 AN INTENSE security review is under way as the Obama Administration considers holding a trial in Washington for the Guantanamo Bay detainee suspected of planning the deadly Bali nightclub bombing. The move would bring one of the world's most notorious terrorism suspects to a courthouse just steps from the Capitol, officials say. Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, was allegedly Osama bin Laden's point man in Indonesia. Until his capture in August 2003, he was believed to be the main link between al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah, the terror group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Other terrorism trials also might be held in Washington and New York City under a proposal being discussed within the Obama Administration, according to US officials. The officials said the decision could come in a matter of weeks. Authorities have begun reviewing the security measures needed to bring Hambali and others before a Washington federal judge, the officials said. Conducting a trial in the nation's capital would be a symbolic repudiation of the policies of former President George Bush, who portrayed Hambali as a success story in his administration's program of interrogating terror suspects in secret CIA prisons overseas. Mr Bush said such interrogations, which included the simulated drowning technique of waterboarding, helped crack alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and led authorities to Hambali. The Age 
Dr. Tawfik Hamid was a member of a radical Islamist organization with Ayman Al-Zawaherri who later became the second in command of Al Qaeda. Hamid is an Islamic reformer who believes strongly in what he calls "valid interpretation for the Quran" in order to denounce radical Islamists. His comments about what caused him to become a terrorist are particularly interesting. Although it is generally believed that all terrorists are poor and oppressed, Hamid notes that his family was financially secure and that he was brainwashed.
 By Adam Gartrell The video, recorded less than three weeks before the attacks that killed seven, including three Australians, was recovered from a laptop seized in the police raid that killed terrorist mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top earlier this month.
The video, believed to be shot by Noordin henchman Saifuddin Jaelani, shows suicide bombers Nana Ikhwan Maulana and Dani Dwi Permana picnicking in a park across the road from the the Ritz-Carlton.
"This is our target," Nana tells the camera.
"Destroy America, destroy Australia, destroy Indonesia," Jaelani says.
Dani, just 18 years old, says: "This is not suicide. This is what our enemies fear.
"It is an obligation for all. Those who do not execute this obligation are sinners."
Police believe Jaelani, who is still on the run, recruited Nana and Dani for the attacks.
There is speculation he may replace Noordin as head of Noordin's hardline Jemaah Islamiah splinter group.
Other videos taken from the laptop show the Nana and Dani exercising in the park and surveying their target.
Police also seized a letter, allegedly written by Jaelani to his family in July, in which he accuses America and Australia of "slaughtering our brothers".
Jaelani also claims in the letter that Noordin's group is extremely well organised.
"There are those who manage the funds, there are those who recruit, there are ulema who are giving fatwas (holy decree) and directions.
"There are those who guard the mujahid (holy warrior) families, there are those who source cars, source explosives, source weapons.
There are also political minds, filmmakers and couriers, he wrote.
"And there are those who become volunteers for matrydom."
Indonesian police detective Tito Karnavian said the laptop also contained evidence that Noordin's group had re-established links with Middle East terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.
It also revealed how Noordin's group wanted to target the Indonesian government because of its efforts to promote democracy, Karnavian said.
 Mark Dodd Top was one of four people who died during the raid yesterday on a militant hideout near Solo, Indonesia's police chief, Bambang Hendarso Danuri, confirmed last night. "He is Noordin M. Top," Mr Danuri said. On the run for more than a decade, Malaysian-born Top, 41, had managed to elude police by using a well-established network of sympathetic Islamist supporters and family connections. In a major embarrassment for Indonesian police last month, they claimed to have killed Top after an epic 17-hour siege only to discover he had escaped. The bomb-maker, who fled to Indonesia after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, is best known for plotting the 2002 Bali bombings, in which 202 people died, 88 of them Australians. He was also behind the 2005 Bali blasts that killed 20 people, including four Australians. But his hand was behind many other terrorist attacks. Indonesian police hold Top responsible for masterminding attacks on the JW Marriott Hotel in 2003 that left 12 killed and another suicide bombing one year later at the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed 10 people and left dozens injured. He is also suspected of having had a role in the bombings at the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in July, in which seven people died, including three Australians. Top's end finally came yesterday morning in a small suburban house in Kepuh Sari village on the outskirts of Solo in Central Java, a stronghold of the Jemaah Islamiah terror network. Bali bomb victim Peter Hughes, who suffered shocking burns during the 2002 Bali bombing, welcomed the news of Top's death. "If it's correct, then Indonesian authorities have done their job," Mr Hughes said. "The victims' families can feel a little bit relieved knowing that a main guy has been caught and that justice has probably finally been done." Police confirmed the identity of three others killed in the house, which was stormed early yesterday after a nine-hour siege. They were Susilo, who rented the house, a close associate of Top; Bagus Budi Pranoto, alias "Urwah"; and another bomb-maker named Maruto. Loud explosions and gunfire were heard during the police raid on the militants' hideout. "Despite repeated warnings to surrender, there was a firefight," Mr Danuri said. "A motorcycle was hit, caught fire and they took refuge by huddling in the bathroom. But our men breached the wall as morning prayers came; at around 5am or 6am, we carried out a quick operation in three hours and we managed to disable them." Jakarta-based intelligence sources said yesterday's raid was linked to an arrest on Wednesday of a close Top associate and another raid last month in West Java in which police killed two suspected militants and found up to 500kg of bombs in a house in Bekasi. Top led an offshoot of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group known as al-Qa'ida in the Malay Archipelago. Jakarta-based Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group said that although Top's death was a major blow, it was not a fatal knockout against his group. "It's significant because it means the most dangerous man in Southeast Asia has been taken out of commission, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the problem of terrorism is over and done with," she said. Indonesian expert and former senior Office of National Assessments Indonesian analyst Ken Ward agreed. "They've lost a central figure, a person of enormous importance, but let's not assume this is the end of Indonesian terrorism," he said. Source: The Australian
 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.
