of the world’s most populous Islamic nation. The contest for the hearts and minds of more than 200m Indonesians is being closely watched by western nations, one reason for Tony Blair’s 24-hour stop here last week.

Blair saluted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a reformer with a reputation for honesty; held brief talks with moderate Muslim leaders; and fielded questions on Iraq, Palestine and George W Bush from an articulate group of boys and girls at one of Jakarta’s religious boarding schools. But many Indonesians fear their president is losing his grip on a political debate increasingly dominated by fundamentalists, who have made a parliamentary bill on indecency the centrepiece of their campaign to purify the nation. “This is an attempt by some people to import Arab culture to Indonesia,” said Yenny Wahid, a Muslim campaigner for women’s rights.

The draft bill would extend a ban on indecency to prohibit kissing in public, which would be punishable by five years in prison. Public nudity or the “indecent” exposure of the stomach, thigh or hip — some religious jurists argue that shoulders could also be deemed inflammatory — could be punished by a 10-year sentence and a £30,000 fine.

Although public displays of affection, let alone nudity, are rare in Indonesia, as in most Asian cultures, the authors of the bill have also sought to censure the wearing of tight or suggestive clothing.

Opponents of the draft are trying to strike out the more draconian clauses in parliamentary committees before the bill goes to a vote, which is expected in June. A delegation from Bali, a mainly Hindu island that makes its living from sun-seeking beach lovers, has hastened to Jakarta to state its opposition to the bill.

Politicians from Papua, which is racked by internal strife, have pleaded against any law that would insult tribal culture by forcing its indigenous folk to cover themselves in deference to the mores of 7th-century Arabia.

But political analysts in Jakarta have traced a series of incidents that show some local governments and religious tribunals are imposing their own version of sharia (Islamic law) through a stream of fatwas, or decrees, backed by police action.

In East Java, a former boxer turned preacher, Yusman Roy, 51, is in prison for “spreading hatred”. His offence: reading prayers in the local language, Bahasa Indonesia, instead of classical Arabic.

A religious high school teacher, Sumardi Tappaya, 60, is facing imprisonment after a complainant heard him “whistling” while performing prayers. Ardhi Husain, 50, who ran a prayer centre that employed faith to help the sick, has been sent to prison for five years for writing a book deemed “deviant” by the ever more vigilant Indonesian Council of Ulemas.

Its “deviance” lay in affirming, among other questionable doctrines, that non-Muslims could also enter paradise. The printer and publisher also received jail terms. But nobody was arrested after an irate crowd burnt down the prayer centre.

Such petty malice and mob violence are prompting fears of a harshly repressive moral climate for artists and intellectuals. Agus Suwage, an artist, is virtually in hiding after a furious crowd, offended by his painting of a nearly nude couple in an imaginary garden of Eden, forced the closure of the Jakarta Biennale arts festival. He, too, could face a jail term.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2114273,00.html

[pixikill]

australia has more here to worry about than in iraq.

[malum]

Indonesia is rife with current events, both geo-political and geographical; please contribute informative articles to this thread.

Thanks!

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/southeast/12/03/weather.indonesia.reut/map.indonesia.jakarta.gif

[malum]

Quake rocks western Indonesia, no casualties
16 May 2006 17:23:36 GMT
Source: Reuters (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16403689.htm)


JAKARTA, May 16 (Reuters) - An undersea earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale rocked Indonesia's remote Nias island on Tuesday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, the Bureau of Meteorology and Geophysics said.

The epicentre of the quake lay in the Indian Ocean at a depth of 33 km (21 miles), about 110 km southwest of Teluk Dalam town, said agency official Agung Sunaryadi.

"There is no tsunami report. A quake like this can cause land cracks, but we have no reports of damage from there," he said.

Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country. Its 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the "Pacific Ring of Fire".

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.8 quake struck at 1528 GMT. It said there was no risk of a major tsunami.

[malum]

Rumbling mountain still a threat, Flame and smoke burst from Mt. Merapi
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 Posted: 0429 GMT (1229 HKT)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN (http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/05/15/indonesia.volcano/)) -- Indonesia's Mount Merapi is spewing clouds of gas, ash and rock, but activity appears to have eased a day after the mountain had its most violent eruption in weeks.

On Monday, toxic clouds of ash and rock spewed out every 15 minutes, totally obscuring the mountain, according to CNN's Stan Grant who was watching from a safe distance.

But on Tuesday, activity had slowed with the mountain more visible, Grant said.

On Monday, lava, burning at 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (537 degrees Celsius), scarred the mountainside, he added.

One of the largest eruptions on Monday sent ash, rock fragments and volcanic gas almost four kilometers (2.5 miles) down the mountain's western flank, Ratdomopurbo, the region's chief vulcanologist, told the Associated Press.

It was followed by several other huge explosions on the crater.

Vulcanologists have warned a huge, potentially deadly eruption could occur at any time. Authorities have put the island of Java on red alert and imposed a mandatory evacuation order around the mountain.

[malum]

Bird flu found in fowl in Indonesia's Papua-official
Tue 16 May 2006 4:31 AM ET
JAKARTA, May 16 (Reuters (http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=SP212447)) - Indonesia has found the avian flu virus in chickens in Papua province, the first bird flu case in the archipelago's easternmost province, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

A number of fighting cocks in Manokwari regency of western Papua tested positive for the H5N1 virus in late April, prompting authorities to cull about 200 chickens, Syamsul Bahri, animal health director at the agriculture ministry, told Reuters.

[malum]

Iran nuclear row looms over Bali summit
Sat May 13, 2006 5:42 AM BST


NUA DUSA, Indonesia (Reuters (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-05-13T044230Z_01_B31172_RTRUKOC_0_UK-INDONESIA-IRAN.xml)) - The presidents of Iran and Indonesia began a summit of eight developing nations on Saturday overshadowed by fears about Tehran's nuclear programme.

The Developing Eight (D-8) groups some of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nations and is aimed primarily at developing economic and trade ties.

But focus on those goals has been diverted by worries that nuclear projects Iran, the D-8's outgoing chairman, says are for peaceful purposes might actually have military aims.

Adding to concerns, U.N. inspectors have found traces of near bomb-grade enriched uranium on nuclear equipment in Iran, diplomats said on Friday, as the EU prepared a declaration that will insist Tehran shelve all enrichment work.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not touch on the dispute in his opening remarks at the summit on the resort island of Bali, although nuclear energy is one of the topics the leaders will discuss later in the day.

He urged more effort by members to increase their ties and further development "in the service of international peace and society".

"We can offer a good model for peace and justice," he said of the D-8, which in addition to Indonesia and Iran includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey, nuclear-armed Pakistan, Nigeria and Malaysia.

[pixikill]

"We can offer a good model for peace and justice," he said of the D-8, which in addition to Indonesia and Iran includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey, nuclear-armed Pakistan, Nigeria and Malaysia."
lol, ask the papuans about indonesias 'modelling of peace and justice'...ask the east timorese...

[malum]

No bikinis, no dancing and no kissing in Bali

May 16, 2006

By Anthony Deutsch

A swing of the hips in a traditional Balinese dance. An artist sketching the soft lines of a nude model on paper. A young woman kissing her lover on a deserted beach.

These acts - acceptable expressions of art, culture and affection in most democracies - may be outlawed for 220 million Indonesians if a small group of Muslim parties pushing for the passage of an anti-pornography law get their way.

The bill, now being reviewed by a special parliamentary committee, is stirring resentment across the nation's far-flung and ethnically diverse provinces, where many feel they are misrepresented by a handful of orthodox lawmakers in the capital.

Opponents call it an attempt by politicians to dictate moral standards in this secular nation, which has more Muslims than any other in the world.

They argue that what proponents of the law regard as pornography is art to others and that freedom of speech must not be compromised.

The bill's backers say, however, that opponents are mis-stating the proposal's goal. "Those who only see this issue from a human rights, liberal and secular point of view are trying to disrupt efforts to curb pornography," Ma'ruf Amin, a member of Indonesia's council of clerics, said during a recent rally supporting the proposed law.

The 55-page draft law at the heart of the public debate - enflamed in recent weeks by the publication of Playboy magazine's first Indonesian edition - would forbid so-called indecent acts and the public exhibition of "sensual body parts".

The proposal law says its goal is to uphold the dignity of those faithful to God.

Violators
It would ban poetry, drawing, writing, photos or film that reveal or describe anything from partially bare breasts and buttocks, to shoulders and thighs.

Violators could face a maximum prison term of up to 15 years - including a five-year term for kissing on the lips in public - and fines of up to one billion rupiah (R70 7105).

In the village of Mengwi, Bali, a dance troop leader who goes by the name of Purwa, breaks into a wide grin when asked about the proposed law.


The local dance, the Joged Bumbung, would likely be prohibited if it is passed as planned before the year's end along with so many others from the far reaches of northern Sumatra to remote Papua in the east.

In Joged Bumbung, a female dancer lures men from the crowd with a scarf draped over her bare shoulders.

The men may try to pinch her, dance hip to hip or pretend to be an angry lover.

