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Hambali Handed Over to U.S. After Thai Arrest
Reuters ^ | 8/15/03

Posted on 08/15/2003 4:35:04 AM PDT by kattracks

(Reuters) - Hambali, al Qaeda's top man in Southeast Asia and suspected mastermind behind a string of deadly bombings, has been captured in Thailand, handed over to the Americans and flown out of the country, officials said on Friday.

Asia's most wanted man, now clean-shaven and his face altered by plastic surgery, was arrested with a woman by Thai and U.S. officials in Ayutthaya, the ancient Thai capital 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok, a senior Thai general said.

"A special flight from the United States picked him up at Bangkok airport on Wednesday morning," said the general, who declined to be identified.

Confusion surrounded the whereabouts of the latest senior al Qaeda-linked radical to be hunted down in the war on terror that Washington launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Hambali, born Riduan Isamuddin, and his wife were flown home to Indonesia, a Thai government minister said. Indonesia's police chief said he was unaware of the transfer and a U.S. official in Bangkok said Washington was unlikely to reveal his location soon.

Others have been held by U.S. authorities at undisclosed locations, but are believed to have been questioned initially at bases in Afghanistan.

President Bush hailed the capture. "He's a known killer. Hambali was one of the world's most lethal terrorists. He is no longer a problem," he said.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Hambali's arrest followed local leads, but would not say where he had been taken.

"We received tipoffs from local people that there were strange-looking people staying around there so we checked their background and passports and realized that they were the people we were looking for," he told reporters in Sri Lanka.

The Muslim cleric, son of peasant farmers on the main Indonesian island of Java, crossed into Thailand last week from Laos using a fake Spanish passport, a police general said.

"He was not wearing a beard and he had had plastic surgery," he said. "He used a Spanish passport with a long, confusing Spanish name."

INTERROGATION STARTS

Hambali is wanted in Indonesia as the suspected brains behind many attacks across the archipelago, including last October's Bali bombings, which killed 202 people in two nightclubs.

U.S. officials said Hambali, thought to be operations chief of Southeast Asia's militant Jemaah Islamiah network and the only man from the region to sit on al Qaeda's military committee, was being interrogated but would not say where.

"Hambali is in U.S. custody and that's all we can say for now," said a U.S. diplomat in Bangkok.

Governments across Asia and in Australia breathed sighs of relief at the capture of a man tagged one of the world's most dangerous. He had been on the run since at least 2000.

His fugitive status did not halt his activities, and he was videotaped attending January 2000 planning meetings in Malaysia for the September 11 strikes.

However, officials said they feared JI might strike again -- little more than a week after a suicide car bomber killed 12 people at a luxury Jakarta hotel -- in revenge for Hambali's capture.

"We should not let our guard down," Philippine National Security Adviser Roilo Golez told Reuters. "We have to raise the alert level against repercussions or retaliatory attacks."

SECURITY TIGHTENED

Police tightened security around a meeting of Asia-Pacific officials in southern Thailand that is preparing the ground for a regional summit in October that Bush is due to attend.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said no leader would be deterred from attending the summit in Bangkok.

"Any gathering of world leaders carries a security challenge in the era in which we live in, but we're all still going and I can't imagine there'll be any change on that," he said.

Australia said the arrest of Hambali, who is about 40, was a major breakthrough in the U.S.-led war on terror. Indonesia called it "an important mark in the global fight against terror."

Predominantly Buddhist Thailand has 63 million people, six million of them Muslims, mostly living in the southern region bordering Malaysia.

Hambali was first hunted in Thailand last year and is believed to have given the go-ahead for the Bali bombings at a meeting in Bangkok when he shifted JI's focus to soft targets.

He was also sighted in neighboring Cambodia, but had managed to stay one step ahead of the law.



TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; bali; custody; hambali; indonesia; isamuddin; ji
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1 posted on 08/15/2003 4:35:04 AM PDT by kattracks
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To: kattracks
Dead man walking!
2 posted on 08/15/2003 4:40:28 AM PDT by chiefqc
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To: kattracks
I hope the CIA does something more creative than sending him to Gitmo. This guy is Indonesian so the client there would be too much like home.