 Analysts at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said the group led by Malaysian Islamist Noordin Mohammed Top was finding it "disturbingly easy" to recruit members to carry out fresh attacks.
"More than a month after the 17 July, 2009, hotel bombings in Jakarta, Noordin Mohammed Top remains at large, but his network is proving to be larger and more sophisticated than previously thought," the ICG said.
"Noordin may still be the commander, but he has some exceedingly well-connected lieutenants who made their debut in the hotel bombings."
The twin suicide blasts at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed nine people including two bombers and six foreigners. They marked the bloody end of a four-year hiatus in such attacks in the mainly Muslim country.
Noordin, 41, is the most wanted extremist in Indonesia and calls his group "al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago".
He allegedly received al-Qaeda backing for an attack on the Marriott in 2003 which killed 12 people, but no such link has been confirmed this time around.
Police say they have killed three cell members and hold five others in custody, including an Indonesian Islamist journalist known as the "Prince of Jihad" who is accused of helping arrange funds for the attacks.
Counter-terror squad officers arrested the journalist, Mohammad Jibril Abdurahman, near Jakarta late on Tuesday and also raided the office of his extremist website, Arrahmah.com.
Police believe the Pakistan-educated suspect was an accomplice of Saudi national Al Khalil Ali, who was arrested in Indonesia earlier this month on suspicion of smuggling money from abroad to pay for the July 17 operation.
The source of the funds is not known, but police have said they are investigating whether the money came from al-Qaeda brokers in the Middle East, among other possible donors.
ICG analyst Sidney Jones said Mohammad Jibril was not a known member of al-Qaeda but had reportedly had contacts with Osama bin Laden's group in the past. Source: The Australian
By Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo | August 26,THE owner of a radical Islamist website who calls himself the Prince of Jihad in his blog postings has been arrested in connection with the Jakarta hotel bombings.
Counter-terror squad officers arrested Muhamad Jibril Abdurahman, alias Muhamad Ricky Ardan bin Mohammad Iqbal, near Jakarta late yesterday and also raided the office of his website, Arrahmah.com, a police spokesman said. Police believe the Pakistan-educated suspect helped channel funds from abroad to finance the July 17 twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed nine people, including six foreigners. The source of the funds is not known, but police have said they are investigating whether the money came from al-Qaeda brokers in the Middle East, among other possible donors. Muhamad Jibril is well-known in Indonesian radical circles as a publicist of extremist material, and is the son of a firebrand Islamist cleric who has been linked in the past to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network. In addition to the website, he edited a publication called Jihadmagz which espoused jihad or "holy war" against the West. "He chose his jihad path through working in the media. He felt there were many Muslims who were being suppressed everywhere and there was a war of thoughts," Indonesian extremism analyst Noor Huda Ismail said. Police said Muhamad Jibril was an accomplice of Saudi national Al Khalil Ali, who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of smuggling money from abroad to pay for the attacks. Muhamad Jibril, believed to be aged in his mid-20s, is the son of Indonesian cleric Abu Jibril who was arrested in Malaysia in 2001 on suspicion of being a senior JI member. Read more here ...