"Jakarta can tell us to stop dancing, but we won't," Purwa said, sitting on a shaded outdoor stage in a region where the dance originated about 1 000 kilometres east of Jakarta.

"Dancing is our cultural heritage."

While it is unlikely to pass in its current form - it has the support of just 15% of the 550-seat parliament - critics say the bill shows how conservative Muslims are trying to chip away at the young democracy's secular traditions and establish themselves as arbiters of public morality.

"Controlling people's attitudes is difficult and won't work," said Gede Nurjaya, the head of Bali's tourist board. He and other regional authorities are pushing for changes in the bill's language to exclude local traditions.

"The government of Bali and the Balinese community have strictly rejected these proposed laws," he said in an interview at his office in Denpasar, Bali's capital.

"Many articles will directly affect the religion and culture of Bali."

One of the most contested parts wants to prohibit "erotic dancing or erotic shaking", but Bali is particularly fearful of the kissing ban which could scare away badly needed foreign tourists.

Disaster
After the bombings in 2002 and 2005 that together killed more than 220 people, the law is a potential disaster to the tourist sector which makes up 85% of the economy, he said.

Japanese tourist Karina Matsubara, 27, said she was surprised by the proposed changes and would think twice before returning if they are adopted.

"If the law goes into effect, I will be afraid to visit Bali because we won't be allowed to swim wearing bikinis," she said.

[malum]

Indonesian quake kills more than 3,000 (http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Indonesian_quake_kills_more_than_3_000.html?siteSe ct=143&sid=6754936&cKey=1148746168000)


By Achmad Sukarsono

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck around Indonesia's royal city of Yogyakarta on Saturday, killing more than 3,000 people as houses and buildings collapsed near ancient heritage sites.

As darkness fell in the heartland of Indonesia's main island of Java, thousands prepared to spend the night outside ruined homes or in the grounds of mosques, churches and schools.

"It's pitch dark. We have to use candles and we are sitting outside now. We are too scared to sleep inside. The radio keeps saying there will be more quakes. We still feel the tremors," said Tjut Nariman, who lives on the outskirts of Yogyakarta.

The 6.2 magnitude quake struck just after dawn and was the third major tremor to devastate Indonesia in 18 months, the worst being the quake on December 26, 2004 and its resulting tsunami which left some 170,000 people dead or missing around Aceh.

Indonesia sits on the Asia-Pacific's so-called "Ring of Fire" marked by heavy volcanic and tectonic activity.

[Petronas]

Imposition of Shariah on non-Muslims proposed in Aceh
27/05/06

A bill proposed by lawmakers in the Indonesian province of Aceh would impose Shariah law on all non-Muslims, the armed forces and law enforcement officers, a local police official has announced. The news comes two months after the Deutsche Presse-Agentur warned of “Taliban-style Islamic police terrorizing Indonesia's Aceh”. Shariah took effect in 2005 in Aceh, a predominantly Muslim region on the northernmost tip of Sumatra. But it only applied to Muslims.

In the months following the tsunami in December 2004, the Aceh government had begun vigorously enforcing a three-year-old provincial statute on Shariah. Human rights groups have expressed concern. Alyasa Abubakar, head of the relevant local government office, declared recently: "Based on equality in law, Acehnese people have formally proposed ... to apply the Islamic Shariah Law to all those residing in Aceh, including military, police and non-Muslims."

The provincial Islamic law department has called a further crackdown on 'immorality' - alcohol, gambling, women appearing in public without headscarves or venturing out at night without a male escort.

Recently a young Acehnese woman was allegedly publicly flogged for kissing her boyfriend in public, while another 23-year-old has been locked up in Acehnese jail for more than two weeks without access to an attorney after being caught drinking beer.

Shariah police are said to have barged into the lobby of a leading Banda Aceh hotel to arrest three women attending an international conference because they were not wearing headscarves.

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060527shariah.shtml

[keith]

Southeast Asia In the shadow of terror
By Chris Holm

JAKARTA - On the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the status, leadership and future of Southeast Asia's main alleged al-Qaeda-linked terror group, Jemaah Islamiya (JI), is under question.

The United States has identified JI high on its list of global terrorist organizations, and since September 11 the shadowy radical group has been the target of US-guided assaults in the southern Philippines, clandestine Central Intelligence Agency-led counter-terrorism operations in Thailand, and a US-trained and financed counter-terrorism crack force in Indonesia.

Last week, three alleged JI members were among the 14 detainees who were moved to Guantanamo Bay after the US held them for more than three years at undisclosed secret prisons, possibly in Thailand. Of them, Riduan Isamuddin , also known as Hambali, was the group's operations chief and the alleged main link with al-Qaeda.

US President George W Bush has said that while in detention Hambali admitted that 17 JI operatives had been groomed for attacks inside the United States, possibly using aircraft. It's unclear, of course, whether those confessions were made under harsh interrogation conditions, or even torture, at secret US-administered prisons.

At the same time, regional terrorism experts contend that the group intends through violent means to create a pan-regional Islamic state encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia and Muslim areas in the southern Philippines and southern Thailand.

JI garnered global attention after the now-notorious October 12, 2002, bombing of a nightclub on Bali island that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Thereafter, the group in 2003 attacked the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, followed by the 2004 blast in front of the Australian Embassy. The second Bali bomb attacks on three crowded restaurants popular with foreign tourists last year continued a post-September 11 pattern of one attack per year.

Still, the radical Islamic group has been hobbled in recent years by the arrest and detention of at least 200 of its suspected members. So, is JI a spent force or a potent threat for more terror and destruction? Asia Times Online interviewed the region's pre-eminent authority on JI, as well as a self-confessed former member of the terror group, to address the many questions now swirling around JI's capabilities and future.

Pattern of violence
Sidney Jones, an expert on JI with the International Crisis Group, believes another high-profile attack is possible this year, saying the group's determination to continue its pattern of violence is "high".

"Once you have suicide bombers in the mix it becomes impossible to accurately predict exactly how and where an attack will take place," she said in an interview with Asia Times Online. "But what we do know from the documents found after the second Bali bombings is that there indeed was a determination to have at least one attack a year."

When Jones speaks of "they", however, she doesn't necessarily mean JI as once popularly conceived. Rather, she is talking about a JI offshoot led by native Malaysian Noordin Mohammad Top, the group's terror financier, recruiter and alleged attack planner.

Noordin's name surfaced shortly after the 2003 Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta, and he is believed to have played a key role in all the big terror-related bombings that have occurred in Indonesia since. Atop Indonesia's counter-terrorism hit list, he has successfully evaded what has been described as the largest police manhunt in Indonesia's history.

His compatriot and deputy, bomb-maker Azahari bin Husin, dubbed the "demolition man" for his skill in rigging home-made bombs, wasn't as lucky. The former science lecturer from Malaysia's Johor Baru University was killed in a police swoop on a small house in Java last year. In that raid, police shot Azahari to death, while his bomb-making student, a young man known as Jahir, blew himself up with plastic explosives that both men had already strapped to their bodies.

Azahari's killing, says Jones, was another blow to a group already feeling extreme pressure from the Indonesian authorities. Since the first Bali attacks in 2002, Indonesian police have arrested or detained more than 200 JI members, apparently driving the group further underground and prompting others spooked by the roundups to abandon the radical cause.

Frequent raids and tighter security, Jones says, were the reason Noordin's group did not use car bombs in the last Bali attack, but instead chose to deploy smaller backpack devices. "They also didn't think they could have a team renting a place in Bali to assemble such a bomb without getting detected, and if they are worried about that level of vigilance, then the Indonesian authorities have done a pretty good job," she said.

Meanwhile, the main three perpetrators of the first Bali bombings, preacher Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, the "smiling bomber" Amrozi, and Imam Samudra are all now on death row. Hambali, JI's former regional commander, was last week moved from a secret US-run detention site to Guantanamo Bay, where he awaits trial in the United States. Indonesian authorities have heavily lobbied the US for access to the terror suspect, who is wanted in Indonesia for terror-related crimes.

These arrests, deaths and what appears to be a doctrinal rethink among some JI militants about the effectiveness of violent means to realize their stated goal of creating an Islamic super-state in Southeast Asia have all taken a heavy toll on JI, experts say. The philosophical divide inside JI appears to pitch the group's political wing under the fiery Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'ashir up against the pro-terror faction led by Noordin.

Since his early release this year on conspiracy charges related to his role in the first Bali bomb attacks, Ba'ashir has spoken out against further attacks in Indonesia, while continuing to rail against the US and its allies, including public rants against Israel's assault on Lebanon that were aired on some public television stations.

Ba'ashir, who for the past few years vehemently denied JI even existed, now wants to "formalize" the organization into what he says would be a non-violent political group. While many take Ba'ashir's statements with a grain of salt, Jones believes his utterances may be directed as much at his own flock as the watchful Indonesian authorities.

