Plot to Kill Indonesian President Foiled

By SETH MYDANS

MANILA — The police in Indonesia said Saturday that they had foiled plans by an Islamist group to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but they declined to confirm news reports that they had killed Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorism suspect in a separate raid.

A leading expert on terrorism, Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group, said she doubted local reports that the terrorism suspect, Noordin Muhammad Top, had been killed in a 16-hour raid on a militant hide-out outside Jakarta.

Police officials said that they could not immediately confirm whether the person who had been killed was Mr. Noordin, and that they had sent a body to Jakarta for DNA testing.

As confused and contradictory reports emerged, it remained unclear whether Mr. Noordin had been in the house at the time of the raid, whether he had escaped or whether he had possibly been arrested beforehand.

“What we do know is that the police intercepted this likely attack, and they get incredible kudos for that,” Ms. Jones said, referring to the assassination attempt.

But as to the raid on the house outside of Jakarta, she said, “What I’m pretty convinced of is that the person inside the house was not Noordin Top and the person who was killed was not Noordin Top.”

The National Police chief, Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri, tried to dampen the rumors.

“We could not yet disclose the identity of the killed man,” he said at a news conference. “After the DNA test, we will announce it, based on facts, not based on speculation.”

The two suspects killed in the second raid, in the West Java town of Bekasi, were believed to be linked to Mr. Noordin.

General Hendarso said an accomplice had told the police that two would-be suicide bombers were planning to detonate explosives in a truck at the president’s home this month. He said a truck was found rigged with explosives, along with bomb-making material.

He said the location was significant “because it is situated just a 12-minutes drive from the president’s residence.

“Our president was a target,” he said.

The president told reporters he had been briefed about a counterterrorism operation by the police, though he did not mention Mr. Noordin.

“I extend my highest gratitude and respect to the police for their brilliant achievement in this operation,” he said.

With the disarray and decline of the region’s leading Islamist terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah, Mr. Noordin had come to be seen as the region’s most dangerous militant, operating a splinter faction that claimed direct links to Al Qaeda, Ms. Jones said.

He is blamed for suicide bomb attacks last month on two hotels in Jakarta that killed seven people, ending a four-year pause in terrorist strikes in Indonesia.

“There is no question that he was involved with the bombings in Jakarta,” Ms. Jones said. “He is certainly the person who has masterminded every major attack in Indonesia beginning with the Marriott Hotel bombings in 2003.”

A Malaysian citizen, Mr. Noordin claimed in a video in 2005 to be Al Qaeda’s representative in Southeast Asia and said he was carrying out attacks on Western civilians to avenge Muslim deaths in Afghanistan.

New Man Behind Jakarta Attacks: Sidney Jones

Jum'at, 31 Juli 2009, 10:13 WIB

by Ita Lismawati F. Malau

(VIVAnews/Nurcholis Anhari Lubis)

VIVAnews - An expert on Islamic terrorist groups in Southeast Asia and an adviser to the International Crisis Group, Sidney Jones, said the name Ibrahim only appeared after the bombings in the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta.

Ibrohim was known as an employee of Cinthia Florist, whose service was used by the Ritz-Carlton, Jakarta. For the time being, he was still hunted down by the police as regards the Jakarta attacks which took place on July 17. Nine people were killed and many others were wounded during the incidents.

"Maruto is an old player. His name surfaced as of 2006 in the Wonosobo case (Central Java)," said Jones on Friday, July 31.

Maruto Jato Sulistiyono was alleged of involving in the terrorist link of the number one terrorist fugitive in Indonesia Noordin Mohammed Top.

During a police raid in Wonosobo in 2006, a member of Noordin's network, Jabir, was shot to dead.

According to Jones, the public should give the police time to filter the gathered names and then name them suspects.

She believes that people around Noordin want to be recognized as part of Al-Qaeda network.

Therefore, she said, the man behind the internet message which has attracted public attention recently concerning the JW Marriott and Rit-Carlton bombings does not have to be Noordin himself.

"Many individuals consider them part of the Al-Qaeda without having links to the center," she said.

--

Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono

• VIVAnews

Indonesian Terrorists Find Refuge

By TOM WRIGHT

PALEMBANG, Indonesia -- The two Jakarta hotels hit by suicide bombers on July 17 reopened Wednesday amid tightened security as new evidence indicates terrorists avoided capture for years by relying on the shelter of sympathetic Islamists.