From correspondents in Jakarta, Indonesia | August 19A MAN believed to be from Saudi Arabia has been arrested on suspicion of smuggling money used to finance last month's deadly Jakarta hotel attacks, Indonesian police said today.Police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said the man, identified only as Ali, had been arrested recently as part of the investigation into who funded the July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed nine people. Another man identified only as Iwan also had been detained for questioning over his suspected links to the network of Malaysian Islamist extremist Noordin Mohammed Top, the alleged mastermind of the attack. "Ali and Iwan are still being questioned by our team to prove their links with another country and with the financing,'' Mr Soekarna said. "Ali is believed to be a Saudi Arabian national.'' Analysts have said that if the funding for the attacks came from abroad, a likely source would be al-Qaeda. But police have not confirmed any connection between the hotel blasts and Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's organisation. Al-Qaeda has allegedly financed previous suicide attacks in Indonesia including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, and Noordin's first major operation, a 2003 truck bombing of the Jakarta Marriott that killed 12. Noordin, 41, leads a splinter group of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, which aims to create a regional Islamic caliphate. He is Indonesia's most-wanted man and is blamed for a series of attacks against Westerners in the mainly Muslim country that have killed around 50 people and wounded hundreds. DNA tests showed that a suspect killed in an August 8 raid on a militant hideout was not Noordin as initially reported, police said last week. Source: The Australian
 Reports of Jemaah Islamiah leader Noordin Muhammed Top
have been in error as fingerprint and facial
reconstruction efforts fail to verify his death.Fingerprint analysis has confirmed that a man killed by Indonesian police at the weekend was not fugitive terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, a counter-terror police officer said. Officials were publicly sticking to their line that only DNA tests would confirm the identity of the body but a source involved in the investigation said Noordin remained at large. "It's not him. We know from his facial structure as well as his fingerprints," the police source said, requesting anonymity. Noordin was reported by the local media to have been shot dead by police at the end of a 17-hour siege of a remote farmhouse in Central Java on Saturday. Senior counter-terrorism official Ansyad Mbai refused to comment on the identity of the body retrieved from the farmhouse, saying DNA tests would confirm whether it was Noordin or not. "It's better that we wait for the forensic identification," he said. Noordin, 40, is a Malaysian Islamist who is wanted for multiple suicide bombings against Western targets in Indonesia since 2003 which have killed around 50 people and injured hundreds. He is one of the most wanted alleged terror masterminds in Asia, and has a $119,960 bounty on his head from the Indonesian government. The police source indicated that Noordin may have escaped from the farmhouse before police laid siege to it around 4pm on Friday. "We were not as quick as him," he said. Police have come close to arresting the Malaysian, who leads a breakaway faction of the Jemaah Islamiah regional terror network, several times and have captured or killed some of his closest associates. They have intensified the hunt since the July 17 twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the capital, which killed seven people including six foreigners plus the two bombers. Read more here...
The fanatical Muslim cleric, who is the spiritual adviser to the al-Mukmin Islamic school for children on the outskirts of Solo, in central Java, said if the victims of the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton suicide bombings had ever held any thoughts against Islam, they deserved to die. Bashir refused to condemn the suicide bombings, saying the use of terror was justified in the war against infidels, or non-Muslims. Bashir was convicted and jailed for inciting terrorism in relation to the 2002 Bali bombings and has not since moderated his views. He is seen as the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiah, and while he is deeply unpopular in Indonesia, he carries dangerous influence that marks him as more than a mere ranting eccentric. The 1000 boys and 1000 girls who board at the al-Mukmin school he co-founded are taught predominantly in Arabic, and are indoctrinated to his views from kindergarten through to their leaving certificate. Bashir regularly travels across Java to other pesantrens, or Islamic schools, to speak, although on Tuesday, in the east Java town of Malang, Indonesian police reportedly banned him from giving a public lecture. Yesterday, Bashir attacked the Australian, US and Indonesian governments. "The main cause of this disaster (the bombings) is the Indonesian government, which undermines the supremacy of Islamic law. "This (terror) will not end until the government follows the right path." Asked by The Australian whether he felt any sadness for the seven victims of the suicide bombings, Bashir said: "What makes me sad about the bombings was that it involved innocent people being killed. "People such as women and children who are not involved in the fight against Muslims should not be killed. "But the problem is we don't know for sure that the victims weren't involved in the fight against Islam. Even the thought of fighting against Islam is involvement. Everyone that thinks like that is allowed to be killed." Read more here,,, Source: The Australian
 THIRTY young, glassy-eyed men, all grimly focused, jog at pace two abreast, military-style, through the narrow streets of Solo in central Java. Whether they are a new crop of Muslim terrorists is impossible to say, but the al-Mukmin school they attend has produced a long list of some of the most sinister names known to Australia and Southeast Asia. Out of this school came the 2002 Bali bombers Mukhlas, Amrozi and Samudra, and the 2005 Bali suicide bombers. Also from there was bomb-maker Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, who wreaked terror in Indonesia, Singapore and The Philippines, and Mubarok, who drove a truck into the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004. Nur Said, aka Nur Hasbi, also studied here. It is widely believed he was one of two bombers in Friday's attack on Jakarta's J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. If it was Nur Said, he -- like the rest of the alumni -- was taught the fundamentals of jihad terror at this school by its co-founder and the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir, in the mid-1990s. In this, Bashir was ably assisted by Southeast Asia's most wanted man, Noordin Top, who recruited terrorists from this backstreet Islamic boarding school. Top is believed to have given Friday's bombers their final instructions. It is remarkable this school survives, given that its history is so written in blood. Guards at the school, in the suburb of Ngruki, were reluctant to let The Australian inside its gates. We were able to observe the show of force they gave as they ran through the streets in the midday heat, chanting "Allahu Akbar" -- God is great -- in an intimidating statement of force. The graphic on the students' shirts depicts a rifle with a bayonet and a yellow flag. It may not be coincidence that in Indonesia, a yellow flag is used to indicate that someone has passed away. The word sapala on the T-shirts is an acronym that roughly translates as "Islamic School Nature Lovers", and the word kamufisa refers to a mujaheddin cadre. Indonesian police arrived at the school on Monday to investigate Nur Said's associations and the school. After initial denials he had been a student there, the school's deputy director, Ustadz Wahyudin, yesterday reportedly confirmed he had been in Bashir's classes of '94 and '95. Bashir lives at the school but was yesterday on a preaching tour in east Java. Alexander Downer, who as foreign minister confronted a series of terror events, told The Australian: "What can you do with someone who has Abu Bakar Bashir as their earthly hero and would like to get the hell out of this world and into paradise? "People still don't understand how these people schooled in the madrassas see great virtue in martyrdom. The worst that can happen to them is that they feel a bit of pain, or none at all. They're excited about blasting themselves into paradise. It's very hard to counter that." Mr Downer said Australian aid programs aimed at modernising the schools and teaching moderation were 10-15 years away from showing a beneficial effect. Source: The Australian
A NEATLY groomed business type in collared shirt and jacket, crew-cut and trimmed beard. A bespectacled nerd in metal-rimmed glasses with long sideburns and oiled hair. An anonymous jihadist in full-face balaclava spewing vitriol against the "enemies of Islam".