"There clearly is a significant segment of Jemaah Islamiya, including some of the top leaders, who are in ideological disagreement with the notion that attacks on Western targets on Indonesian soil are permissible," contended Jones. "And the line that Ba'ashir has taken, whether or not he is sincere in it, is actually very much adopted by other people: that it's fine to wage jihad when Muslims are directly under attack, therefore it's fine in Palestine, it's fine in Iraq, or now in Lebanon. But in Indonesia, this is not permissible."

Self-confessed terrorist
The most extreme example of this split and the man who seems to know more about the inner workings of JI than anyone else - at least anyone who is willing to talk - is Nasir Abas, the former leader of the group's "Mantiqi 3" regional division. His personal story casts light on how JI grew from a recruitment guerrilla training group into a pan-regional terrorist organization, and presages the philosophical divide that appears to have recently opened inside the group.

Abas, a veteran of the US-backed campaign against the Soviets in Afghanistan, rose through the JI's ranks on the same battlefields that gave birth to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda movement. At age 18, while US spooks were dressing up like Lawrence of Arabia and cherry-picking the most radical of the jihadist groups to train against the Soviet forces, Abas was recruited to fight in Afghanistan from Malaysia.

Training at Afghanistan's "Mujahideen Military Academy" from 1987 to 1993, he built a reputation as a fierce fighter and capable trainer in guerrilla techniques, and was later promoted to the position of instructor, he said in an interview. In the last year of his schooling, his patron group Negara Islam Indonesia (NII) split and Jemaah Islamiya was founded. Nasir said co-founders Ba'ashir and the late Abdullah Sungkar offered him a job, telling him that if he stayed with Negara Islam Indonesia (NII), he would be sent home before getting a chance to fight in the war for which he had trained.

Jemaah Islamiya gave him that chance. After Afghanistan, he helped start and run a training camp in the southern Philippines, where he worked to recruit young Muslims to the cause and spent time fighting alongside Moro guerrilla rebels in Mindanao from 1994-96. But by early 1999, he said, JI had changed, and Abas became aware that senior group members, especially Mantiqi 1 division leader Hambali, were planning a new kind of war.

"This idea started when Osama bin Laden issued a statement in early '99," Abas said. "He said that now there is an obligation to all Muslims to kill civilians - non-Muslims, Americans and their allies - in revenge for their actions against Muslim populations." After 1999, some JI members, including Hambali, followed this statement, he said.

"I didn't like this decision. Privately, I said to myself, 'This is not a fatwa, this is a statement, because Osama bin Laden is not qualified to issue a fatwa,'" said Abas. "The mujahideen were just fighting the [Russian] troops, they were only against the people who were fighting them, oppressing them. They never disturbed the civilians or killed women and children. This is what the Prophet Mohammed taught - only to use force to defend yourself and your religion."

Significant fragmentation
Abas' concerns were realized after the group's first big attack, the 2000 Christmas Eve bombings on Christian churches throughout Indonesia. Despite his doubts on the group's new tactics against civilian populations, which he says he voiced to the group's leadership, he stayed on with JI until well after the first Bali bombings. He says he quit the organization in April 2003 and went underground as pressure on JI intensified.

After being picked up in Indonesia in a terror dragnet and charged with immigration offenses, he made the decision to inform on his fellow members, including his brother-in-law Mukhlas, the Bali bomber now on death row.

Abas says that Ba'ashir, JI's former spiritual head, or amir, was never involved in the day-to-day running of the group, and doubts he knew, or wanted to know, anything about most of the attacks after the first Bali bombing. Ba'ashir was convicted of conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombing on March 3, 2005, in a Jakarta court but was released this June.

Thereafter, Abas says, JI started to fragment significantly, with Hambali and Noordin ignoring the previous Mantiqi regional command structure and stepping out independently in organizing terror operations, even as other senior group members expressed their reservations about the plans, which often entailed killing civilians.

Abas says Noordin has transformed his offshoot into a technologically savvy cell he has dubbed "al-Qaeda in Indonesia", which uses the Internet to spread bomb-making techniques and terror tactics to its followers. Noordin was first recruited to the group in the early 1990s by Bali bomber Mukhlas, whom Noordin is still in sporadic contact with and considers his spiritual mentor, says Abas.

This analysis was underlined by this year's arrest of a computer-science teacher in Central Java and the seizure last month of a laptop computer from Mukhlas' fellow death-row inmate Imam Samudra, who somehow got access to the device through Indonesia's notoriously lax prison system.

Despite embarrassed Indonesian police claims to the contrary, it now seems that the first batch of Bali bombers has been in contact with Noordin while in prison and may have even helped him coordinate the second Bali attacks, where suicide bombers were for the first time deployed in the terror plot. With Noordin still at large and his demonstrated ability to plan attacks while on the move, JI may be down but definitely is not entirely out.

"If you're looking at the weakening of JI, there's no question that's happened," said Jones of the International Crisis Group. "But I think that Noordin and his supporters are also making many efforts to reconsolidate in ways that we aren't entirely aware of, largely through preaching and religious outreach. I think we should be aware of the possibility there could be new groups emerging that we have never even heard of."

Chris Holm is a Jakarta-based journalist and editor.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HI12Ae01.html

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): An unidentified assailant shot dead a Christian minister in Palu, Sulawesi, on 16 October 2006. The incident occurred when the minister was shopping at a construction materials store. He was called into the back of the store and was killed. Police officials believe that the killing may have been in response to the minister's protest actions condemning the recent executions of three Christians for their role in religious violence in the region in 2000. Additional police officers have been deployed throughout Sulawesi in response to the latest violence in an effort to prevent an outbreak of sectarian conflict.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

[Petronas]

One in 10 Indonesia Muslims back violent jihad-poll
Sun 15 Oct 2006 13:33:13 BST

JAKARTA, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Around one in 10 Indonesian Muslims support jihad and justify bomb attacks on Indonesia's tourist island of Bali as defending the faith, a survey released on Sunday showed. Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country, with 220 million people, 85 percent of whom follow Islam, giving the Asian archipelago the largest Muslim population of any nation in the world.

"Jihad that has been understood partially and practised with violence is justified by around one in 10 Indonesian Muslims," the Indonesian Survey Institute said in a statement. "They approved the bombings conducted ... in Bali with the excuse of defending Islam," it added, saying the percentage of such support "is very significant".

While the vast majority of Indonesia's Muslims are relatively moderate, there has been an increasingly vocal militant minority and political pressure for more laws that are in line with hardline Muslim teachings. The poll surveyed a random sample of 1,092 Muslim men and women. Bombings in Bali in October 2002 blamed on the militant Southeast Asian Jemaah Islamiah network killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Suicide blasts in Bali a year ago killed 20.

The survey found one in five Indonesian Muslims more generally supported the aims of Jemaah Islamiah -- an armed movement backing the creation of an Islamic superstate linking Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia, and Muslim areas in the Philippines and Thailand. In the past, it has cooperated closely with al Qaeda's global anti-Western campaign, but in recent years many in Jemaah Islamiah have focused more on the regional struggle.

Indonesia has had a major attack against high profile Western-linked targets each year from 2002 through 2005. Authorities tied all the attacks to elements of Jemaah Islamiah. Indonesia is not officially an Islamic state.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=JAK144283&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-5

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): A small bomb exploded outside of an abandoned house in Poso on 17 October 2006. There were no reports of injuries. Although police officials continue to investigate the incident, they believe that it may be related to an increase in religious violence in the area following the execution of three Christians in September.

Separately on 17 October, the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) warned that additional sectarian attacks are likely to occur in Poso and Sulawesi during the Idul Fitri celebrations, which mark the end of Ramadan. BIN officials have increased security in urban areas throughout Sulawesi in response to intelligence reports indicating that some groups may be planning to incite riots during Idul Fitri. No additional information is available.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

[Petronas]

Bashir warns against Indon jihad
November 06, 2006 10:50pm

HARDLINE cleric Abu Bakar Bashir today told his fellow Indonesian Muslims that if they wanted to go on jihad, they should do so outside the country. “If you want to go on jihad, do not do it here (in Indonesia), but in the southern Philippines or even in Iraq,” Bashir told members and supporters of the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI) in a sermon at a mosque in Kediri, East Java province, the state Antara news agency said.

Bashir chairs the MMI, an umbrella organisation advocating the implementation of Islamic Sharia law. His sermon came as he was commenting on the “jihad” by the key players in the 2005 Bali bombings, for which he had been accused of advance knowledge and of having sanctioned the action. He said that the Bali bombers had been on jihad but unfortunately “not at the right time or place”. He did not elaborate.

“Therefore I ask MMI followers not to imitate them because (their actions) are harmful. They miscalculated,” Bashir said. Some 20 bystanders were killed in the October 2005 suicide bomb attacks on restaurants in the resort island of Bali. Bashir, 68, was released from jail in June after serving just over two years for his role in a “sinister conspiracy” that led to the earlier 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20714242-1702,00.html

[Petronas]

Indonesia acts on report of suicide bomber for Bush visit
20 November 2006

Indonesian police said Monday they had received information a suicide bomber could be planning an attack during US President George W. Bush’s visit, triggering a thorough search of the venue. Bogor region Police Chief Sukrawardi Dahlan confirmed authorities had received an unconfirmed report that a bomber could be planning to blow himself up near the meeting venue in Bogor, a resort town just south of here.

