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Posted on 10/11/2003 8:16:22 AM PDT by knighthawk
BALI bombing mastermind Hambali has told interrogators how al-Qaida funded the attack that killed 202, including 88 Australians, a year ago today.
The terrorist is being held under strict security by US intelligence agents on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, also has told agents al-Qaida wanted to build a bio-weapons plant in Indonesia to produce weapons to deliver the deadly biological agent anthrax.
He revealed that the Islamic network of terrorist cells known as Jemaah Islamiah had recruited American-trained scientist Yazid Sufaat to oversee the project.
He has studied chemistry at California State University in Sacramento and is under arrest in Malaysia.
Hambali also said JI had been crippled by almost 200 arrests following the Bali blasts.
But he boasted the organisation still had widespread grassroots support in Indonesia and through South-East Asia.
The Sunday Times has details from an interview transcript in which Hambali also admitted complicity in the Jakarta Marriott Hotel blast in August, which killed 12.
He also explained his links to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in New York.
During his interrogation, West Java-born Hambali said JI had almost been destroyed after the Bali bombings because of the arrests and raids that followed the attack.
He said JI was in a "very bad" state.
The transcript of Hambali's comments read:
"The captive (Hambali) kept insisting that JI was breaking down because of those who had been captured.
"All the group's savings have been lost to raids and arrests. JI is now totally dependent on al-Qaida for money."
JI was "destroyed".
But Hambali said JI was still a strong presence in Indonesia and the Philippines.
JI in Indonesia "always found strong support at the grassroots level".
News of Hambali's whereabouts came as Justice Minister Chris Ellison told The Sunday Times he had asked the US for access to the man behind the worst terrorist attack on Australians.
"We haven't had a reply," Senator Ellison said yesterday.
Indonesia has been given the go-ahead to interview Hambali, according to Indonesia's Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The interrogation transcript reveals that Hambali's arrest has led to new insights into how the Bali bombings were planned – and that JI still had enough surplus cash or explosives to carry out further attacks. Indonesian police fear that terrorists still have 300kg of explosives packed into two bombs ready to be used.
The Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation are believed to have been provided with full transcripts of the Diego Garcia interrogations.
They are helping Operation Alliance – Australia's investigation into the Bali blasts.
Hambali is the former operations chief of JI in South-East Asia.
He was also the point man for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, the group behind the US attacks.
Hambali was arrested in Thailand in August. In the interrogations, Hambali revealed how a sophisticated courier network – stretching from Thailand, through Malaysia to Indonesia – allowed funds to travel by hand to the bombers behind the Bali and Jakarta attacks.
Hambali fingered his brother, Gunawan, as a main conduit to al-Qaida. Now under arrest, his 26-year-old brother was a messenger between Hambali and al-Qaida, at times even passing on cash.
Hambali's interrogator noted: "After giving some phone numbers and addresses to his brother or vice versa, al-Qaida's operatives began to make direct contact with (Hambali's) messenger and made specific operational actions/transactions, including money transfers."
Hambali revealed how an email from Indonesia, saying "I am starting a business and I need capital", was really a coded request for funds to attack the Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
Hambali provided $30,000 to fund the Marriott bombing and wanted a further $15,000 put aside for the families of the Bali bombers.
Hambali planned to carry out bombings in Thailand against the US and British embassies, nightclubs in Phuket and Pattaya, and the Israeli check-in counter at Bangkok's Don Muang airport.
Hambali and two al-Qaida assistants also considered attacking an Israeli restaurant, with a Star of David above it, in the backpacker area of Khao San Rd.
But they were deterred by strong police presences.
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