These are among the many guises of Noordin Mohammed Top, the elusive serial bomber, most wanted man in Asia and key suspect in last week's hotel bombings in Jakarta. The one-time accountant from Johor in southern Malaysia has emerged in recent years as the operational leader behind a series of bombings, culminating in last Friday's suicide attacks on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. Top is known not only as a master of disguise and skilled escape artist who has eluded an Indonesian police dragnet for seven years. He is also a logistical and technical mastermind and, even more troubling, a charismatic recruiter of young would-be martyrs who is known to have volunteers in the wings waiting to set off more bombs. He also harbours a visceral hatred of Australia, which he has pinpointed repeatedly in his diatribes and is bound to target again in future attacks unless he is captured or killed. So who is the ruthless technocrat who has defied the leadership of his organisation, Jemaah Islamiah, to carry on the murderous campaign for an Indonesian Islamic state? In the 1990s Top was a science graduate studying for his masters at the University of Technology Malaysia in Johore, southern Malaysia, a hotbed of Muslim student radicalism and hub of the Islamist movement. He joined a religious study group that met at the home of a UTM academic and fellow Malaysian, Wan Min bin Wan Mat, who was a lecturer in project management in the faculty of science and engineering. A regular speaker at these sessions was a fiery young Islamic teacher and veteran of the Afghan jihad named Ali Ghufron, later known by his nom de guerre Mukhlas as the controller of the 2002 Bali bombings. At the time, Mukhlas was head of a new school set up by JI's exiled leaders in a jungle clearing in Johore, Luqmanul Hakim, to groom a new generation of jihadists to fight for a pan-Asian Islamic state. The bookish science student Top was enthralled by the tales of holy war. "We were mesmerised by the JI leadership and its struggle," Wan Min said years later after renouncing JI. "When you come into such a group, you cannot think rationally. We were convinced our struggle was correct." After completing his studies Top was employed to teach maths and geology at the JI school, and was later promoted to the role of director. He and his UTM colleagues, who also included mathematics professor Azahari Husin, became the intellectual and administrative brains trust of JI, which was controlled at the time from Malaysia. After swearing allegiance to JI's leader in 1998, Top was promoted to lead its Malaysian branch and administrative headquarters, known as Mantiqi 1. He is not known to have trained or fought in Afghanistan but underwent military training at JI's Camp Hudaibiyah in Mindinao in the southern Philippines. In late 2001, after Singaporean police discovered a JI plot to bomb Western embassies in Singapore, Top and his colleagues fled to Bangkok, where they set up a new command centre under the leadership of the group's operations chief, Hambali. Top and his fellow fugitives referred to themselves as the muhajarin (migrants), a term used by the original followers of the prophet Mohammed who fled with him from Mecca into exile in Medina to evade their enemies and build their Islamic state. It was during their Bangkok exile that JI's first al-Qa'ida-backed attack on Western targets -- the 2002 Bali bombings -- was conceived. It was entrusted to the men from UTM, Top and Azahari, who "received orders from Hambali to prepare a proposal for an operation", according to Wan Min. Read more here,,, Source: The Australian
INDONESIA will continue to live with the threat of terror attacks unless its government cracks down on the militant Islamic schools and religious zealots who espouse worldwide jihad. Last Friday's hotel bombings in Jakarta have focused attention yet again on a network of radical Islamic boarding schools across Indonesia that continues to espouse the cause of violent jihad and churn out eager young zealots willing to die in its name.