“Since yesterday, we did conduct combing (operations) to anticipate the possibility that they throw bombs or use that kind of (suicide) bomb,” Dahlan told reporters, without saying where the information came from. Dahlan said police had consulted the field coordinators of planned protests in Bogor, so that they can remain alert “against people who carry suspicious-looking bags or vests”.

Bush is making a brief trip of some six hours to Indonesia, most of which is to be spent at the summer palace in Bogor. His visit to the world’s biggest Muslim nation has triggered daily demonstrations, led by militant organisations and students angry over the US-led war in Iraq and its presence in Afghanistan.

During a mass rally in Jakarta on Sunday, the head of the militant Front for the Defender of Islam, Habib Rizieq, called on Muslims to kill Bush if they had the chance to do so. “His blood is halal (permitted under Islam) to be shed. Not only is it halal, but it is obligatory to kill him,” Rizieq told thousands of cheering demonstrators.

Indonesia has been the scene of a number of suicide bombings, mostly blamed on Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the Al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network. In 2002, an attack on the resort island of Bali killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/November/theworld_November634.xml&section=theworld

[Petronas]

Islamic terrorists set free
November 17, 2006 12:00am

ALMOST 60 jailed Islamic extremists linked to such atrocities as the Bali bombings have been set free. They include 14 terrorists who have been quietly released in the past two months. Many of those who walked free in October and this month had at least two months cut from their sentences under Indonesia's justice system. They were convicted on charges linked to the two Bali bombings, attacks on the Australian Embassy and Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, and other atrocities.

The latest releases, and that in June of Jemaah Islamiah's spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, have outraged families who lost loved ones in the 2002 and 2005 Bali terrorist strikes.

Dozens more had been arrested by Indonesian police, often with the help of Australian authorities, and held for just days or weeks before being freed for lack of evidence. Those questioned but freed include Jemaah Islamiah member Bambang Tutuko, who was believed to have been trained in bomb making under the notorious Dr Azahari Husin. He was held for just one day in September 2003.

Australian survivors of the attacks were shocked last night to learn those responsible had escaped justice. "They've probably been in jail for maybe a couple of years. That's not enough. They're accessories to murder, they played a part in killing 202 people," said Melbourne man Dale Atkin, who suffered severe burns in the Sari Club bombing in 2002.

Other survivors feared those set free could be plotting more terrorist attacks. "While they're alive they've still got the opportunity to plan these attacks," said Leanne Woodgate, who escaped death when she fled Paddy's bar.

More than 200 prisoners are in Indonesian jails as a result of terrorism-related offences.

But the dozens already released had been arrested for connections to the Bali, Australian Embassy and Marriott bombings, terror-linked weapons offences and a string of Christmas Eve church bombings in 2000. Others had harboured known terrorists who were being hunted for the 2002 Kuta attacks that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Among those freed in the past two months are:

SIROJUL Munir bin Achmad Asumi, convicted of providing money and harbouring terrorists after the Bali bombings, given a two-month remission on a five-year sentence.

GUN GUN Rusman Gunawan, jailed for involvement in JI's al-Ghuraba cell and document fraud. Also linked to financing the 2003 Marriott blast, which killed 12. Released at the end of Ramadan.

MUHAJIR bin Amin, Sukastopo bin Kartomiarjo and Eko Hadi Prasetyo bin Sukastopo, arrested in 2003 for helping hide Bali bomber Ali Imron in Kalimantan – each received a two-month sentence reduction.

MUHAMMAD Rusi bin Salim, KOMPAK member, also concealed the whereabouts of Imron while he was on the run.

PURYANTO, alias Pak De, helped hide Imron and fellow bomber Mubarok – later received a two-month remission.

ABDUL Haer, Mujahidin KOMPAK member arrested in 2003 in connection with attacks in Poso, sentenced to four years but released early.

ARMAN, Andang, Hamdan, Syafri and Hendra Yadi, also Mujahidin KOMPAK members arrested for the Poso attack, released this month.

Freed earlier were JI member Dedi Mulyadi, who was involved in the Christmas 2000 bombings in Java and released in 2004. Firmansyah, alias Edi Harun, was also freed after about two years' jail for helping hide Imron.

And like JI leader Bashir who was controversially freed after 2 1/2 years, Abu Jibril, a close associate of Bashir and a primary recruiter for the group, was held for less than 3 1/2 years. Originally detained in Malaysia, Jibril was sentenced to 5 1/2 months for immigration and forgery but authorities could not lay terrorism charges.

Dozens of other suspected militants were also picked up but were unable to be prosecuted because of lack of evidence. They include Dahlan, aka Leo, a JI member and trained bomb-maker who was held for a week.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20770678-661,00.html

[Petronas]

Jihad recruiter gets life sentence in Indonesia
2006-11-22 18:07:49


An Islamic teacher believed to have recruited suicide bombers was convicted of terrorism by an Indonesian court Wednesday and sentenced to a lifetime jail term. Subur Sugiarto, 33, is proven guilty of the primary charges of sheltering the country's top terror fugitive Noordin Moh Top, the tightly-guarded District Court in the Central Java capital of Semarang heard. Malaysian-born Noordin is the suspected brains behind a series of bombings that killed more than 230 people since 2002.

Sugiarto, alias Abu Mujahid, is also convicted of illegal arms possession. He was arrested in January and brought to trials along with three other militants. Police believed that Sugiarto was the key aide of Noordin, whose hunting remains fruitless so far. He has allegedly recruited people to launch suicide bombings, including three young men from Central Java and West Java who carried out triple suicide attacks on Bali island last October, in which 19 people were killed.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-11/22/content_5364559.htm

[NYer]

Has a portion of your Tsunami Relief donation gone toward enforcing Sharia Law? (http://pajamasmedia.com/2006/12/banda_aceh_beatings.php)

[Petronas]

Indonesia overturns terror conviction
Thu Dec 21, 6:47 PM ET

Indonesia overturned a terror conviction Thursday against the militant Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who served 2 1/2 years for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 200 people. Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he was upset for the families of the 88 Australian victims but was powerless to help. Australia, along with the United States, publicly accused the aging cleric of being a top leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror group.

"Of course it is the court system of another country and we can't change that," Howard told the Nine Network television. "But it doesn't stop us feeling upset, and I know there will be a feeling of anger on the part on the parents and loved ones, and I am feeling for them this morning very much." Howard noted, however, that those who carried out the bombings and those who were directly responsible for them have been convicted.

Bashir, 69, who was released from prison in June, has long claimed that the government in the world's most populous Muslim nation succumbed to pressure from the West when it arrested him soon after the Bali attacks. Bashir's son, Abdurrahmin, said his father had received word of the verdict. "Thank God the Supreme Court has finally revealed the final truth," he said by telephone from Bashir's hometown on Java island. "He is praying now to say thanks to God that his prayers have been accepted."

Brian Deegan, an Australian lawyer whose 21-year-old son Josh died in the attack, said he had given up trying to understand Indonesian justice. "I've steeled myself to the point that I will never understand the Indonesian judicial system," Deegan told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "I lost faith a long time ago in the entire process."

Thursday's ruling was in response to an appeal filed during Bashir's imprisonment. Supreme Court Chief Judge German Hoediarto told reporters he had decided to quash the conspiracy conviction following testimony from 30 witnesses, but gave no more details. A written verdict will likely be made public soon.

The 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, were the first in a string of attacks in Indonesia targeting Western interests, with 2003 and 2004 blasts at the Australian Embassy and the J.W. Marriott Hotel and triple suicide bombings on Bali last year. Bashir has always denied any wrongdoing, but admits having known several Southeast Asian militants in the 1980s and 1990s who went to Afghanistan and trained there at al-Qaida-run camps.

Since his release, he has preached in towns across the country, espousing fiercely anti-American and anti-Jewish views and promoting his campaign to transform Indonesia's secular state into an Islamic one.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061221/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_militant_cleric

[pixikill]

Indonesia overturns terror conviction
Thu Dec 21, 6:47 PM ET

Indonesia overturned a terror conviction Thursday against the militant Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who served 2 1/2 years for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 200 people. Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he was upset for the families of the 88 Australian victims but was powerless to help. Australia, along with the United States, publicly accused the aging cleric of being a top leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror group.

"Of course it is the court system of another country and we can't change that," Howard told the Nine Network television. "But it doesn't stop us feeling upset, and I know there will be a feeling of anger on the part on the parents and loved ones, and I am feeling for them this morning very much." Howard noted, however, that those who carried out the bombings and those who were directly responsible for them have been convicted.

Bashir, 69, who was released from prison in June, has long claimed that the government in the world's most populous Muslim nation succumbed to pressure from the West when it arrested him soon after the Bali attacks. Bashir's son, Abdurrahmin, said his father had received word of the verdict. "Thank God the Supreme Court has finally revealed the final truth," he said by telephone from Bashir's hometown on Java island. "He is praying now to say thanks to God that his prayers have been accepted."

