 September 17 Loud explosions and gunfire were heard coming from a house on the outskirts of the town of Solo, a known militant stronghold, as well as shouts of Allahu Akbar (God is Greater).
A police source had earlier said the target of the operation was an associate of Malaysian terrorism suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, the leader of an Al-Qaeda-linked group blamed for a string of deadly bombings in Indonesia.
The source said it was possible that Top was also inside the house.
"Five bodies have been taken out of the house,'' a police intelligence officer told AFP, requesting anonymity.
An AFP correspondent saw three bodies being brought out of the house after the raid ended just before dawn. Metro TV said five people had been killed in the clash, and one member of the anti-terrorism police injured.
Members of the Mobile Brigade, a special police squad, besieged the house in the early hours of the morning and shooting went on for several hours, witnesses said.
Asked about the raid, Saud Usman Nasution, head of the Special Detachment 88 anti-terror squad, said that his unit was "still monitoring'' the situation.
Noordin, 41, who heads a violent splinter faction of the radical Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network, is suspected of being behind July 17 double suicide attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.
The bombings, which killed seven people including six foreigners, were the first attack in Indonesia in nearly four years.
Noordin allegedly also masterminded a 2003 attack on the Marriott that killed 12 people, as well as the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy and 2005 attacks on tourist restaurants on the holiday island of Bali.
Police believe they narrowly missed Noordin in a dramatic televised raid in August on a safehouse in Temanggung, Central Java.
Noordin was initially reported dead at the end of the 17-hour siege but the body later turned out to be that of a florist working in the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel complex who helped plot the attacks from the inside.
Jemaah Islamiyah's ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state. 
 Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent The new laws could see the targeting of Muslim clerics such as Abu Bakar Bashir, who gave his blessing to the 2002 Bali bombers but escaped attempts to convict him of terrorism. Bashir is regarded by a small group of hardline Islamists as a guiding light, although he almost certainly had no direct involvement in recent attacks including the July 17 Jakarta bombings. He spends his time travelling throughout Indonesia preaching his anti-Western message. He presided at the central Java funerals three weeks ago of two suspected terrorists shot dead by police in relation to the July 17 attacks, describing them as "fighters for Islam" who would be given "God's reward" in heaven. Thousands of people crowded into the ceremony in the city of Solo to hear Bashir's words. The head of Indonesia's anti-terrorism desk, Ansyaad Mbai, told The Australian yesterday that encouraging terrorist sentiment should be a prosecutable offence. "What I think we need, in the sense of increasing our legal capacity, is the criminalisation of certain activities, such as preparation for terrorist acts, encouraging people to be involved in terrorism, and spreading hatred," General Mbai said. Under current anti-terrorism laws enacted after the 2002 Bali blasts, suspects can be held for just seven days before police must either outline charges or release the accused. However, General Mbai denied the proposed new laws signalled a return to the repressive days of former dictator Suharto, or that they were an attempt to copy the heavy-handed internal security acts of neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. The retired police inspector-general, who was part of a delegation summonsed to the parliament on Monday to address legislators on the need for the rule changes, said that despite recent advances in Indonesian policing standards, the July bombings were evidence that "our legal protection remains inadequate". "Terrorism needs to be prevented, and the preventative means we have are through the legal system," he said. General Mbai cited as proof of Indonesia's systemic inadequacy the fact that one of the men buried by Bashir two weeks ago, Air Setiawan, had previously been arrested on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities and subsequently released. "That's a lesson that our laws are too soft," General Mbai said. Parliament has in the past considered and rejected proposals to institute a stand-alone internal security act like Malaysia's or Singapore's, but the current debate revolves around stiffening the already existing anti-terrorism legislation. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, in a report last week on the support base of Noordin Mohammad Top, the Malaysian believed responsible for the July bombings, warned against a beefed-up legislative approach to the problem. "Strengthened legislation, harsher sentences for convicted terrorists, and new structural arrangements in the security apparatus (would be counter-productive) unless government agencies make a serious effort to understand and weaken the support base for terrorist activity," the group warned. Source: The Australian
In an effort to move beyond the laws created in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US and the 2002 Bali bombings, Mr McClelland announced a suite of changes to Australia's terror laws. Under the changes announced last night, the length of time that police can detain terror suspects will be capped at nine days. But police will be given the power to search premises without a warrant where they believe there is material that threatens public health, such as explosives or biological agents. However, as a safeguard, police will not be able to enter a premises for the purpose of gathering evidence merely to address acute security threats. The changes also extend the amount of time police have to re-enter premises from one hour to 12 in emergencies. Mr McClelland said the government's proposals hardened Australia's laws in some areas and moderated them in others. But he left little doubt that overall the adjustments represented a softening of the body of laws introduced by the Howard government, which he said had been passed "expeditiously" following the September 11 attacks and the 2002 Bali bombings. Under the changes, the definition of a terrorist act will be expanded to include acts of "psychological" harm, as well as physical injury, and police will be allowed to search premises without a warrant if they believe dangerous materials, such as bombs or biological weapons, are located inside. Read more here ... Source: The Australian Kevin Rudd
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 Paul Toohey | October 02, 2008
KILL us, Bali's laughing bombers vowed yesterday, and there will be revenge.