Four days after the bombings, investigators have linked them to two Islamic schools that are well known to the Indonesian authorities but have neither been shut down nor had their activities or teachings curtailed. The first of these is the now notorious Al Mukmin pesantren (boarding house) at Ngruki in Solo, Central Java, where the Marriott suicide bomber is reported to have been schooled. The second is a smaller school at Cilacap in Central Java, where a bomb identical to the hotel bombs used in Jakarta was found in July, and which is believed to have provided shelter to suspected mastermind Noordin Top. A Muslim leader in Jakarta yesterday identified the man who detonated a backpack and case full of explosives inside the Marriott restaurant as Nur Hasbi, who is believed to have graduated from the Ngruki school in 1995. Thus the school continues to live up to its reputation as "a crucible for the formation of cadres of mujahidin", and its mission, "to nurture zeal for jihad so that love for jihad and martyrdom grow in the soul of the mujahidin", in the words of its co-founder, Jemaah Islamiah leader, Abu Bakar Bashir. Nur Hasbi was no doubt inspired by his reported classmate, Asmar Latin Sani, who carried out the previous attack on the Marriott in 2003, after which his severed head was found on the fifth floor of the smashed hotel. The connection is no coincidence. The Ngruki school and others linked to JI -- chiefly the Darul Syahadah ("house of martyrs") and Al Muttaqin schools, both in Central Java -- have produced no less than dozens of young recruits linked to a string of terrorist attacks, starting with the first Bali bombings in 2002.
"The most common link between participants in the terrorist movement in Indonesia in the past 10 years has been attendance at those schools," says Ken Ward, a former senior analyst with the Office of National Assessments, who has worked on in a project tracing terrorist networks in Southeast Asia, in conjunction with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Ward says the Indonesian government has been slow to take on the militant schools because it doesn't actually know what they teach, fears a political backlash, and seems unable to decide what constitutes radical Islam. "I think it's a big problem with confronting the JI ideology. A lot of Indonesians can't agree on what's undesirable about it, except that they reject bombing." As a result, despite a vigorous program to "de-radicalise" JI detainees, the origins of radicalisation -- within the school system -- are seemingly ignored. "It's almost as though the Indonesians are willing to allow people to acquire radical Islamic beliefs and then later try to de-radicalise them, rather than try to de-radicalise the education system." I visited the Ngruki school in 2002 after the Bali bombings and again last year. In 2002 the principal had a portrait of Osama bin Laden on his door, and an ABC TV crew filmed a classroom in which childish drawings of bombs and sticks of dynamite were scrawled on a blackboard. At a mosque nearby we witnessed the now famous sermon by Abu Bakar Bashir: "Between you and us there will forever be a ravine of hate and we will be enemies until you follow Allah's law." By 2008 little had changed, except that the school has expanded over the years. Read more here: Source: The Australian
AT LEAST seven people, including several foreigners, were killed this morning when bombs ripped through two neighbouring luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
One Australian man was reportedly among the 48 people hurt in the explosions, which Indonesian police are treating as a terrorist attack.
Suspicions immediately centred on terror network Jemaah Islamiah, responsible for the attack on the Marriott hotel in 2003, when 12 people died.
The method of attack would represent a shift in strategy for JI.
Consular staff in Jakarta are urgently checking to see whether Australians are among the dead or injured.
The first explosion occurred inside the Ritz-Carlton just before 8am local time, followed by the Marriott blast minutes later. The hotels are located in the upscale Mega Kuningan business district in the centre of the city.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected to a second term in the mainly Muslim country last week, was “deeply concerned over this incident,” a spokesman for his office said.
Ritz-Carlton vice-president of security Kevin Cruise said the explosion occurred inside the Airlangga Restaurant, blowing out the windows.
“I was in the restaurant immediately after the explosion,” Mr Cruise told The Australian. “It looks terrible with a lot of cosmetic damage and I was really afraid about injuries but there appears to have been no serious ones.”
However, Mr Cruise is still awaiting a final report, amid “incomplete and incorrect information”.
Tom Warden, 25, a Kiwi working in Ritz-Carlton food and beverage, said the blast occurred as he prepared to have breakfast.
“There were people in the elevator saying `we have got to get the hell out of here'.
“The doors opened and the lobby was filled with smoke and everyone was evacuated.”
Ritz-Carlton guests and staff have moved to an area in front of the hotel.
Police have sealed off the area near the Ritz-Carlton and the JW Marriott.
In a statement this morning, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was checking on whether any Australians were hurt in the explosions.