Brian Deegan, an Australian lawyer whose 21-year-old son Josh died in the attack, said he had given up trying to understand Indonesian justice. "I've steeled myself to the point that I will never understand the Indonesian judicial system," Deegan told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "I lost faith a long time ago in the entire process."

Thursday's ruling was in response to an appeal filed during Bashir's imprisonment. Supreme Court Chief Judge German Hoediarto told reporters he had decided to quash the conspiracy conviction following testimony from 30 witnesses, but gave no more details. A written verdict will likely be made public soon.

The 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, were the first in a string of attacks in Indonesia targeting Western interests, with 2003 and 2004 blasts at the Australian Embassy and the J.W. Marriott Hotel and triple suicide bombings on Bali last year. Bashir has always denied any wrongdoing, but admits having known several Southeast Asian militants in the 1980s and 1990s who went to Afghanistan and trained there at al-Qaida-run camps.

Since his release, he has preached in towns across the country, espousing fiercely anti-American and anti-Jewish views and promoting his campaign to transform Indonesia's secular state into an Islamic one.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061221/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_militant_cleric


the us refused to let us grill hambali. the word is, if we'd've had hambali, we'd've ben able to keep abu bakar bashir in priz

[Vancouver]

Report of a police-commando raid against some unidentified Muslim group, 10 killed, 18 arrested.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailtoplatest.asp?fileid=20070122121752&irec=0

[Casey]

Indonesia Police Removes Bomb From Adventist Church

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Police in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province have removed a bomb from an Adventist Church amid fears the region is plunging into renewed religious strife, a major human rights group said Wednesday, January 24.

Washington-DC based International Christian Concern (ICC) with website www.persecution.org reported that the explosive was discovered January 20 near the front gate of the church.

Poso’s Chief of Police, Rudy Sufahriadi reportedly said that “It is good that the bomb was found before Sunday, when the Church would be full with Christian people worshipping and praying."

The discovery came shortly after another bomb attack against a church in Poso, the main port and transportation hub for the northeastern coast of Central Sulawesi. "No one was injured in the blast," at Poso’s Ecclesia Church, "but it appears to be a warning," ICC said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife.

BLOODBATH FEARS

The group warned that the attacks have added to fears "that the region might devolve again into the bloodbath of the late ‘90s and early 2000s."

Several human rights groups have said that Poso has become a hotbed for Indonesia’s Islamist militants, apparently with the backing from at least some local government and police forces.

ICC noted that already in the last three years there have been "numerous pastor assassinations, bombings, attacks on churches, and even the horrendous decapitation of three Christian schoolgirls in November 2005."

Indonesian forces reportedly clashed with Islamist militants on Monday, January 22, when they raided a suspected hideout. At least 11 radicals were killed, along with one policeman, investigators said.

MILITANTS DETAINED

Police reportedly detained 25 suspected militants and seized ammunition and bombs from a hideout in the Tanah Runtuh area of Poso. "In the aftermath of these attacks Jakarta, has sent in an additional 200 police, which is welcome news," ICC said.

The group quoted its contact in Poso as saying that the area looks once again "like a war zone," because of apparent clashes between security forces and Muslim militants. This week police apparently seized almost a dozen of M16 assult rifles and other weapons from the Muslim group along with thousands of rounds of ammunition, ICC investigators said.

ICC’s President Jeff King said his group had urged the government of Indonesia "to deal with the situation in Poso with utmost seriousness." Kind warned that, "if radical Islamist elements are not rooted out they will succeed in returning the area to full scale war. The only way the radicals can be permanently routed is if their collaborators in the police and military are exposed and prosecuted.”

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation of over 245 million people. Christians comprise just eight percent of the population, according to United State Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates. (With reports from Indonesia).

http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?article5944

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): Police officers arrested two militants with links to the Jemmah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist organization in Central Sulawesi on 1 February 2007; the militants were wanted for organizing violence against Christians. The arrests may lead to additional tensions in the region, as there are fears that recent police raids against suspected Muslim militants in the area may prompt attacks against police officers throughout the country. On 25 January, militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was previously imprisoned for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings, called for a jihad against police officers in Sulawesi in response to the ongoing raids.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): Reports indicate that police officials in Jakarta received two bomb threats regarding the U.S. Embassy at approximately 1120 local time (0420 UTC) on 1 March 2007. The threats were sent via text message and were signed "al-Qaeda." Officials searched the area but found no signs of explosives, and embassy personnel did not evacuate the building after the threats were received. Authorities were able to track the number of the mobile phone used in the threats; however, it was a prepaid phone number, which makes it virtually impossible to trace the sender. The incident was the second threat against the embassy in recent days.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): Police officials announced on 23 March 2007 that recent anti-terror raids in Yogyakarta and various cities in Central Java prevented at least 20 terrorist attacks. Police officers have seized several weapons caches -- including 20 assembled bombs, bomb making materials and weapons -- and have arrested at least six suspected terrorists since 21 March. Some of the suspected terrorists are thought to be members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and several of them may have also been involved in religious violence in Poso in 2005.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

[Petronas]

Explosives seizure 'dwarfs Bali bomb'
March 30, 2007 08:19pm

EXPLOSIVES found earlier this month under a house exceeded the amount used in the main device that exploded in the 2002 Bali bombings, Indonesia's police chief said today. A bomb-laden mini-van killed more than 200 people and ripped through nightclubs in Bali's famed Kuta beachstrip on October 12, 2002.

That bomb was believed to be the work of Malaysian Azahari Husin, the alleged bombmaker of Southeast Asia's Jemaah Islamiah militant network. Police found at least 20 bombs and large quantities of bomb-making chemicals when they raided the house in Central Java more than a week ago. The cache was found after arrests of suspected militants in Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces.

"The discovered explosive materials had a large capacity. If they were assembled into one device, it could be more powerful than the one used in the first Bali bombing," Indonesia police chief General Sutanto said. In 2005, suicide bombers used smaller bombs strapped to their bodies in attacks that killed 20 people in three restaurants in Bali.

Asked who had bomb-making skills in Jemaah Islamiah since Azahari died during a raid in late 2005, Gen Sutanto said the Malaysian had "many students" including a militant called Mujadid arrested in one of the March raids. Others were still at large. Mujadid is wanted for his alleged links to deadly bombings near the Australian embassy in Jakarta three years ago and at a market in a Christian enclave in Sulawesi island's Poso region. Jemaah Islamiah has been linked by police and intelligence officials to the blasts. Indonesia has already arrested hundreds for involvement in those attacks or with links to the group.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21476649-38201,00.html

[Petronas]

Indonesia (Country threat level - 4): Transportation officials announced on 17 July 2007 that the government of Saudi Arabia has banned all domestic Indonesian airlines from flying to the country. Although no additional details are available concerning the Saudi government's decision, it comes shortly after the European Union imposed a similar ban.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

[NYer]

Hizb ut-Tahrir parties like it's 1939. (http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/08/massive-hizb-ut-tahrir-caliphate.html)

http://bp2.blogger.com/_L6pDyjqqsvY/Rr8I7jefxNI/AAAAAAAAGb0/eVVUQbdEyjY/s1600/caliphate.jpg

[Petronas]

Bombers ready to die
October 13, 2007 - 3:27PM

The three death row Bali bombers say they are ready to die and won't be asking for a presidential pardon. They also expressed delight at the recent controversy surrounding their impending executions, saying the more pain they cause the greater their reward in heaven.

"I'm very happy especially after hearing that John Howard is very regretful, very angry with us," the so-called smiling assassin, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim said today at the island prison where he is held. "The more he is angry, the more I will get rewards from god, right? The more I make infidels angry, the more I will get my reward, so I'm more relaxed."

Islamic militants Amrozi, his elder brother Ali Ghufron (alias Mukhlas) and Imam Samudra were today briefly let out of their isolation cells at Batu Prison, on the island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, to pray for the holy Islamic day Idul Fitri. They walked the 100 metres to the prison mosque, At-Taubah, unshackled, in their best robes, to pray with other inmates - murderers, terrorists and drug dealers - for today's holiday which marks the end of the fasting month Ramadan. But as the one-hour ceremony wound up, the three began shouting "god is great", rallying support from other prisoners, before they were told to stop by the guards.

The trio could face execution within weeks for their roles in the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians. Authorities must formally ask if they will seek clemency from the president, before the three will face the firing squad.

But the impending executions have been mired in controversy, with Australian victims angered by opposition to the death penalty ahead of yesterday's fifth anniversary of the atrocity.

Prime Minister John Howard also yesterday signalled a formal complaint to Indonesia, after news broke that the country's anti-terror chief hosted a party of reformed terrorists at his home to aid the terror fight last month.

Today, Indonesian authorities were considering granting sentence cuts to 10 people involved in the first and second Bali attacks, to mark today's significant Islamic holiday.

The three key players in the bombings remain unrepentant, although they apologised to Muslim victims of the terrorist attacks, to mark the holy day, in which Muslims traditionally apologise for their wrongs.

