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A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip who works for the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, has been arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed Thursday. Mazab Bashir, 25, from Deir el-Balah began working with Doctors Without Borders five years ago. On April 19, he confessed during a Shin Bet interrogation that for months, he had been collecting intelligence on senior Israeli officials, including Olmert and a number of Knesset members. Bashir met with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in September 2006, and said that the killing was...

JAKARTA, Indonesia - 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...

INDONESIA'S Supreme Court has overturned a guilty verdict against Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for conspiracy in the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, a court spokesman said today. Some foreign governments accuse the cleric of having led a regional extremist group and the move is likely to anger countries such as Australia, which lost 88 nationals in the bomb attacks on nightclubs on the Indonesian resort island. Bashir was released in June after completing a 30-month jail sentence for being part of a conspiracy behind the bombings. The Supreme Court, in response to an appeal by Bashir challenging the verdict, ruled...

Indonesia's Supreme Court has overturned militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir's conviction on conspiracy charges in the 2002 Bali bombings. The verdict clears his name since he has already served his two-and-a-half year sentence. "The court today decided to uphold Bashir's judicial review," chief judge German Hoediarto said on Thursday.

Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has accused America's main intelligence agency of involvement in the 2002 Bali suicide bombings, which claimed the lives of 202 people, including 88 Australians. Bashir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), was released from prison in June after having served almost two years for involvement in the conspiracy which led to the attack.

Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir claims America's top spy agency was involved in the devastating 2002 Bali bombings. Bashir, who was convicted and imprisoned for having prior knowledge of the attacks which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, is also appealing for the lives of three convicted bombers to be spared. Bashir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), was released from prison in June after serving nearly two years. Amrozi, Ali Ghufron - also known as Mukhlas - and Imam Samudra are awaiting execution for their part in the plot. In an interview tonight on ABC television's Foreign...

To anyone who didn't know better, it might seem that the world is finally getting serious about stopping the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, which over the past two years has claimed at least 300,000 lives and displaced at least 2 million people. After months of huffing and puffing, the UN Security Council finally agreed to freeze the assets of war-crimes suspects, impose a travel ban on them, and refer them for trial to the International Criminal Court. The latter resolution was the subject of tortuous negotiations between the Bush administration, which loathes the ICC (even though it...

RADICAL Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir yesterday said the Bali bombing victims were destined to die by God and their families should now convert to Islam. He also called on Prime Minister John Howard to become a Muslim or burn in hell. Mr Howard has written to Indonesia's president to express disgust at Bashir. Just 24 hours after being released from prison for his part in the 2002 bombings, Bashir said becoming Muslims would give the bereaved relatives "salvation and peace". "For the Bali bomb families, those who are non-Muslims, my suggestion is just convert to Islam so they can...

Militan cleric Abu Bakar Bashir gestures during a press conference at his residence in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia, Thursday, June 15, 2006. The Freed cleric on Thursday described the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings as "God's will" and encouraged non-Muslim survivors of the attacks to convert to Islam. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)","DITA ALANGKARA", "AP"); June 15, 2006, 10:08AMCleric Calls on Bush to Convert to Islam By IRWAN FIRDAUS Associated Press Writer © 2006 The Associated Press SOLO, Indonesia — A reputed leader of an al-Qaida-linked terror group blamed for deadly bombings across Indonesia on Thursday accused President Bush and Australia's prime...

MELBOURNE, June 12 (Bernama) -- The scheduled release on Wednesday of Abu Bakar Bashir, alleged spiritual leader of the extremist group Jemaah Islamiah, could spark a fresh round of terror strikes. Rohan Gunaratna, Head of the International Centre for Terrorism and Political Violence Research, told "The Australian" newspaper the early release of Abu Bakar would send a dangerous message to terror groups. "Bashir is also the leader of the Majelis Mujahedin Indonesia, an umbrella organisation of jihad groups in Indonesia," Dr Gunaratna was quoted as saying. "He will mobilise them, he will politicise them. He has the credentials because he...

TERRORIST leader Abu Bakar Bashir taunted Australia yesterday, saying the Bali bombing victims had to die "because it was God's will". As John Howard sent a terse letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over this week's release of the radical cleric, Bashir insisted the terrorists behind the Bali bombings "were not the killers, but only Allah's conduit" for the deaths. Bashir was released on Wednesday after serving 26 months of a 30-month sentence for condoning the first Bali attack, in October 2002, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. The Prime Minister's four-paragraph letter told Dr Yudhoyono of the...