 THE Mudgee girl who became a surfie chick as a teen only to now be described by security agencies as the "matriarch" of radical Islam has spoken for the first time of her "nightmare" living under constant surveillance, branded a threat to national security and barred from travelling abroad. Sydney mother Rabiah Hutchinson had her passport cancelled after returning from Iran in 2003, because of her links with al-Qa'ida and Indonesian militant group Jemaah Islamiah. The ASIO assessment says Ms Hutchinson "has directly supported extremist activities" and, if allowed to travel, is "likely to engage in conduct that might prejudice the security of Australia or a foreign country". Ms Hutchinson recently applied for a new passport to visit her daughters in Afghanistan, one of whom has a baby she has not yet seen. She said she was told that her application would be considered only if she agreed to meet officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which she has declined to do, having met them numerous times in the past. "They've said this to me so many times," she said. "How many times do I have to meet them? There's nothing for me to tell them. I've told them everything." Ms Hutchinson has been kept under surveillance by ASIO, but has never been charged or accused of any offence, or interviewed by the Australian Federal Police. She claims her confinement in Australia is tantamount to house arrest. "They don't need to charge me with anything," she said. "They don't need to put me in jail. They've taken away everything from me that means anything to me. I have been separated from my children and my grandchildren, from my people, my country. For what? What crime have I committed? What's the justification for what's happened to me?" Ms Hutchinson has spoken frankly for the first time about her 20 years on the frontlines of the global jihad movement, in a new book, The Mother of Mohammed. It began when she joined a student Islamic group involved in the resistance against then Indonesian president Suharto in the 1990s. Through the student movement, she met cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who later co-founded JI. She was employed as an English teacher at Bashir's Ngruki Islamic boarding school and became a close friend of his family. Bashir's wife Ecun remembers Ms Hutchinson well. "She was really enthusiastic, very highly motivated and energetic," she said. "And she was very direct. Rabiah will say anything. If she likes something, she says so. If she doesn't like it, she says so as well." Ms Hutchinson became a mentor to younger women in the Islamist movement and a confidante of senior leaders such as Bashir's lieutenant Fihiruddin, also known as Abu Jibril. His brother, Irfan Awwas recalled: "Rabiah was very famous among young Muslims because she was very motivated." In 1990, after divorcing her third husband, Indonesian-born Abdul Rahim Ayub, Ms Hutchinson travelled to northwest Pakistan with her six children to "join the jihad". She spent four years working in a mujaheddin hospital and orphanage run by Afghan warlord Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, whose patron and financier was Osama bin Laden. Ms Hutchinson's family met bin Laden, who bought them an airconditioner to cool their mud-brick home. She later received an offer of marriage from an anonymous Saudi suitor, rumoured to be bin Laden. In 2000, Ms Hutchinson and her family travelled to Afghanistan, where the Taliban was in power. After volunteering her services as a health worker, she says she was advised by bin Laden to settle in Kabul, where she ran a medical clinic and worked on health and humanitarian projects. Ms Hutchinson married a member of al-Qa'ida's governing shura (council), Mustafa Hamid, known as Abu Walid al-Masri, and was asked by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to set up a new women's hospital in Kandahar. One of her closest friends was Zawahiri's wife, who was later killed in the US bombing of Afghanistan. Ms Hutchinson was living in Kandahar when the September 11 attacks took place. When the US struck back in retaliation, she and her children were evacuated with other al-Qa'ida families and spent three months on the run. They eventually crossed the border into Iran, where they were detained under house arrest by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. They were finally repatriated in 2003 to Australia, where Ms Hutchinson's passport was frozen. Since then ASIO has maintained its assessment that there is "a strong likelihood" that further travel by her would involve "participation in, or support and preparation for, acts of politically motivated violence". Ms Hutchinson denied she supported terrorism or had ever been involved in politically motivated violence, and no evidence to support this assertion has been produced. "How would you like it if the Government said to you, 'right, we don't like the way you think'," Ms Hutchinson said. "Then they picked you up, separated you from your children, forced you to live somewhere you don't want to live for the rest of your life until you die - just because they don't like the way you think and your beliefs. And you have no way of refuting it." Ms Hutchinson said if she were free to travel she would return to Afghanistan. "This is not reality to me; it's not real," she said. "This is just a nightmare that I hope I'm going to wake up from one day and find it's not true." Source: The Australian
From correspondents in Jakarta | January 13, 2009
TEN suspected members of a terrorist cell linked to the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant group went on trial on Tuesday for plotting attacks against foreigners and Christian priests in Indonesia.
The suspects were arrested on the island of Sumatra in late June and early July last year.
Police said they had found 20 improvised bombs and a safe house in Palembang, South Sumatra, containing 18 computer hard drives.
They had planned to bomb a backpacker cafe in the tourist town of Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, prosecutors said in a 150-page charge sheet handed to defence lawyers.
Other charges include planning to cause "mass casualties'' and attack strategic assets, and helping suspected terrorists.
Cell member Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin, from Singapore, received military training in Afghanistan in 2000 and met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to the charge sheet.
He was also an accomplice of notorious JI bombmaker Azahari Husin, who was shot dead by police in November 2005.
Azahari was a close associate of Malaysian extremist Noordin Mohammad Top who allegedly masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings and subsequent attacks in Indonesia.
Hasan was also associated with Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged leader of JI's Singapore branch who escaped from prison there in February last year, the prosecutors said.
In addition to the planned cafe attack, the cell had plotted to kill two Christian priests in Jakarta in August 2006 but abandoned the plan after learning they lived too close to a market.