"We apologise for the victims of the Bali bombings, but the Muslims," Samudra said. "The infidels will go to hell anyway."

Samudra said the three were not afraid to die, adding he would prefer beheading. "Absolutely we are not afraid," he said. "That's what I've been waiting for ... firstly with execution we will go to heaven and then our wish to see God and the angels is far higher than the wish of the infidels for our death. Why would we be scared of death? Even now we are not scared to be executed. (US President George) Bush and his allies, you all will go to hell but me and all my friends in the world will go to heaven. No, no, no there won't be any clemency because its not Islamic law - that is part of democracy and the law of democracy, and we are totally against democracy."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/13/1191696224775.html

[pixikill]

Bombers ready to die
October 13, 2007 - 3:27PM

The three death row Bali bombers say they are ready to die and won't be asking for a presidential pardon. They also expressed delight at the recent controversy surrounding their impending executions, saying the more pain they cause the greater their reward in heaven.

"I'm very happy especially after hearing that John Howard is very regretful, very angry with us," the so-called smiling assassin, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim said today at the island prison where he is held. "The more he is angry, the more I will get rewards from god, right? The more I make infidels angry, the more I will get my reward, so I'm more relaxed."

Islamic militants Amrozi, his elder brother Ali Ghufron (alias Mukhlas) and Imam Samudra were today briefly let out of their isolation cells at Batu Prison, on the island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, to pray for the holy Islamic day Idul Fitri. They walked the 100 metres to the prison mosque, At-Taubah, unshackled, in their best robes, to pray with other inmates - murderers, terrorists and drug dealers - for today's holiday which marks the end of the fasting month Ramadan. But as the one-hour ceremony wound up, the three began shouting "god is great", rallying support from other prisoners, before they were told to stop by the guards.

The trio could face execution within weeks for their roles in the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians. Authorities must formally ask if they will seek clemency from the president, before the three will face the firing squad.

But the impending executions have been mired in controversy, with Australian victims angered by opposition to the death penalty ahead of yesterday's fifth anniversary of the atrocity.

Prime Minister John Howard also yesterday signalled a formal complaint to Indonesia, after news broke that the country's anti-terror chief hosted a party of reformed terrorists at his home to aid the terror fight last month.

Today, Indonesian authorities were considering granting sentence cuts to 10 people involved in the first and second Bali attacks, to mark today's significant Islamic holiday.

The three key players in the bombings remain unrepentant, although they apologised to Muslim victims of the terrorist attacks, to mark the holy day, in which Muslims traditionally apologise for their wrongs.

"We apologise for the victims of the Bali bombings, but the Muslims," Samudra said. "The infidels will go to hell anyway."

Samudra said the three were not afraid to die, adding he would prefer beheading. "Absolutely we are not afraid," he said. "That's what I've been waiting for ... firstly with execution we will go to heaven and then our wish to see God and the angels is far higher than the wish of the infidels for our death. Why would we be scared of death? Even now we are not scared to be executed. (US President George) Bush and his allies, you all will go to hell but me and all my friends in the world will go to heaven. No, no, no there won't be any clemency because its not Islamic law - that is part of democracy and the law of democracy, and we are totally against democracy."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/13/1191696224775.html
those poor buggers.
how deluded they are.
good on ya, you pig allah.:rolleyes:

[SCHICK]

Sadly its ignorance and lack of education of the great unwashed of this world, religion gone mad, belief in a higher being:mad_12: , regrettably christians have been doing it for centuries....what goes around comes around. Typical of Howard he "really" wants executions, even though it would be a hypocritical government standpoint......imo, lock em up for life, don't give them the satisfaction of going to their god, make them suffer and endure a life of incarceration.

[pixikill]

Sadly its ignorance and lack of education of the great unwashed of this world, religion gone mad, belief in a higher being:mad_12: , regrettably christians have been doing it for centuries....what goes around comes around. Typical of Howard he "really" wants executions, even though it would be a hypocritical government standpoint......imo, lock em up for life, don't give them the satisfaction of going to their god, make them suffer and endure a life of incarceration.
im so with you.:happy_01:

except heres the problem....
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/10/14/CARTOON_gallery__470x329.jpg



vote green on 24/11!!!!!!

[SCHICK]

Lol, Tandberg is correct, sadly the Labour Party I knew, is but a shadow of its former self, nevertheless I accept that on condition we rid ourselves of that lying little prick Howard.

[Petronas]

Leader of Indonesian Jama'a Islamiyya Abu Bakr Al-Ba'shir: I Support Bombings in America, But Not in the Muslim World
November 8, 2007 No.1761

The following are excerpts from an interview with Abu Bakr Ba'shir, spiritual leader of Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya in Indonesia, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on October 26, 2007.

To view this clip visit:http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1598.htm

Abu Bakr Ba'shir: "The path taken by many political parties in their effort to establish an Islamic regime is not the right path, because these parties adopt democracy. Democracy is not an Islamic means. Democracy runs counter to Islam, because it emphasizes the sovereignty of the people, whereas Islam emphasizes the sovereignty of Allah. Thus, if we are to submit to the law of Allah, Muslims have no choice but to say: 'We hear and obey.' In democracy, Allah's commands may be open to discussion, and if we agree with them, we accept them, but if we do not agree with them, we reject them. Herein lies the flaw. Therefore, as long as the Islamic political parties endeavor to adhere to Islam by means of democracy, they will not achieve their goal." […]

"Jihad should be waged in places where there is war. Bombings in places where there is no war is not a good thing."

Interviewer: "So you are against bombings in Arab and Islamic countries, as well as Western countries, if they target civilians?"

Abu Bakr Ba'shir: "In my opinion, it was wrong to carry out the bombings in Morocco, for example. I am against the bombings in Indonesia, particularly in Bali, because Indonesia is not in a state of war. In my opinion, one should be fighting the infidels in Indonesia by means of Jihad of the tongue - by preaching. Nevertheless, I'm still convinced that [the bombers] are mujahideen, not terrorists, but I believe they were wrong in their judgment." […]

"I do not accept their concept of independent judgment, unless the bombing is carried out in the countries of the infidels who declared war against the Muslims, such as America. America has declared war on the Muslims, and therefore, we are permitted to carry out bombings there, because they are the ones who declared war against the Muslims. Herein lies the problem." […]

"It is a duty… We are duty-bound to establish an Islamic state, and the Muslims are duty-bound to live in an Islamic country. Muslims are forbidden to live in an infidel country. Sheik Fawzan Al-Fawzan issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims to live in the countries of the infidels. That is why we are committed to establishing an Islamic state. The path that the Prophet Muhammad bid us to take is the path of preaching and Jihad. Waging Jihad is the proper conduct. That is why it is essential to establish an Islamic state by means of preaching and Jihad. We have tried to do this in Indonesia, by committing ourselves to Islamic preaching." […]

Interviewer: "So in fact, you support Osama Bin Laden?"

Abu Bakr Ba'shir: "I support Osama Bin Laden, as long as he wages Jihad for the sake of Allah, in order to implement the law of Allah. At times, I may disagree with his independent judgment regarding bombings."

Interviewer: "Bombings where?"

Abu Bakr Ba'shir: "In places where war is not being waged, where people who have nothing to do with these things may be harmed."

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD176107

[Casey]

'Disaster' if Bali bombers executed
From correspondents in Indonesia
December 15, 2007 05:37pm

A CONTROVERSIAL Indonesian Muslim cleric has warned that the country would suffer a big disaster if three Bali bombers on death row were executed.

Abu Bakar Bashir spoke before visiting the three Islamic militants awaiting execution for their role in the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Bashir has been accused by some foreign governments of once heading the Jemaah Islamiah militant group.

"I'm worried if they were executed there would be a big disaster," Bashir told reporters on the way to Nusakambangan, an island prison complex off the southern coast of Java where the three are being held.

Bashir said he wanted to advise the convicts - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas - to be patient and to seek God's forgiveness for their wrongdoing.

"It is true they were defending Muslims but their methods were wrong. That is why they are now fasting to pay for the loss of innocent lives," Bashir said.

He did not say if the innocent lives included those of foreign holidaymakers, the majority of 202 people who died in the attack.

In an interview in October, the three militants said they had no regrets, except for the fact that some Muslims had died in the blasts.

No date for the execution of the three Bali bombers has been set although the Supreme Court has rejected their final appeal.

The Bali bombings and several other deadly attacks have been blamed on militants from Jemaah Islamiah, of which Bashir was alleged to have been the spiritual leader and co-founder.

Bashir was jailed for 30 months for conspiracy over the Bali bombings but was later cleared.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country, with about 85 per cent of its more than 220 million population following Islam.

While the vast majority of Indonesia's Muslims are moderate, the country has seen the emergence of an increasingly vocal militant minority.

Jemaah Islamiah is blamed for several simultaneous church bombings across Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000, bombings on Bali in 2002 and 2005, the bombing of a JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2004 and an attack on the Australian Embassy in 2005.