While holding a late night press conference in his Ngruki religious boarding school, Abu Bakar Bashir was asked by the ABC if he had a message for Mr Howard when the Prime Minister visits Indonesia later this month. "I think John Howard should convert to Islam," he said. "If he wants to be saved from hell, he needs to convert to Islam and God willing, he will be forgiven by Allah." Secondly, he warned Australians to never try fighting Muslims because they will definitely lose. "Maybe with God's permission, they can kill us, but they certainly can't beat Islam," he...

Bali bomb cleric freed from jail A Muslim cleric convicted over the 2002 nightclub bombings on Indonesian island Bali, which killed 202 people, has been released from prison in Jakarta. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was found guilty in March 2005 of conspiracy in connection with the bomb plot, but he was cleared of more serious charges. Security experts say the cleric is a founding member of a regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Supporters gathered outside the prison, cheering as he left the building. Australia, from where the majority of those killed in the Bali nightclub bombs came, has said...

Hardline Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir walked out of a Jakarta jail today after serving time for links to the 2002 Bali bombings. Bakir planned to return immediately to an Islamic school in central Java once dubbed the "Ivy League" of militants. Wearing his trademark white skullcap and shawl, a smiling Bashir was surrounded by supporters shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and by media before getting into a car and being driven away. Seen by the West as the spiritual head of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) regional militant network, Bashir was convicted of being part of a...

Militant Islamic Cleric Released from Indonesian Prison Tuesday , June 13, 2006 JAKARTA, Indonesia — A hardline cleric alleged to be a top leader in the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group was released from prison Wednesday to cries of "God is great" from scores of cheering supporters. Abu Bakar Bashir, 68, had served 26 months for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people and thrust Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, onto the front lines of the war on terror. "I thank Allah that I am free today," a smiling and waving Bashir said after...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A military investigation into allegations that U.S. troops intentionally killed Iraqi civilians in a March raid in Ishaqi, a village north of Baghdad, has cleared the troops of misconduct, the military said Friday — despite dramatic video footage of slain children. Meanwhile, a lawyer representing families of some of the two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha on Nov. 19 said three or four Marines carried out the shootings while 20 more waited outside the homes. He also said victims' relatives turned down a request by U.S. investigators...

Chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis has set Nov. 25 as the final deadline for the Assad regime to bow to his demand to interrogate 6 senior Syrian intelligence officers over their role in Lebanon's five-time Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination, the London-based Al Hayat newspaper reported on Thursday. Al Hayat quoted diplomatic sources in London as saying the Berlin prosecutor was awaiting at his Monteverde headquarters near Beirut Syria's official response by Friday to his demand that the 6, including President Assad's brother-in-law Gen. Assef Shawkat, be interrogated in either Vienna or Geneva. Although Syria is still insisting on signing...

Just six weeks before last Saturday's terrorist atrocity in Bali, in a jail cell in Jakarta, I interviewed Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), al-Qa'eda's main ally in the region, and the group on which western attention is focused in the hunt for culprits. Bashir was celebrating the news that an Indonesian court had agreed to reduce his 30-month sentence for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings by more than four months, meaning that he will soon walk free. Ever since the first bombings, in which 202 people died, Indonesian authorities have been woolly in...

Indonesia will ignore Australian protests and slash the prison sentences of 27 Bali bombers as well as their alleged spiritual leader, radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. Remissions for thousands of inmates are being handed down to mark the end of Islam's Ramadan fasting month. Bashir is expected to get one month sliced off his sentence, meaning he could be free by next April. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer travelled to Jakarta last month to persuade President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to block reductions for those convicted of terror offences. But Indonesia's Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin says they'll go ahead according to existing...

Planned Bashir jail cut 'disappointing' 27oct05 AUSTRALIANS would find plans to reduce the sentence of the radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir disappointing, Acting Prime Minister Mark Vaile said today. Bashir, who was jailed over his part in the 2002 Bali bombings, may receive a 30-day reduction to his sentence to mark the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan next week. If granted, Bashir could be free by May next year. In August, his 30-month sentence was reduced by more than four months to mark Indonesian Independence Day. "I'm sure that many Australians would find that disappointing given the...