It targeted another priest named Yosua Winardi for "turning Muslims into apostates,'' according to the charge sheet.
Yosua was attacked in October 2006 with a hammer, and was hospitalised for cuts on his head and face. Source: The Australian from Agence France-Presse
 Stephen Fitzpatrick, Tenggulun, East Java | November 11, 2008
THE delighted family and spiritual adviser of executed Bali bombers Amrozi and Mukhlas have hailed their martyrdom, claiming the brothers died with smiles on their faces and that there will be 1001 jihadis to take their place.
Abdul Rohim, son of Muslim preacher Abu Bakar Bashir who set the bombers on their path of mass murder, said he had examined the pair's faces after they were shot by firing squads early on Sunday.
"They were smiling, and the perfume of the bodies was not from the soap used to clean them; it was an extraordinary perfume," Mr Rohim told The Australian.
Mr Rohim warned that the executions could now unleash 1001 jihadis.
"The Government thinks that by executing them it can stop the jihad," Mr Rohim said.
"But the point is that this will not extinguish the jihad.
"It's not possible to extinguish the light of Allah. The jihad will always continue."
The boasts came as Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australia continued to receive credible threats of attacks after Sunday's execution of the terrorists.
"Regrettably, we continue to receive credible information that Bali remains an attractive target for terrorist activity," Mr Smith told parliament.
However, the Foreign Minister said there had been no change to the threat level cited in Australian Government travel advice.
It remained at the second-highest level - "reconsider your need to travel" - the level it has been pegged at since the attack on October 12, 2002, in which 202 people, 88 of them Australians, were killed.
The statement came as recently installed Bali Governor I Made Mangku Pastika - the former local police chief who headed the investigation into the terrorist atrocity - warned against violent retaliation for the executions.
Indonesian authorities also revealed they continued to be at a high level of alert after several bomb threats over the past week, including on Australia's Jakarta embassy.
"I hope the people will regard (the executions) as a normal thing, and not react excessively," Mr Pastika said.
He attempted to pour cold water on the claims of holiness being made by the families of Imam Samudra and the bin Nurhasyim brothers.
Hundreds of supporters briefly clashed with police as the bodies of Mukhlas and Amrozi - the latter dubbed the "smiling assassin" for his courtroom antics - arrived by helicopter at their village of Tenggulun, in east Java, on Sunday.
Bashir, who responded to the two brothers' final wishes by praying over their bodies shortly before they were interred had yesterday morning resumed his schedule of preaching jihad in Muslim boarding schools across Indonesia.
Bashir, the co-founder of Jemaah Islamiah, was jailed on a conspiracy charge related to the bombings before being released in 2006.
Female members of the family visited the brothers' grave site to tidy up and pray, having been denied access to the area during Sunday's burial ceremony according to strict Muslim funeral rules. Yasyrifah binti Nurhasyim, the sister aged in between Amrozi - who was 46, and Mukhlas, who was 48 - was praying at the graves with her daughter, Aulia Sahida.
A defiant Yasyrifah said the family was proud of her brothers' "achievement". "We're relieved, because they've become martyrs," she said.
She added that the graves, which are set apart from the main cemetery in Tenggulun village, would be kept simple.
"A fence will be put around the graves," she said. "But no sort of shrine will be built. We're worried it could become an altar (for ancestor worship)."
Muslim leaders in Java often struggle with trying to keep the faithful from following the older syncretic aspects of the religion that are holdovers from a pre-Islamic past in Indonesia - such as ancestor worship.
Family and hardline followers such as Abdul Rohim were busy yesterday offering interpretations of the arrival of three large birds of prey over Tenggulun village on Sunday, moments before the bodies of Amrozi and Mukhlas arrived. The birds wheeled high in the air for several minutes and then separated, two flying in one direction and the third flying separately in another.
Followers are interpreting this as a sign that the brothers and their co-conspirator, Imam Samudra, were taken straight to heaven after their deaths. Source: The Australian
 Outraged over the execution of mass murderers November 09, 2008
Grief and religious fervour boiled over into calls for revenge as two brothers executed for their role in the 2002 Bali attacks were prepared for burial amid tight security.
A crowd of about 500 supporters drove police off the road leading to the family home of 47-year-old Amrozi - dubbed the "smiling assassin" for his disturbing grin - and Mukhlas, 48, as their bodies arrived.
The men had been executed by firing squad along with fellow bomber Imam Samudra shortly after midnight on a prison island off southern Java, claiming to want to die as "martyrs'' and having shown no remorse for the attacks.
The crowd burst into tears and shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greater) at the sight of two black crows over the east Java village as the helicopter bearing the bodies landed in a nearby field.
"God is great, God is great! God is showing his greatness. I'm so happy,'' shouted a supporter who sobbed uncontrollably at the sight of the birds.
"This is God's grace. The mujahedeen (holy warriors) will fight on!" shouted someone else in the crowd, crying and holding his hands to the sky in religious awe.
"Of course they are martyrs. They fought hard in the name of Islam but they died. But dying doesn't mean they lost - they still won," said one supporter, refusing to give his name.