Indonesian police have arrested around 400 militants since 2002, severely damaging JIs ability to operate.

Although there has been no major bomb attack since 2005, police say Indonesia still faces a considerable threat from Islamic militants.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22929770-23109,00.html

[NYer]

Military: Bali Bomber Belly-Up. (http://www.gmanews.tv/story/81161/Military-claims-to-have-found-Dulmatins-body-in-Tawi-Tawi)

A body believed to be that of Indonesian terrorist leader Dulmatin, wanted for the October 2002 Bali bombings, was recovered Monday afternoon by a joint military team in Tawi-Tawi province.

Intelligence reports said the body was found 1:30 p.m. at the vicinity of Sitio Salisit in Balimbing village, Panglima Sugala town in Tawi-Tawi.

"(The) said corpse was jointly identified by informants with notable wounds in the head, chest and right foot to include clothing in physical characteristics matched with previous revelations," the report said.

The body was exhumed for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing for confirmation.

Reached for comments, Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino said that if the remains turn out to be that really of Dulmatin, his death could be traced to the January 31 clash in the province.

"That is the report we got from our units in Tawi-Tawi. Remember that during the January 31 encounter, he was reported injured," Dolorfino told reporters.

Dolorfino said an informant led government troops to Dulmatin's supposed gravesite and that based on the informant's accounts of the slain terrorist's injuries, "it matched with (the accounts) of our witness."

[American_Jihad]

Indonesia: Attacks against Muslim sect to be punished, says deputy president

Jakarta, 6 May (AKI) – Attacks against the Islamic sect, Ahmadiyya, are criminal acts that should be severely punished, according to the vice-president of Indonesia, Jusuf Kalla.

Kalla spoke to Adnkronos International (AKI) in his Jakarta office.

"The attacks against Ahmadiyya are criminal acts and should not be confused with radical Islam or with Jihad (or holy war) and the perpetrators will be severely punished," Kalla told AKI.

A mosque of the Ahmadiyyah sect, considered heretical by state religious bodies, was set alight at the end of April. Several people were detained but no arrests have been confirmed in relation to it.

More than 1,000 Indonesian Muslims protested in front of the presidential palace in Jakarta in April calling for a ban on the sect that has been branded heretical by other Muslims and the Indonesian Ulema Council, the secular country's highest Muslim authority.

The main accusation against the sect is that is not considered Islam as defined by the prophet and thus could be officially banned in the next few days by an Indonesian government team drafting a decree that could ban it.

According to Ahmadiyya, the final prophet was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the sect in 1889 from Punjab, in India.

The sect was labelled heretical for the first time with a fatwa, or religious edict, by Majelis Ulama Indonesia in 2005.

MUI is the biggest Muslim organ in the country, but its decisions are not legally binding.

After the fatwa by MUI, several offices of Ahmadiyya were attacked by radical religious groups that act with almost total impunity in Indonesia.

Kalla said that the hatred against the sect began with the fatwa of the MUI and that Ahmadiyya presented a dilemma for local authorities.

"If they continue to assert there is a prophet after Mohammed, it means they are not following Islam," Kalla told AKI.

"But the problem is that they continue to declare themselves Muslim. Ahmadiyya can continue to exist in peace as long as they do not define themselves as Muslims."

Regardless, the vice-president has been vague about the decree that is expected to ban the sect soon.

"We are waiting for the decree because this is a question of faith and not an administrative issue," he said.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=1.0.2136349472

>> Cleric calls for ban of infidel sect (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23657337-1702,00.html)

[American_Jihad]

Bali bombers to face firing squad on Java island
May 30, 2008

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Three Islamic militants sentenced to death for the 2002 Bali blasts will face a firing squad on Java island, but the date has yet to be specified, a deputy attorney general said on Friday.

The three men -- Amrozi, Imam Samudra, and Mukhlas -- are being held at a maximum security prison in Central Java for their role in the bomb attacks which killed over 200 people and dealt a blow to tourism in the resort island of Bali.

The three Bali bombers have repeatedly told the media they are ready to die as martyrs, and will not seek presidential clemency.

"We have received a letter from the justice and human rights minister about the decision on the location (of the execution of the Bali bombers). It will be in Central Java," Abdul Hakim Ritonga, deputy attorney general for general crimes, told reporters.

When asking about the timeframe, he said: "It has not been decided yet because we are waiting for the Supreme Court's decision to revoke a judicial review which was filed by Amrozi's family."

Indonesia's Supreme Court struck down the three men's final appeal in March 2004, but under Indonesian law, a convict may challenge a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court through another appeal called a judicial review which requires strong new evidence.

The convicts submitted a third judicial review request this month after the first two were rejected.

Indonesian prosecutors have said they will execute the men but will wait until every legal step for the bombers has been exhausted.

The bombings in Bali have been blamed on the Southeast Asian Islamic militant group, Jemaah Islamiah, which authorities say has links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKJAK4818820080530

[American_Jihad]

Muslim and Indonesian
FROM TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
June 11, 2008

If the war on terror teaches anything, it's that radical Islam cannot tolerate religious pluralism. So it's worrying, and dangerous, to see the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, Indonesia, restrict a moderate religious group at the behest of a radical fringe. This is no way for a democracy to behave.

The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Monday ordered "all Ahmadiyah followers to stop their activities" or face jail. The Ahmadiyah is a small Muslim sect concentrated mostly in South Asia, with about 200,000 adherents in Indonesia. Its followers revere the Quran and have formally renounced the idea of violent jihad. They respect interfaith dialogues.


By restricting the Ahmadiyah, the President isn't acting in accordance with the country's constitution, which guarantees "all persons the right to worship according to their own religion or belief." Instead, he's kowtowing to the thuggish Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which beat up a peaceful gathering of religious moderates in Jakarta last week and called for the Ahmadiyah to be banned.

The President's refusal to stand up for the Ahmadiyah is part of a pattern. In 2005, the Council of Indonesian Ulama issued a fatwa banning the Ahmadiyah as a "heretical sect" because the group recognizes its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, to be a prophet like Mohamed. The President's office said nothing. In recent years Ahmadiyah mosques have been forced to close by angry mobs. Again, the President's office was silent. Last year, a few local governments banned the faith. Once more, no word from Jakarta.

Last week the President waited 48 hours before ordering the arrests of the FPI members who led the violence in central Jakarta – until after local media exploded in outrage. The police chief explained that arresting the FPI members immediately would only have "triggered bigger riots." Which tells you something about Jakarta's resolve to enforce its own laws.

Mr. Yudhoyono's decree increases the danger for Ahmadiyah members, who now have had targets painted on their chests. It's also dangerous for any other religious minorities to whom the FPI or other radical Islamists object. They have done so in the past. From 1999 to 2002, to take one example, Muslim extremists carried out execution-style killings of more than a thousand Christians in Poso on Sulawesi Island.

The FPI thug who allegedly led the June 1 Jakarta attacks said in a televised video that attacks on women and unarmed men were justified by the government's inaction on banning Ahmadiyah. He turned himself in to police Monday, claiming his mission was accomplished. Violence against Christians is also starting to percolate in conservative Muslim areas, like West Java.

It is unclear how local governments will interpret the President's edict. Will Ahmadiyah mosques be shuttered? Will members be allowed to worship in their homes? The government already has had to dispatch police around the country to protect Ahmadiyah worshippers. Where will it end?

Citizens in a democratic society must be free to worship as they please. Anything but full religious freedom is a betrayal of Indonesia's pluralism and a dangerous precedent for the country's future.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121312752812061579.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[American_Jihad]

Indon minority sect fears backlash
Jun 13, 2008 5:28 PM

Life for Indonesia's Ahmadis has taken a frightening turn.

Their mosques and sympathisers have been attacked by violent militant groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), and they are under pressure to say they are not Muslim.

Near one of their onion-domed mosques in Jakarta, a lone police patrol car provides protection for the sect, even though at a Jakarta rally earlier this month, FPI supporters beat up and injured participants as they called for tolerance for Ahmadiyya.

"Of course, we are afraid and worried," said Deden Sudjana, who handles Ahmadiyya security.

"It is very human if everybody is traumatised, especially children and women because they saw blood, how they trampled on the elderly, beat them and kicked them."

While Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country, its constitution protects freedom of religion and it has sizeable Christian, Hindu and Buddhist communities.

But the government's resolve to defend freedom of belief has been put to the test over Ahmadiyya, which an Ahmadi official said has about 500,000 followers in Indonesia, mainly on Java and Lombok islands.

Indonesia's top Muslim religious council has declared Ahmadiyya a deviant sect, and hardline groups want them banned.

Earlier this week, vice president Jusuf Kalla said the government would not ban Ahmadiyya as long as its members do not preach or try to convert others.

A ministerial decree issued this week stopped short of banning the sect but warned followers could face five years in jail for tarnishing religion.

Now Indonesia's Ahmadis are worried about a backlash from hardline groups, said Ahmadiyya spokesman Shamsir Ali, speaking in the mosque as he sat surrounded by books on Islam, pictures of the Ahmadis' founder, and their slogan, "Love for All, Hatred for None".