I think one of the Army bases in the outback of Alaska would be a much better idea.
3 posted on 08/15/2003 4:41:33 AM PDT by Ronin (Qui tacet consentit!)
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To: kattracks
Cross one more off the list

And this was a BAD one.
4 posted on 08/15/2003 4:44:05 AM PDT by nuconvert
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To: kattracks
Clean shaven and plastic surgery. How not-Islamic! He could have announced for Gov of California an dissapeared into the crowd.
5 posted on 08/15/2003 4:50:49 AM PDT by Jumpmaster
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To: kattracks
Oh brother! Plastic surgery is a problem.The Blackout wiped this off the TV (They can only cover one major story and all stations must do the same)This guy may have helped plan 9/11.He sure knew some of the hijackers.
6 posted on 08/15/2003 4:52:19 AM PDT by MEG33
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To: MEG33
btt
7 posted on 08/15/2003 5:00:06 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: kattracks
An interesting background article from last week:

Terror suspect Hambali keeps one step ahead of law

By Ed Cropley

PHNOM PENH, Aug 6 (Reuters) - From high-rise Singapore to the rice-fields of rural Cambodia, the net has slowly been closing in on Jemaah Islamiah, the shadowy Islamic group emerging as a possible suspect in Tuesday's hotel bombing in Jakarta.

But its suspected mastermind -- the mysterious Hambali, a bespectacled Indonesian preacher thought to be the brains behind last year's Bali bombings -- has always managed to keep one step ahead of the law.

The huge car bomb at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel which killed up to 16 people on Tuesday confirmed the worst suspicions of many: despite unprecedented cooperation between historically prickly neighbours, Islamic militants can still strike at will.

Police hunting for clues to who blew up a U.S.-run luxury hotel said on Wednesday the explosives and methods resembled those used in the Bali nightclub blasts.

To combat Jemaah's tentacle-like network of "sleepers", funders, sympathisers and bolt-holes in a poorly developed corner of the globe, Western and local intelligence agencies have taken to passing on all sorts of useful tidbits.

Many arrests have followed -- in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia. Hambali has not been among them.

Rumours of his suspected whereabouts have ballooned into scores of possible sightings, from Indonesia to Malaysia to Thailand to Cambodia, nearly all in hard-to-police border areas.

But when the authorities arrive, the bird has already flown.

A senior Cambodian intelligence source told Reuters Hambali, alias Riduan Isamuddin, had been sitting under their noses from September 2002 to March 2003, often in a tourist hotel popular with pot-smoking hippies.

"He shared his time between Koh Kong (along the Thai border) and a backpacker guesthouse in the middle of Phnom Penh," the source said.

Hambali left shortly before Cambodia rounded up four Jemaah suspects: an Egyptian, two Thais and a local Muslim, he said. [Note: This was when Cambodia shut down the Saudi-financed madrassa outside Phnom penh/angkor]

WHERE IS HAMBALI?

Even as Cambodia was denying he was there, authorities in neighbouring Thailand were saying the exact opposite.

Thai police special branch sources, who have suggested he may sometimes be disguised as a woman, said he had been spotted several times across Thailand, including the capital Bangkok.

Black-and-white "identikit" photos were distributed at all border checkpoints, but he still evaded their clutches, leading police to believe he was back in the lawless former Khmer Rouge-controlled zones of western Cambodia.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra insisted on Wednesday that Hambali was no longer in the country.

"We have made several checks and found out that Hambali is not in Thailand," Thaksin told reporters. "We are aware of his various names and aliases. Yes, he was here, but not anymore."

Authorities in Southeast Asia are stepping up their own security efforts after Tuesday's blast.

Thailand increased protection at key Western embassies and businesses but rejected fears it could be an easy target in the run-up to October's summit of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which includes U.S. President George W. Bush.

