efreedomnews.com
October 13, 2002
First, a small explosion went off outside Paddy's Discotheque, then, just down the street, a powerful car bomb erupted outside
the Sari Nightclub, Kuta Beach, Bali. Cooking gas canisters exploded, destroying the structure, killing 187 and injuring more than 300 including three Americans, many Australians as well as tourists from Canada, Britain, Germany and Sweden. A third bomb exploded outside the US Consulate causing no injuries. The Kuta Beach area is primarily an Australian and European tourist area.
The attack marked the second anniversary of the USS Cole bombing in Yemen. A major suspect in the Sari, as well as the Cole attack, and the man Time magazine called "Asia's Own Osama," Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is the founder of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), an elaborate umbrella organization for al-Qaeda linked terrorist activity in Southeast Asia.
Like Osama's fatwas of a pan-Arabic single Islamic nation, JI's mission is establishing a Daulah Islamiah — an independent Islamic state encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia and the Muslim islands of the southern Philippines.
Hambali is wanted by the U.S. and four Southeast Asian countries; Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. He has been linked to bank robberies, raising funds for buying and smuggling weapons, recruiting fighters for Jihad, political murder, planning to plant bombs in 12 U.S. airliners in 1995 and to detonate seven huge car-bombs, and providing shelter and making travel arrangements for at least two of the September 11 hijackers and one of the suspects in the bombing of the US Cole at Aden.
Kuwaiti Omar Farouk was recently arrested by Indonesian authorities and handed him over to the U.S. He has admitted that he was actually a senior representative of Al Qaida in Southeast Asia, sent to the region to plan attacks against Western interests in eight countries; Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Cambodia. He was ordered to assassinate Megawati Sukarnoputri a secular threat to Al Qaida's future goals in Indonesia, before she became President in July, 2001. He confessed to 24 attacks against churches and recreational spots on Christmas night 2000. He also confirmed Riduan Isamuddin's connection with al Qaida.
Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim Cleric widely held to be integral to the Jemaah Islamiah, said at a news conference on Sunday
"It would be impossible for Indonesians to do it," he said. "Indonesians don't have such powerful explosives. I think maybe the U.S. are behind the bombings because they always say Indonesia is part of a terrorist network."
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is quoted last week at the East Asian Economic Summit that Australia is "convinced" that Bashir is involved with Jemaah Islamiyah but that there are "political sensitivities in Indonesia about this issue."
Having overthrown the dictator Suarto in 1998, the fragile democracy in heavily Muslim Indonesia has had little resolve in confronting organized Islamic terrorism. Now that the reality has struck home, the world is watching for their response.
Indonesia spans 13,000 islands over an area of 2 million square kilometers, three times the size of Texas. Islam covers 88% of the population. Security forces have diminished since President Suarto was deposed. Indonesia has not passed an anti-terrorism law, limiting police and security forces ability.
