Radical Cleric Bashir Claims CIA Staged Jakarta Bombings

Candra Malik

Radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. (Photo: Adek Berry, AFP)

Radical Cleric Bashir Claims CIA Staged Jakarta Bombings

Solo. Hard-line Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Wednesday blamed the US Central Intelligence Agency for Friday’s bomb attacks on two hotels in Jakarta.

“It’s the CIA, just like in the Bali bombings. The CIA directed the Mujahideen who wanted to take ‘jihad’ action,” said Bashir, who now leads the Jemaah Ashorut Tauhid, an umbrella group for Islamic groups advocating Shariah law.

Bashir left the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI) he had founded and chaired for years after disagreements with other leaders of the group and founded the Anshorut Tauhid in September, 2008.

In his first public comments following Friday’s blasts at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, Bashir said the CIA aimed to arouse hate against Islam, to get Islamic preachers arrested and Islamic study groups disbanded.

However, Bashir clarified, “I am not a bomb expert. I know nothing about it.”

The elderly cleric also reiterated that the Jemaah Islamiyah — a group that authorities said he had led and was an Al Qaeda-linked regional terror network responsible for bomb attacks in the past few years — did not exist.

“It’s wrong to say that Jemaah Islamiyah has been fragmented into two groups, the first being the original group and the second being the Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid. As far as I know, Jemaah Islamiyah is just an Islamic study group in Egypt,” he said.

Just like in the Bali bombings in 2002, Bashir was convinced that jihad networks in the country did not have the capability to make sophisticated bombs.

“Up till now, my opinion is that whoever believes that Mukhlas was the one who designed the Bali bomb is truly an idiot. The Bali bomb was a CIA design,” he said, referring to one of the three men convicted of masterminding the Bali bomb attacks and executed by firing squad.

He said the same thing applied to Friday’s attacks. “I think it’s not that easy to go in an out from the hotel carrying a bomb, even if it was brought in piece by piece. So, I have my own reason in saying that it must be the CIA’s plan to discredit Islam,” he said.

“The CIA, the US and Australia will not win. They actually fear us. Let’s see. Al Qaeda is just a small group but it terrifies them.”

However, Bashir also said that he did not condone the bombings. Citing the Koran, he said a war must be preceded by a formal declaration. “If they just exploded a bomb without any declaration of war, then it is not in accordance with ‘shariah’ or Islamic rule. That’s my opinion  . . . so they [the Mujahideen] could be wrong in their action,” he said.

He added that even in a war, civilians, especially women and children, must not be killed. “Even if they are kafir, they cannot be murdered. If they get involved, even in thought, they must be killed,” he said.

He added that the Al-Mukmin Islamic Boarding School that he cofounded in Ngruki, Central Java, was not a source of terrorists.

Two of the key Bali bombers were alumni of the school, as was the suicide bomber in the 2003 Marriot bomb attack.

Kingdom 'Not Free' in 2008

Wednesday, 22 July 2009 14:04 Sebastian Strangio

A REPORT released Thursday by the US-based international watchdog organisation Freedom House rated Cambodia as "not free" and claimed that the government had only "paid lip service" to its stated goals of combating corruption and improving governance.

In its 2009 Freedom in the World report, an annual comparison of global political rights and civil liberties, the organisation said Cambodia had earned its rating due to endemic corruption, free speech restrictions and the lack of an independent judiciary in the Kingdom.

"Cambodia is not an electoral democracy," the report stated.

"Prime Minister Hun Sen and the [Cambodian People's Party] dominate national and local politics through their control of the security forces, officials at all levels of government and the state-owned media."

The report also paints a picture of a judiciary "marred by inefficiency and corruption", and claims corruption and abuse of power by high-ranking government officials have "significantly hindered" economic growth.

"Although the economy has been growing as a result of increased investments ... these enterprises frequently involve land grabs by the political elite, top bureaucrats and the military," the report states.

Each year, Freedom House designates countries as "free", "partly free" or "not free". Except for 1993 and 1994, Freedom House has rated Cambodia as "not free" every year since the report was launched in 1973.

Thun Saray, president of the local rights group Adhoc, said the report generally described the situation in Cambodia accurately, though he said the static "not free" rating did not capture the dynamic of transition the country is still experiencing.

Referring to the recent crackdown on government critics, he said Cambodia was certainly in a period of decline.

But he said history showed a pattern of ups and downs.

"Sometimes we see the political space widen, and sometimes we see it narrow down," he told the Post.

"The improvement is that people are more aware of their rights than ever before."

He added: "In a transitional period there are always struggles between democratic and authoritarian forces, and sometimes the authoritarian forces prevail."

A transitional period
Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said he had not seen the Freedom House report, but that Cambodia still faces many challenges.

He said the current government had experienced peace and stability only in the past 11 years, providing a narrow window for reform.

"We understand that we do have some flaws, but [I would like to] remind them that we are still in a stage of reform and development," he said.

"Thank God the CPP is still strong, to keep this country at [the stage] where everyone can enjoy work and enjoy seeing human rights and development."

The new Freedom House report echoes an earlier press freedom report from the organisation, which ranked Cambodia 132nd among 195 countries surveyed.

In its 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index, global corruption monitor Transparency International listed Cambodia as the 166th most-corrupt country out of 180 nations surveyed.