"We must pay closer attention...since the latest incident showed they have intensified their efforts in this region," Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said.

Australia said there could be more attacks in Indonesia in the wake of Tuesday's car bombing and sent police to Jakarta to help with the investigation.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Wednesday further attacks could occur to coincide with a verdict in the case of key Bali bombing suspect Amrozi, which is due to be handed down on Thursday, and the treason trial of Abu Bakar Bashir, the cleric accused of heading Jemaah Islamiah.

"We have particular concerns at the moment about central Jakarta, but also other places in Indonesia. There could be a further terrorist attack in the next day or so," Downer told reporters.

8 posted on 08/15/2003 5:02:39 AM PDT by angkor
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To: kattracks
..The Muslim cleric..

That says it all.

9 posted on 08/15/2003 5:50:29 AM PDT by evad (liberals & lying..It's WHAT they do, it's ALL they do and they WON'T stop...EVER!!)
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To: Ronin
..something more creative than sending him to Gitmo

How's about we squeeze him for all we can get and run him through a chipper?

Feed what comes out to the hogs.

Butcher the hogs and send 'em to his family for processing.

NAH..too tough on de hawgs.

10 posted on 08/15/2003 5:53:34 AM PDT by evad (liberals & lying..It's WHAT they do, it's ALL they do and they WON'T stop...EVER!!)
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To: angkor
It is certainly good news that he has been captured. Given the history, he will be turned and start giving us very useful information. It seems to be the custom with these people.
11 posted on 08/15/2003 6:10:38 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: kattracks
Thailand has been a quiet but faithful ally in the war on Terror.

Thank you, Thai people!
12 posted on 08/15/2003 6:16:04 AM PDT by ko_kyi
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To: ko_kyi
Thailand has been a quiet but faithful ally in the war on Terror

Thailand has been a quiet but faithful ally since the end of WWII,
(except for a brief period in the early 70's when communist lead students took over.)

13 posted on 08/15/2003 6:23:09 AM PDT by ASA Vet ("No Comment.")
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To: kattracks
I would believe that the plans to hit the APEC CEO Summit have already been put in place. They don't need him to carry it out.

HERE IS THE CONFERENCE The hotel is right on the Chao Phraya River. Leaders from major countries in the region will be there.

14 posted on 08/15/2003 6:36:55 AM PDT by doug from upland (Why did DemocRATS allow a perjuring rapist to remain in the Oval Office?)
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To: kattracks
Damn shame that the Bush administration isn't doing more to combat terrorism.(;-}
15 posted on 08/15/2003 7:24:26 AM PDT by Flint
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To: kattracks
Hambome the Jihadist will be wrung dry then tossed in prison forever. Unless he's (and I'm hoping) executed same as did unto others.

Only good Jihadi is a dead one.
16 posted on 08/15/2003 7:26:55 AM PDT by dennisw (G_d is at war with Amalek for all generations)
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To: kattracks
P.M." Thaksin Shinawatra " said he was carrying a password with a " long confusing spanish name ". Thaksinico La Shinawatra
17 posted on 08/15/2003 7:43:19 AM PDT by nkycincinnatikid
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To: Dog; Miss Marple; Grampa Dave; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Molly Pitcher; JohnHuang2
ping
18 posted on 08/15/2003 8:02:24 AM PDT by kayak (God bless President Bush, our military, and our nation!)
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To: kattracks
a U.S. official in Bangkok said Washington was unlikely to reveal his location soon.

If he doesn't talk, perhaps he'll be "lost" forever.

19 posted on 08/15/2003 8:05:41 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Ronin
I think one of the Army bases in the outback of Alaska would be a much better idea.

Except that once he lands in the U.S., that pesky Constitution with its "due process" rules applies. Gitmo has been used precisely because the USSC has said that Constitutional protections do not apply to foreign nationals not on U.S. soil.

20 posted on 08/15/2003 8:07:20 AM PDT by kevkrom (This tag line for rent)
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