"There is a lot of fear in villages. Radical groups have increased their pressure on us. Overnight people have marked Ahmadiyya homes in Sukabumi area so that they can be easily identified for an attack," Ali said.

"We will file a judicial review, maybe this week ... The decree violates the constitution, especially for human rights. They want us to renounce our faith and say we are not Muslim. How can we do that? We are Muslim."

Outright ban

Members of the group, which says it promotes peace and tolerance, have often been the target of hardline anger in countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, and now increasingly in Indonesia.

Ahmadiyya is considered heretical by some Indonesians because followers refuse to accept the Prophet Mohammad as Islam's final prophet, and say their founder is a prophet and messiah.

Mainstream Muslims reject Ahmadiyya's claim that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the sect in the 19th century in India, is a prophet and say that Ahmadis must stop describing their religion as Islam, while hardliners have demanded an outright ban.

The Ahmadis say that like all Muslims they pray five times a day, follow the Koran and go on the Haj, but the only difference is one of interpretation.

Liberal Indonesians slammed the government decision to curb the Ahmadis, saying it had caved in to pressure from hardliners, who have vowed to continue their fight for a complete ban on the group.

"The government does not follow the constitution but is instead trying to accommodate radical groups which are actually very small in number. It is dangerous for the future of religion freedom in our country," said Luthfi Assyaukanie, co-ordinator of Liberal Islam Network.

"If they succeed with the Ahmadiyya case, they will start with other cases including trying to push certain teachings in Islam."

Out of Indonesia's population of 226 million people, about 85% are Muslim, with most following a moderate form of the faith.

Some radical Islamic groups have grown in strength since 1998, when former President Suharto stepped down after 32 years of autocratic rule.

But groups such as the militant FPI, which represents the views of a tiny minority, sometimes exert far more influence on the government's policies by using violence.

"The government has to ensure Ahmadis can live properly as common citizens," said Syafi'i Anwar, director of the International Centre for Islam and Pluralism.

"This really damages Indonesia's reputation as a moderate Muslim country."

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1844966

[American_Jihad]

Thousands of Indonesians rally against sect
6/17/08

JAKARTA (AFP) — Thousands of white-clad Muslims swamped the main streets of Indonesia's capital Wednesday to pressure the president to ban a minority Islamic sect branded "deviant" by top clerics.

More than 4,000 protesters gathered outside Jakarta's presidential palace before setting off in a motorcycle convoy to police headquarters to demand the government ban Ahmadiyah and free radicals jailed over violence early this month.

Unarmed police formed a loose barrier between the palace and protesters from mainstream Muslim parties and fringe Islamist groups, who shouted Allahu akbar (God is great) and held banners condemning the sect.

A speaker accused the sect of "staining Islam" and demanded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issue a decree banning the organisation.

"We ask first that Ahmadiyah repent, return to Islam or make a new religion. If they don't want to do that then they must be broken up," said Mohammed Alwi, a student from an Islamic boarding school outside Jakarta.

"Ahmadiyah is a criminal organisation," said another protester.

The protest comes after the government earlier this month ordered Ahmadiyah, which has peacefully practised its faith in Indonesia since the 1920s, to stop spreading its belief that Mohammed was not the last prophet.

The ministerial decree stopped short of the ban demanded by Muslim leaders after the country's top Islamic body issued a fatwa describing the sect as "deviant."

"There are some that say that decree was a 'transvestite' decree, neither man nor woman. I agree," said protest spokesman Abdul Rashid, a cleric from radical umbrella group the Muslim Community Forum.

The protesters -- many wearing white as a symbol of their religious piety -- delivered a letter to the palace demanding the president ban Ahmadiyah, Rashid said.

"If we leave (this issue) too long, that's a problem because Islam is being stained," Rashid said, rejecting concerns that a ban would tarnish the country's long history of pluralism.

"Between us Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, Hindus and Buddhists, there's no problem. But when it comes to Ahmadiyah, it's not OK to interfere with Islam," he said.

Protesters also demanded the government release radical leaders Rizieq Shihab and Munarman from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), who were arrested after stick-wielding FPI members attacked a pro-tolerance rally on June 1.

Mounting motorbikes, vans and trucks, the protesters chanted "Islam United! Disband Ahmadiyah!" and honked horns in a convoy from the palace to police headquarters, where Shihab and Munarman are being held.

Speaking separately to religious teachers outside the capital, President Yudhoyono appealed to clerics to resist violent interpretations of Islam.

"Islam is peace, shelter, justice, and love. Islam is far from violence and conflict," he said.

Liberals have condemned the ministerial decree as an affront to religious freedom, while radicals argue it did not go far enough to end the sect's "blasphemy."

The case has raised questions over Indonesia's image as a tolerant, secular democracy and sparked tensions between moderates and radical hardliners.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hYS7m-Rs2T7AM26Hfc562tcmMTxg

[American_Jihad]

Indonesia 'complacent' about terrorists
6/25/08

The decline of the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) has led some Indonesian political leaders to believe that further counter-terrorism measures are unnecessary, a new study says.

Security experts Dr Carl Ungerer and Dr Peter Chalk also warn that Malaysian ruling party polemics, designed to win the ethnic Malay vote, appeared to be producing an environment conducive to the emergence of Islamic extremism.

The study, released on Wednesday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) surveyed the evolving terrorist threat in Southeast Asia.

That includes Muslim radical movements in the Philippines and southern Thailand, but most importantly for Australia, the activities of JI in Indonesia.

JI is blamed for terrorist attacks on Bali in October 2002, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians, and in October 2005 which killed 23 including four Australians.

JI also is blamed for the attacks on the Jakarta Marriott Hotel in August 2003 and on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in September 2004. Each attack killed 11.

The study said JI had been hard hit by Indonesian security forces, assisted by Australia, with key members captured or killed. It had now split into a small pro-bombing group and another, more moderate group.

Dr Ungerer and Dr Chalk said JI could still count on a hard core of 900 militants and continued to represent a significant threat to Australian and regional security interests.

"Complacency will remain one of the biggest challenges Australia faces in pursuing its counter-terrorism strategies in the region. There are already some signs of this in Indonesia," they said.

"According to one Indonesian analyst, elements of the political leadership in Jakarta believe that the terrorist problem has diminished and that further counter-terrorism initiatives against JI are unwarranted or, at the very least, are unnecessary.

"Moreover, there appears to be little genuine effort across the Indonesian government to understand the underlying support dynamics or the continuing role of religious schools associated with the JI movement and affiliated jihadist groups."

Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland says the arrest of Jemaah Islamiah militant Mohammad Noordin Top would be a "significant event" for regional counter-terror operations.

Top is on the run from south-east Asian counter-terrorism forces and is seen by experts as one of the most senior Islamist militants still at large in the region.

Analysts believe the JI explosives expert is hiding in Indonesia or the Philippines, but a recently captured militant told police Top may have fled Indonesia as investigators closed in on him.

"Certainly, he is obviously someone that countries generally in our region are interested in apprehending," Mr McClelland told reporters.

"There is no doubt that his arrest would be a significant event."

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute report warns the regional terrorist threat remains high.

But it also points out that there has not been an attack since 2005.

Mr McClelland, in his speech launching the report, said the Rudd government continued to take seriously the threat of terrorism "and no less the threat of terrorism in south-east Asia".

"We are acutely vigilant to this threat and are committed to having the most effective measures possible to address it," he said.

Cooperation with regional allies including Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia was a significant part of the government's counter-terrorism work, Mr McClelland said.

"Some 20 Australian agencies are involved on a whole-of-government basis in cooperative partnerships with their regional counterparts," he said.

"Fostering dialogue and cooperation with our partner countries is also essential to the success of our long-term international counter-terrorism strategy."

The report's authors, Dr Ungerer and Dr Chalk also said Australia needed to pay close attention to the internal dynamics of states not presently afflicted by Muslim conflicts.

Cambodia had been identified as a potential extremist logistics hub because of lax border controls, endemic corruption, entrenched criminal activity and the presence of a substantial Muslim population.

They said another state to watch was Malaysia, praised for its effective counter-terrorism stance, but which produced some of JI's most infamous leaders.

"It has become increasingly apparent that radical Islam is being fuelled, somewhat paradoxically, by the policies of the central administration," they said.

"Various commentators have observed that a troubling enabling environment for extremism may have begun to surface as a result of the polemics of the ruling United Malays National Organisation, which aims to give institutional expression to a more fundamentalist ideology in order to win the Malay ethnic vote and, thereby, outflank the Parti Se-Islam Malaysia opposition."

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=586217

[Vancouver]

Jema'ah Islamiyah hancho Noordin Top has been reported killed (http://www.theage.com.au/world/terror-leader-killed-in-raids-20090808-edcc.html).

[Vancouver]

A very senior and dangerous member of Jemaah Islamiyah, directly allied with al-Qa'ida.

http://www.france24.com/en/20090917-five-killed-police-raid-militant-hideout-indonesia-jemaah-islamiyah

http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/index.cfm?page=Noordin&language=english