The twin bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed six foreigners, an Indonesian waiter and the two suicide bombers. Police on Wednesday said they are taking seriously an online statement claiming responsibility for the bombings and bearing the name of the man suspected of planning the attack.

Terror Cell Busted

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European Pressphoto Agency

A police officer delivered brochures showing Noordin Mohammad Top to students in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia Wednesday. Indonesian authorities believe the Malaysian fugitive Noordin Mohammad Top was the mastermind behind the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotel bombings in Jakarta on July 17.

The statement, which surfaced Wednesday and was posted Sunday on an Internet site that hosts blog posts, purports to be from "al Qaeda in Indonesia" and is signed with the name Noordin Mohamed Top. An Indonesian police spokesman said it was too early to tell whether the statement was authentic.

Many intelligence experts agree that terrorist networks in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation are significantly weaker than a few years ago, before U.S.-trained Indonesian security forces ramped up efforts to wipe them out.

But the militants who have eluded capture are still able to rely on numerous havens -- often Islamic schools -- while they gather the fresh recruits and small amounts of money needed to mount more attacks on Indonesian soil.

Investigators have said they believe Mr. Noordin, a Malaysian believed to have carried out a number of terrorist attacks in Indonesia since 2003, orchestrated the bombings, and authorities have rounded up a number of his family members and associates in their bid to reel him in.

Mr. Noordin was formerly a key figure in Jemaah Islamiyah, the al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terrorist network whose members orchestrated bombings in Bali that killed more than 200 people in 2002.

After that, amid a major Indonesian police crackdown that netted hundreds of its members, the group's leadership renounced violence, leaving Mr. Noordin to forge links with smaller radical Islamic groups.

His new network's activities in and around Palembang, a sprawling city of 1.5 million people on the island of Sumatra, show how they operated.

The river port city is a melting pot of Malay, Indian and Chinese people, with a history as a pirate lair. Today, it's a dusty, traffic-clogged city known for its criminal gangs, and for the Masjid Agung, one of the nation's largest mosques, which fills up on Fridays when people from across the city come to pray.

In 2006, according to police documents, an emissary of Mr. Noordin known as Syaifuddin Zuhri, but who used the alias Sabit, arrived at a small Islamic school called al Furqon, about four hours' drive south of Palembang. His mission: To exhort a nonviolent study group of about 10 people concerned about Christian conversions of local Muslims to consider attacks on Western targets.

Mr. Sabit, who had fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s, knew the founder of the religious school, a Jemaah Islamiyah member and Afghan veteran called Ani Sugandi, and had helped him recruit hard-line teachers, according to police testimony viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Sugandi later told police he had refused requests to join in the violence, but sheltered Mr. Sabit and allowed him to give a sermon to the group.

In the sermon, Mr. Sabit claimed he had direct links to Osama bin Laden and urged the members to launch a jihad against America and its allies, according to the testimony of Abdurrahman Taib, a leading member of the study group. The following year, Mr. Sabit told Mr. Taib that he had been sent by Mr. Noordin, the police files show.

Mr. Sabit introduced Mr. Taib to a master bomb maker, who later trained others in the group, and supplied him with a loaded revolver and 11 spare bullets to be used in attacks on "infidels," Mr. Taib said in trial testimony.

Members of the group went on, in 2007, to shoot dead a Christian schoolteacher in Palembang who had persuaded his Muslim female students not to wear their veils. The members also built bombs and planned to attack tourist cafes in a Sumatran hill resort popular with backpackers, according to testimony. The group called off the attacks at the last minute because they didn't want to also kill Indonesian Muslims.

When the group was broken up last year, after police followed leads from arrested Jemaah Islamiyah members, Those arrested included Mr. Sugandi, the head of the religious school -- which is now shuttered -- and a 35-year-old Singaporean known as Fajar Taslim, who had helped radicalize the group and was wanted in Singapore for a foiled attempt to attack Western targets there in 2001.

Six suspects picked up had no previous known connection to Jemaah Islamiyah or any other violent group, suggesting Mr. Noordin's network was able to successfully radicalize people.

Eight members of the group confessed and were convicted of the teacher's murder and of planning attacks, and received prison sentences of between 10 and 18 years. Mr. Sugandi was given a five-year sentence for harboring terrorists, and his school shut down. Mr. Sabit wasn't captured.

