Jakarta Police Had Anticipated Attack

[Seraphim]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030806/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_blast&cid=516&ncid=716


By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Police on Wednesday said they seized documents last month showing terrorists had planned to target the area around Jakarta's Marriott Hotel, where a powerful car bomb a day earlier killed as many as 14 people and injured nearly 150.


Security forces had increased patrols in the Marriott area in response to the seizure but the precautions weren't enough to prevent the suspected suicide attack, which underscored the continuing threat of terrorism in the world's largest Muslim nation.


"There was a warning that there were some targets and we have been anticipating an attack," said Jakarta police spokesman Prasetyo, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.


He said that the documents were seized in the central Java town of Semarang last month, when police arrested seven alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah.


Officials also said they were investigating two men who allegedly purchased the vehicle used in the bombing, and planned to issue a composite sketch of one of the men later Wednesday.


The Jemaah Islamiyah rebel group, believed linked to the al-Qaida terror network, allegedly claimed responsibility for the hotel bombing in remarks published by Singapore's Straits Times newspaper. But it couldn't immediately determined if the claim was authentic.


The blast came two days before a verdict in the trial of a key suspect in the Bali nightclub bombings last Oct. 12 that killed 202 people, which was blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah. Tuesday was also the first day of testimony in another bombing case by the alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiyah — a shadowy group said to be fighting to install a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.


Indonesia's top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday warned of more terrorist attacks in the vast archipelago, saying that the two court cases were reasons enough for Muslim extremists to lash out.


"The government would like to remind the people ... of the possibility of more terrorist attacks," said Yudhoyono.


Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government had acquired intelligence in the hours after the bombing that there could be more terrorist attacks in Indonesia in the coming days. He did not say what the intelligence was.


"We think there is a real risk that there could be further attacks, including in central Jakarta," Downer told reporters in Adelaide.


The Chase Plaza building in Jakarta, which house JP Morgan Chase Bank, was evacuated Wednesday morning following a bomb threat there phoned in to a tenant in the building. No further details were immediately available.


The Marriott — a frequent venue for U.S. Embassy functions and a popular destination for foreigners — was transformed into a bloody inferno when a vehicle packed with explosives blew up on the driveway leading to its front entrance around midday.


National police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said the bomb was a mixture of low yield explosives and TNT, while cans containing gasoline were packed around it to create a fiery blast.


He said officers had found a badly burned head close to the vehicle. "We strongly suspect that (this person) is linked with the bomb."


The governor of Jakarta, Sutiyoso, said the attack was "very likely" carried out by a suicide bomber. Bachtiar confirmed the vehicle was moving at the time of the explosion.


World leaders expressed horror and outrage at the bombing. The White House called it a "deplorable attack on innocent civilians" and declared its support for the Indonesian government's fight against terrorism.





The Red Cross in Jakarta put the death toll at 14. But Health Minister Achmad Suyudi said that there were only 10 confirmed deaths. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

The minister said 147 people had been wounded, including two Americans.

Keenly aware of the potential economic fallout from the latest blast — the Bali bombings wrecked tourism in one of the world's premier vacation spots — Indonesia moved quickly to bolster security.

Yudhoyono said the government had ordered strict checks at the airport and other public places, and said officials would announce even stronger security measures on Wednesday.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who stayed at the Marriott on a recent visit to Jakarta and whose country lost 88 citizens in the Bali blasts, offered to send investigators to help Indonesian authorities.

[Seraphim]

Jakarta bombing linked to Bali blasts

http://www.msnbc.com/news/948382.asp?vts=080620030735

[budanski]

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THE BEST THEY CAN DO
NY Post (http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/2474.htm)
By RALPH PETERS

August 6, 2003 -- YESTERDAY, terrorists exploded a car bomb at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta. At least 13 people died; over a hundred were injured.
It was another failure for the terrorists.

