http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19696
From an article on the Bali bombings, this is the center of the article.......
On this level, official and media reports referred to "warnings" about
possible renewal of Jemaah Islamiyah's suicide attacks somewhere in
Indonesia. Such reports, if not specific, are stunning in their semantics:
the terrorists have never retreated nor granted their enemy quarter.
Jemaah has never stopped planning and gathering resources for
operations. Indonesia’s authorities should be psychologically mobilized
non-stop against Jemaah and its sisters around the islands. So should
the rest of the world. These are lessons to all other democracies and
countries trying to become ones. The jihad wars against free societies
have been declared and are waged on a daily basis. Those countries
that haven’t been hit will eventually be hit and those who have been
targeted already will continue to be targeted. Even expect the sites that
have been reached by violence to be visited again: Not only Baghdad
and Basra, but also New York and London. The Jihadi terrorists are not
different from the previous foes the free world had to face such as
Nazis, Fascists, and Bolsheviks: For as long as they’ve marked a city or
a country with "dar al Harb" or placed its population under the lethal
status of "Kuffar" (infidels).
My colleague, Professor Zachary Abuza, author of Militant Islam and
South East Asia: Crucible of Terror, is a leading expert on Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI). He says its its connection to al-Qaeda has advanced
significant analysis on a tactical shift. Writing on the Counter Terrorism
Blog last Saturday, he stated, "JI was formerly close to Al Qaeda,
though that relationship has been in doubt owing to concerted
counter-terror operations that have led to the arrests of much of the
respective organization’s leadership." Moreover, he notes a technical,
tactical shift: an "apparent shift back to smaller bombs." Abuza asks:
Does this indicate the inability to procure the materials and
indicate limited human and material resources to put
together large bombs? Does it signify that the link to Al
Qaeda, which passed over $130,000 to JI for operations no
longer exist? The fact is we really don’t know the extent of
the current relationship.
Indeed, as other area experts and terror analysts concur, the modus
operandi regarding the type of bombs, and their transporters has
changed. The Jihadists, as I analyze in my forthcoming book, Future
Jihad (November 2005), are currently in a state of mutation, as is the
case with most organizations. Field experience and transformations are
crucial in the shaping of new tactics and means of delivery. Just as it is
less likely that a second Mohammad Atta team would proceed with the
exact same plans to pulverize two NYC landmarks, it is less likely for JI
to use the exact same material to blow up the same type of target in
the same city. Most likely some of the components have to change, at
least from a tactical angle. But these are only tactical analysis: what is
the big picture? Here are some main themes:
Police believe that two Malaysians, Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top, were responsible for the October 1 attack. The two men are known members of Islamic terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, and were believed hiding in Indonesia. In the last three years, the government came down hard on Jemaah Islamiyah, arresting nearly a hundred and prosecuting, convicting and jailing most of them. But the government did not try to wipe out Jemaah Islamiyah, fearing that this might trigger a civil war with Islamic conservatives. That may change. Islam in this part of the world is rather milder than what is found in the Middle East. But over the past decade, the more militant form of Islam found in the Middle East has become more popular in urban areas of Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Because of that, the government was able to defeat Jemaah Islamiyah, both in terms of finding and arresting Islamic terrorists, and defeating Islamic militias that were attacking non-Moslems in the country. Bali, for example, is largely Hindu, which is one reason it has been the target of Islamic terrorists.
The government got a lot of public support after the 2002 attacks, which had emotional, and economic (by hurting the tourist trade) impact on most Indonesians. The police received enough tips to track down and capture most members of Jemaah Islamiyah. Another surge of public support for the police is helping in the search for those responsible for the October 1 attack. This is likely to result in more serious damage to Jemaah Islamiyah. After the October 12, 2002 attack in Bali, there was another in December, 2002 that killed three. There were three attacks in 2003, that killed twelve. In 2004, there was only one attack, that killed tem. Earlier this year, there were two attacks, killing 19. Since that first bombing in 2002, most of the dead and wounded have been Indonesian, even though Jemaah Islamiyah says that it is making war on foreigners and infidels (non-Moslems.) Most Indonesians don't believe this, and see Jemaah Islamiyah as a bunch of homicidal maniacs. Jemaah Islamiyah was never a very large organization, with no more than a few hundred core members. Fewer than a hundred are still at large, and most are expected to be rounded up in the next few months. Islamic terrorism has proved to be very unpopular in Islamic nations, turning more and more Moslems, including conservative ones, against the terrorists. Jemaah Islamiyah would like to attack non-Moslem targets, but they have not been able to, and in desperation have made attacks that kill mostly Moslems.
October 1, 2005: On Bali, three pedestrian suicide bombers killed themselves, and 23 others in the tourist areas of Bali island. Islamic terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah is suspected, as there have been many warnings from the government that more terrorist attacks were in the works. Bali had increased security, especially to deal with car bombs. But suicide bombers on foot were another matter. Three years ago, a car bomb attack in Bali killed 202 people, many of them Australian. This time, most of the dead and wounded were Indonesian.
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/indones/articles/20051003.aspx