In Indonesia, a secular nation of 240 million people with thousands of moderate Islamist academies, there are about 50 radical Islamic schools opened by alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Sidney Jones, an expert on Southeast Asian terrorist networks at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a peace-advocacy body, says the school heads -- who want to see the establishment of an Islamic state and are highly distrustful of Indonesia's secular government and police -- often allow known terrorists to stay with them as long as they promise not to engage in acts of violence while there.

"You can be at any one of these schools and link in to Noordin" or his associates, says Ms. Jones, who first outlined the story of the Palembang group in a report last May.

The Indonesian government has hesitated to close the schools because of the difficulty of proving direct links to terrorism and the sensitivity about government interference in religious education, said a senior Indonesian antiterrorism official

Heri Purwanto, a 25-year-old who was in the Palembang study group and made a living hawking prepaid cards for mobile phones, was guarding the group's bombs in a derelict house in the city when police arrested him. His mother, Purwati, who lives in a run-down wooden house at the end of a narrow maze of alleys in a poor part of the city, contends her son was never a radical Muslim and is at a loss to explain his involvement.

Ms. Purwati says she complained to guards at her son's Jakarta prison that he was sharing a cell with Mr. Taslim, the Singaporean, and could become further radicalized.

Some members of the study group, who police have been unable to prove were involved in the attacks, have remained free. A lawyer for one of them, Oloan Martua Harahap, who owned an Internet cafe used by the group for meetings but claims not to be have known of the plans for the shooting or planned bombings, says those arrested had became more radical through contact with Mr. Sabit and others. "They were saying jihad must be conducted now and the enemy is Capitalism," says Bahrul Ilmi Yakup, the lawyer. .

Mr. Sabit was arrested in June in Cilacap, a town in Central Java where police now say they believe the Jakarta attacks were planned.

Just a few days before the bombings, police raided an Islamic school in Cilacap run by a man who is the father-in-law of Mr. Noordin and a relative of Mr. Sabit, uncovering bomb making material. The material was similar to an unexploded bomb found later at the JW Marriott. Authorities have since detained a woman believed to be Mr. Noordin's wife. Her father, who ran the school, and Mr. Noordin remain on the run.

Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com

Indonesian Police Say Jakarta Bombings Are Work of Jemaah Islamiyah

By Brian Padden Jakarta 19 July 2009

Indonesian Police say the bombings of two hotels in Jakarta on Friday was the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist group with al-Qaida ties. Analysts say it is likely that Noordin Top, a Malaysian fugitive who leads an affiliated group within a Southeast Asian militant network, planned and organized the attacks. The two blasts killed nine people, including the two suspected attackers, and wounded 50, many of them foreigners.

Indonesian national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna says the bombing attacks on the Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotels in Jakarta on Friday were the work of Jemaah Islamiyah. The group with ties to Al-Qaida, has carried out dozens of bombings in Indonesia in the past decade, including a 2002 attack in Bali that left more than 200 people dead, mostly foreign tourists.

A poster bearing image of Southeast Asia terror ringleaders Noordin M. Top, left, and Azhari bin Husin is put on a tree in Jakarta (File)

He told reporters Sunday an unexploded bomb left in a guest room of the Marriott hotel, which was attacked along with the nearby Ritz-Carlton, resembled explosives used in Bali and one discovered in a recent raid on an Islamic boarding school.

Sidney Jones, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, says Noordin Top, a Malaysian who leads the most militant faction of Jemaah Islamiyah, is the likely organizer of the attacks.

"Noordin is the only person of the various leaders of radical groups in Indonesia who is continued to be determined to attack western targets and particularly American targets," said Jones.

Jones says Noordin has used suicide bombers in the past like the ones used in Friday's attacks. And she says before the bombing police had some intelligence indicating Noordin may have been planning something.

"It was clear in the last two weeks that something was afoot. And the police were very actively searching this area in South Central Java called Cilacap because they believe some of Noordin's associates were active there," said Jones. "And we now know there is linkage between explosive materials used in these hotel bombings with some of the materials found in Cilacap by police."

But Jones says Noordin Top may have split from the main Jemaah Islamiyah organization, or JI, which had recently turned away from violence because it was turning public opinion against them.

"The bulk of JI members are not interested in violence now because they regard this kind of bombing as counter-productive," added Jones. "They need to rebuild their organization and they do that by recruiting new members through religious outreach. This kind of bombing does not bring you any new members, it creates outrage in the community."

Jones says bombing the Marriott Hotel, which was also attacked in 2003, was probably meant to demonstrate that their group is still active and able penetrate the increased security.