Behind the breathless 24/7 reports and the images of burned cars and blown-out windows, the encouraging fact is that the bombing in Indonesia was the best the terrorists could do: They can't defeat America, so they killed some folks having lunch.

The terrorists dream of destroying the United States and bringing down Western civilization, of purifying their own societies and imposing their degenerate version of Islam on all of humankind. So they marshal their resources - and blow up a hotel lobby.

It doesn't sound as if they're making much progress.

Turn down the media noise and imagine yourself in the place of Mad Mustapha, career terrorist. After his 9/11 "triumph," America's ferocious reaction robbed him of his safe haven in Afghanistan, badly crippling history's most successful terrorist organization in the process, then eliminated Iraq as a possible sanctuary. Other states that once applauded him now shun him, from Pakistan to Yemen to Libya. And his best buds are getting the big suntan in Gitmo.

Instead of Mad Mustapha visiting destruction upon the "Great Satan America," that mean ol' devil in red, white and blue has come knocking on his door. International cooperation has broken his finances, unraveled his schemes and put several thousand of his colleagues in jail - while killing thousands more.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, would seem a natural breeding ground for terrorists. Yet it's noteworthy how little progress extremists have made in that sprawling country of 17,000 islands.

Certainly, Indonesia has a strong minority of Muslim fundamentalists - as the United States has millions of Christian fundamentalists - but none of the country's major religious organizations has established ties to terrorism. The men who perpetrated the Jakarta bombing belong to an outcast group whose leader is on trial for his life.

The Saudis, who have produced far more terrorists from a much smaller population base, have sunk billions of dollars into Indonesia in an attempt to persuade the people to adapt a stricter, crueler version of Islam. Yet the people of Indonesia have resisted.

It's a tremendously complex country, with remote tribes and modern universities (some of them Islamic), whose study programs are far more advanced than those in any major Arab country. I can testify that Indonesian beer is good and plentiful. And were I a bachelor, I'd consider relocating to Jakarta - when young Indonesians hear the word "fundamentalism," they tend to focus on the first three letters.

Most Indonesian Muslims are tolerant. On the crucial island of Java, Islam is a mix-and-match religion, incorporating legacies from Hinduism, Buddhism, local animist customs and the humane Sufi tradition, with its saints and New-Age mysticism. It drives the Saudis nuts.

Indonesians are undeniably religious (nowhere more deeply than on Hindu Bali), but relatively few have signed up for the merciless doctrines of the Middle East. Much of what's reported as religious conflict has been a series of turf wars with economic and demographic roots.

There have been no massive demonstrations in support of the terrorists awaiting sentencing in the Bali nightclub bombing. The infamous demonstrations outside the U.S. embassy after 9/11 rarely mustered more than a thousand people, and usually involved no more than a few dozen protesters - in the world's most populous Muslim state. I was there for a long visit last year; whenever Indonesian Muslims learned I was an American, their interests ran to visas, not vengeance.

On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of Indonesians have demonstrated to protest government corruption. The people overthrew their dictator on their own and enjoy a raucous democracy. Almost 200 million Muslims live under a female president.

Indonesia has innumerable problems, but the triumph of terrorism is not one of them. Far from encouraging the people of Indonesia to support the terrorists, the hotel bombing in Jakarta will only turn the population more firmly against them, as did the Bali bombings. Desperate to prove they remain capable, the terrorists have become their own worst enemies, striking not their sworn enemies, but their neighbors.

Most of yesterday's dead were cab drivers waiting in line, local diners and hotel staff. The Indonesian people are not apt to be inspired. Instead, they'll be angry that another blow has been delivered from within against tourism and their economy.

Unlike our Saudi "friends," the Indonesians would rather fight terrorism than finance it. In just a few years, they have come a long way toward recognizing that even the smallest terrorist threat cannot be ignored. They will regard the hotel bombing as a national embarrassment.

What we saw in Jakarta was not a terrorist success, but further evidence of the terrorists' weakness and desperation.