During their trials for the 2002 nightclub bombings on the Indonesia party island, Amrozi and fellow Islamic militants Mukhlas and Imam Samudra said they were happy to die for their cause - whatever it was - but now they squeal and squirm.
"If I am executed, later there will be retribution," Amrozi, awaiting death by firing squad, threatened yesterday.
Amrozi, 47, a resident of Nusakambangan Island, a prison for end-of-the-line criminals off Java, yesterday told journalists on the third anniversary of the subsequent 2005 Bali bombings that those who executed him would be "condemned to die by God".
"Of course we are all condemned to die by god - or fate, or time, whatever you like to call it. Some of us would prefer that time picked us, rather than having it decided by a group of miserable humans who insult their god by imagining they share his power."
The smiling assassin, the cowardly Amrozi, so unremorseful, is clearly terrified of his imminent execution. As is Mukhlas, who said: "If the execution is carried out, that will constitute the biggest criminal act because they will be killing holy warriors."
Despite Amrozi laughing through their trials, and the three using every legal stalling method they could to stay their executions - all failed - they have now reached the point of imagining what it will feel like when a bullet passes through their respective hearts. Maybe they won't feel a thing.
Yet there is no reason their deaths should be celebrated. But none of them has given a single reason for anyone to fight for them.
This is especially so because they remain committed to killing, even as their ends draw nearer. Yesterday, at the end of Ramadan, Amrozi delivered his threat of retribution. He did not expound on what form this retribution would take.
Asked by a journalist if he would seek forgiveness - a tradition during the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Fitr - from the families of Western victims, Imam Samudra said: "I don't ask for forgiveness from infidels, I only ask for forgiveness from Muslims."
If certain parents or loved ones of the 202 who were killed in the October 12 bombings believe the three should not be shot, they should be respected in that wish.
So should loved ones who think otherwise.
Anyone who has stood in Kuta looking at the memorial to the 202 - 88 of them Australian - could not fail to be deeply moved.
The bombers, who were themselves mass executioners, also turned on their own Government yesterday, with Mukhlas describing it as "satanic".
Indonesian people, in my experience, are among the warmest people on the planet. They are also susceptible to superstition, which is what Mukhlas is playing on. They will not be conned in this instance.
When the three are taken to a lonely beach - or perhaps to a coconut grove - at dawn to have small aprons pinned on their chests to assist the execution squad's aim, it will simply not matter that they are gone. The people I feel most for are those in the firing squad, most of whom will have their long weapon armed with blanks but will probably know, based on the rifle's recoil, whether or not it was their bullet that did the damage.
"The people who will execute us, if they do this execution they will be cursed by God," Mukhlas said.
Well, in this life, some people have unpleasant jobs they just have to do. On October 12, 2002, Amrozi, Mukhlas and Samudra were not such people. Source: The Australian
October 01, 2008
THREE death row Bali bombers today vowed there would be retribution if their executions went ahead.
Amrozi, who played a lead role in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, also said he would carry out another bombing if given the chance.
His comments came as people gathered in Bali to mark the third anniversary of the second bombings in 2005 that killed 20 people, including four Australians.
Amrozi remained defiant today, as he and his co-accused - his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra - were allowed out of their cells at their island prison off Central Java to mark the Islamic holiday Idul Fitri.
“If it's true that there will be an execution, then all the people committing the execution will be condemned to die by god,” Amrozi said at the jail on Nusakambangan Island.
“Is anyone ready to die? Only god knows about that.
“If it's true that later on I will be executed, certainly there will be someone who will take revenge. I don't have to say who will take revenge.”
Mukhlas also said “all the executors”, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, would pay if the three bombers were put before a firing squad.
“Execution is the biggest criminal act (possible), especially when it is applied to warriors like us,” he said.
“All those who are involved in the execution will be condemned by god,” he ranted, adding shouts of “god is great”.
“The followers will take revenge actions, other warriors. If anyone kills us then there will be a (sic) revenge from all over the place.
“I've never regretted these bombings ... I will not ask for forgiveness from those infidels.”
The three bombers last week reportedly said they were confident they would not be put to death this year.
The Indonesian government halted plans for their executions out of respect for the holy Islamic fasting month, but is expected to resume preparations shortly.
The three men have exhausted all legitimate legal options.
However, their lawyers have launched yet another action in Indonesia's Constitutional Court, arguing that execution by firing squad amounts to torture because they might not die immediately. Source: The Australian
Update:Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent | August 14, 2008 THE three death-row Bali bombers are inching closer to a Ramadan reprieve from their executions, with Indonesia's Constitutional Court granting the terrorists' lawyers leave to plead an extraordinary appeal. Three judges from the nine-member bench today heard preliminary arguments in the case, which argues that executing the men by firing squad is overly cruel. Lawyers argue that the three men, Imam Samudra, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron aka Mukhlas, should be entitled to a more humane method of execution. "The appellants have a constitutional right not to be tortured," the application states, arguing that any delay between the initial volley by the firing squad and eventual death would constitute torture. One member of the firing squad is authorised to shoot the condemned at point-blank range with a pistol should the general execution shot not prove fatal. The lawyers were told to expand on their arguments at a hearing set for two weeks' time, and to specify whether they were looking for an explicit legal ruling that the executions be delayed. They have not specified in the appeal how they would prefer their clients to be killed. With the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan now only two weeks away, pressure is mounting on the Attorney-General either to order the fanatical Islamists' executions immediately or delay until probably the middle of October at the earliest.Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji has previously said he wanted the executions to be carried out before Ramadan. The fact that the Constitutional Court is now hearing the matter should have no legal bearing on Mr Supandji's decision. However both he and the Government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will probably face intense protests if the executions clash with Ramadan, which Muslims celebrate as a period of forgiveness for sins committed. "Preparations (for the executions) are continuing - we don't need to wait for a decision from the Constitutional Court. When we are ready, we will execute," a spokesman said after today's hearing. Mr Supandji has also promised the bombers' families one last visit, but so far the formal permission for that meeting has not been issued, giving more weight to the impression the executions will be delayed until after Ramadan. Family members yesterday met with a parliamentary delegation to complain about the delay in being granted permission for their visit. Source: The Australian
Update: Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta | August 06, 2008 LAWYERS for the three death-row Bali bombers have lodged a last-ditch appeal they hope will delay their clients' executions for up to two years. The appeal, in Indonesia's Constitutional Court, will argue that the country's method of execution - - by firing squad - - is inhumane. However a spokesman from the Attorney-General's office dismissed the move yesterday, saying it would have no impact on plans to execute Imam Samudra, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron, aka Mukhlas. "There is no plan to put off the executions," said the spokesman, Bonaventura Daulat Nainggolan. "We are continuing with preparations." Indonesia's Constitutional Court operates outside the legal justice system so the appeal does not automatically figure in the normal avenue of options open to a convicted person. The court's Chief Justice, Jimly Assidique, said last week that should an appeal be lodged, he would hope the criminal system would respect it by delaying the men's executions. However Justice Minister Andi Mattalatta yesterday described the Constitutional Court review as "irrelevant" to the carrying out of a criminal sentence, saying "execution is one thing; the constitutional court is another". Lawyer for the bombers Wirawan Adnan said he expected the matter to take up to two years in the Constitutional Court, "but if the prosecution wants to execute, that's up to them; (although) I predict they will wait". The three men could be executed within days, with Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji saying recently he hoped the sentence would be carried out "before Ramadan" - the main Muslim religious period, which begins in three weeks. Preparations have already been made on the remote southern Java prison island of Nusakambangan for their deaths. There is expected to be a violent outcry from hardline Muslims to the executions, particularly in the East Java hometown of Amrozi and Mukhlas. Source: The Australian
Update:
Cindy Wockner July 30, 2008 12:00am THE death row Bali bombers want to be beheaded instead of being shot by a firing squad. They are appealing to the Indonesian Constitutional Court on the grounds that death by firing squad is torture. The three want to be beheaded in the way that capital punishment is carried out under strict Islamic law. They will claim that prisoners can take too long to die when shot. Their lawyers denied the move was a tactic to delay the executions, which authorities said were imminent. Lawyer Mahendradatta said the issue was about ensuring due processes of law were followed when it came to irreversible punishment and not about saving the lives of Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. The lawyers will meet Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji tomorrow to complain that the latest appeal knockback by the Supreme Court was in the form of a letter signed by a court clerk and not a decision by judges. Mr Mahendradatta said the Constitutional Court appeal would argue that death by firing squad could be torture. If the firing squad does not kill the prisoner immediately, the commander has what is known as an amnesty shot with his pistol. "The regulation itself admits that there is a possibility that one shot is not going to kill the prisoner, which means it is torture," he said. "The constitution says the right not to be tortured cannot be reduced under any circumstances. "They (the bombers) are on the death sentence not torture. "Amrozi and the others are ready to die, not only today but since they got the first verdict in Denpasar. But this is about the law and precedent." Executions should be carried out only when all legal procedures had been followed properly, he added. "If they want to execute Amrozi and the others, just go ahead -- but say it is in the name of revenge because if you want to execute them by the regulations then you have to follow all the procedures of the law." Mr Mahendradatta said the Muslim Lawyer Team, which represents all three condemned men, would meet the Attorney-General and press him to make sure the law was followed. "We are going to go to the Attorney-General to ask them to obey the law. I have never seen a situation before where a clerk makes a court ruling." It is unlikely the Constitutional Court appeal would stop the executions. Authorities want the executions carried out before Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month, which starts in September. Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji has previously said appeal or no appeal, the executions would go ahead. Prosecutors in Bali, who are in charge of arranging the executions of the bombers who killed 202 people in 2002, say everything is ready and they're waiting for a date. The three will be executed on Nusa Kambangan Island, off the coast of Central Java, where their jail is located. Source: HeraldSun
Update on this story. THREE death-row Bali bombers will be executed "as soon as possible," Indonesia's attorney general said today after the Islamic militants declined to seek clemency from the President. Hendarman Supandji said he hoped that so-called "smiling assassin" Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra would be executed before the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in September. The three bombers face death by firing squad for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and three New Zealanders. "We want it as soon as possible," Mr Supandji he said. "Legally they can be executed because they won't submit a request for clemency. The legal effort is finished." Families of Australian victims say they have been told by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) that the executions are imminent. Indonesia's Supreme Court recently dismissed the trio's final legal challenge. The country appears to be ramping up its use of the death penalty, despite a global push to eliminate state-sanctioned executions. Three prisoners were executed at the weekend, including a mother and son who murdered a family 20 years ago. Indonesia has now executed six prisoners in less than a month. It resumed executions in June after a 14-month lapse. Mr Supandji said he could not give a specific time for the bombers' executions. "It could be next month, or the end of this month or the end of next month," he said. "It depends on the process from Denpasar District Court, the prosecutor's office and the Attorney General's office. My hope would be before the fasting month." Mr Supandji said as far as he was concerned the bombers had waived all rights to seek clemency from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "We have offered it in writing to them and to their families and both have refused it," he said. Some Australians who lost family members in Bali say they will celebrate the bombers' executions but others remain opposed, including former Adelaide magistrate Brian Deegan who lost his son Joshua. Mr Deegan has written an open letter to Indonesian authorities saying "no good, only harm" will come from the executions. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark today said she did not support the executions, despite the "heinous crimes" of the three. Indonesian human rights campaigner Usman Hamid said he suspected Indonesia was using the rash of recent executions to deflect attention from a corruption scandal inside the Attorney General's office and other government agencies. "There is an increasing number of cases about bribery (among) the law enforcement officials ... the law enforcement agencies are (suffering a) crisis of their credibility," Mr Hamid said. "Law enforcement agencies ... and the Government are trying to use the cases of (the) death penalty ... to have more credibility. "This is wrong. If the Government wants to be seen as a strong government, with a strong law enforcement process, it should ... reform the judiciary, reform (the) prosecutors."
ALLEGED Bali bombings mastermind Hambali will face trial before a US military commission by the end of the year, with prosecutors saying the case against him is well advanced. As relatives of the 88 Australians killed in the 2002 Bali attacks await the execution in Indonesia of the three men who carried out the nightclub bombings, the chief prosecutor of the US military commissions, Colonel Larry Morris, said prosecutors were on track to charge Hambali this year. Colonel Morris declined to say exactly what charges Indonesian-born Hambali would face, but he told The Australian they would include ``substantive'' and conspiracy offences. "A substantive offence is a traditional common-law crime, such as murder, as well crimes that depict the collaboration of these individuals,'' he said. Hambali was arrested in Thailand in 2003. In 2006, it was announced he had been moved to Guantanamo Bay where he awaits trial along with 13 other so-called high-value detainees, including alleged 9/11 plotter Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Colonel Morris said prosecutors had yet to make a final determination about which attacks Hambali would be charged over. Hambali is alleged to have financed the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people. US officials also suspect him of involvement in the 2003 Jakarta Marriot bombings, and plots to attack Western missions, including the Australian high commission in Singapore. It is claimed he was the link between al-Qa'ida and Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiah. Colonel Morris said prosecutors had yet to decide if they would try Hambali separately or with three other detainees accused of conspiring with Hambali in a string of terror attacks across Southeast Asia. But Colonel Morris's predecessor, Colonel Mo Davis, cast doubt on the progress of the Hambali trial, saying the controversial military commissions were probably doomed. "My best guess is that their days are probably numbered ... It's become such a polarising symbol around the world that I don't know that you could ever fix it to a point where it would ever have credibility,'' Colonel Davis told The Australian. But Colonel Davis said even if the commissions were abandoned, authorities would find another way to try Guantanamo's so-called "worst of the worst''. "You're not going to see any of the high-value detainees walking the streets soon,'' he said. Source: The Australian
Mark Dunn July 17, 2008 10:23am EXCLUSIVE: The firing squad execution of the Bali bombers is imminent, families of the victims have been told. The Herald Sun has learned the Australian Federal Police were expecting the trio of Bali bombers to be executed over the weekend but the firing squad was stood down at the last minute. David "Spike" Stewart, whose son Anthony was killed in the 2002 blasts, said a senior AFP officer rang him last Friday to tell him the executions were expected to go ahead over the weekend. Mr Stewart now expects Amrozi, Sumudra and Ghufron -also known as Mukhlas - to be shot either today or in coming days after all avenues of appeal were exhuasted. "We were so happy when we were told, now we juest have to wait and when the AFP rings us up and says it has happened that will be great," Mr Stewart said. "I just don't want them getting out and doing it again, I know they are crazy enough." The October 12, 2002 blasts in the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. John Croxford, whose wife Donna died in the Sari club blast, said a female officer from the AFP told him on Sunday night to expect to hear confirmation the bomber had been executed within days. "I was told all avenues for appeal had been exhausted and so the next stage was to take them out to a paddock," Mr Croxford said. "She basically said it might happen any day but definitely within the next fortnight." Like family members of other victims, Mr Croxford said the drawn-out appeals process had taken its toll on relatives and the executions would bring some sense of justice. "I just feel very glad ... I think it's going to be beautiful when they reach the place they are going and find out they are not being met by 1000 virgins." Mr Croxford said the executions would not bring loved ones back but would provide some people with peace of mind. He said he felt for the families of the bombers but the killers had chosen their own destiny. "I can relate to how their kids and loved ones will feel because I am in the same position." The three bombers remain unrepentant over the attacks and are on death row in an island prison, known as Indonesia's Alcatraz, off Java. Mukhlas, who masterminded the attack, has previously said the trio were ready to die as martyrs, and the fight would be carried on by thousands of other radical Muslims. Executions in Indonesia are carried out at dawn by a 10-man firing squad, ususually paramilitary police. The executions usually take place at undisclosed beach or forest locations and although no official date is given before an execution, news an execution has been carried out normally filters back from the prison or through Indonesian justice officials. Source: Herald Sun
By Tom Allard RABIAH HUTCHINSON, the Mudgee-born grandmother accused of being the "grand dame" of extremist jihadis in Australia, says she has limited sympathy for the victims of the Bali bombings because those holidaying on the Indonesian island engaged in pedophilia and drug taking. And her close friend, Raisah bint Alan Douglas, another Australian convert to radical Islam who also married a suspected terrorist supporter, has praised Osama bin Laden, saying he followed a "correct" version of Islam. The women are featured in a documentary to be aired on ABC television tonight, Jihad Sheilas. Read more ...Source: The Sydney Morning HeraldH/T: AtlasUpdate: Second 'jihad sheila' faces losing passport
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September 17
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