Packed into narrow streets outside the family home, the crowd thronged around ambulances bearing the bodies from the helicopter and jostled with heavily armed paramilitary police.
The bodies were eventually delivered to the local mosque for prayers ahead of the burials.
In the west Java town of Serang, Imam Samudra was buried quickly after similar scenes as his body was paraded through the streets shrouded in a black cloth bearing a Koranic inscription in Arabic.
Members of a radical group headed by hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was jailed on a conspiracy charge related to the bombings before being released in 2006, pushed people aside to make way for the body.
"There'll probably be retaliation. What is clear is that no drop of Muslim blood is free. It has consequences," said Ganna, 26, who travelled 90 km from the capital Jakarta to show his support.
The bombers said they launched the attacks against packed nightclubs on the resort island of Bali - killing 202 people, mostly foreign tourists - to defend Islam from Western aggression and avenge US action in Afghanistan and Iraq.
They were members of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group blamed for a series of attacks around the region, part of a "holy war" to create an Islamic caliphate spanning much of Southeast Asia.
Most Indonesians practise a moderate form of Islam, and head of the country's leading Islamic body, the Indonesian Council of Ulamas, said the bombers could not be considered "martyrs."
"Someone who killed others will not die as martyrs unless they waged a war in the name of religion. They were not fighting for religion," Umar Shihab was quoted as saying by the Detikcom news website.
Even as the bombers' radical supporters protested, others quietly agreed their "jihad'' was wrong.
"If there's a war fighting jihad is good for the religion but don't do it here in Indonesia. Bali isn't a battlefield," said Robi, 30, a neighbour of Samudra. Source: The Australian
November 09, 2008
THREE Bali bombers have been executed on an Indonesian island for their lead roles in the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
The family of Mukhlas and his younger brother Amrozi said the bombers had been executed along with Imam Samudra just after midnight local time (4am AEDT) on Nusakambangan Island, in Central Java, where they had been jailed.
“Our family has received news of the execution ... May our brothers, God willing, be invited by green birds to heaven now,” Mohammad Chozin, a brother of Mukhlas and Amrozi, said in their home village of Tenggulun.
“We're now handling the preparations to bring the bodies back, which may take two hours,” he said outside an Islamic boarding school in the east Java village, as supporters shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater).
Indonesia's Attorney General's Office later confirmed the executions had taken place.
“At 12.15am, the convicts ... were executed by shooting and followed up with an autopsy,” spokesman Jasman Pandjaitan said.
“They have been stated as dead. At this moment the bodies are being washed by the family.”
Attorney General Hendarman Supanji will hold a press conference in Jakarta at 11am local time (3pm AEDT).
The bombers were simultaneously shot through the heart by crack Indonesian troops assembled to carry out the task.
They were executed in an orchard some 6km from their prison on Nusakambangan Island, Indonesia's TV One reported.
A source at the prison said they shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they were escorted out of their isolation cells by paramilitary police shortly before their executions.
Australians expressed relief that the men were finally dead, six years after they brought carnage to Bali by sending suicide bombers to attack the Sari Club and nearby Paddy's Bar on October 12, 2002.
“... we've waited a very long time for this and this is our justice,” Sydney woman Maria Kotronakis, who lost two sisters and two cousins, told CNN, struggling at times to speak.
“Finally the moment has come ... we are over the moon.”
Survivor Peter Hughes, of Perth, who suffered horrific burns in the bombings, said the three militants had paid the highest price for mass murder, but their executions did not bring him any joy.
“These guys went to set about mass murder and paid the highest penalty,” he told CNN.
“It doesn't feel good but they did do the crime and they've paid for it.”
The bombers' bodies will soon be flown by helicopter to their home villages for burial within 24 hours, in accordance with Muslim custom.
In Tenggulun, sobbing mourners are converging on the home of Amrozi and Mukhlas' mother.
Hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir – the co-founder of Jemaah Islamiah, the group blamed for the Bali bombings – praised the bombers as “holy warriors” during a visit to the village on Saturday.
Security forces are on high alert across the mainly Muslim country, after the bombers urged supporters to carry out revenge attacks if their executions went ahead.
Australian authorities have advised Australians to reconsider the need to travel to Indonesia.
The 2002 Bali attacks were the bloodiest in a sustained period of al-Qaeda-inspired jihadist violence in the world's most populous Muslim country. Source: The Australian
From correspondents in Cilacap, Indonesia | November 07, 2008
THREE condemned Bali bombers could be allowed out of their isolation cells for Friday prayers today after yet another opportunity for their executions passed.
A security build-up on the bombers' prison island in Central Java, and the rallying of supporters in the men's home towns and in Jakarta, had fuelled speculation that the men might have been executed overnight.
And yesterday the Detikcom news website said the bombers would be shot at 3am local time today (7am AEDT), but the hour passed without word from authorities.
The bombers have traditionally been allowed out of their cells for Friday prayers and may be afforded that opportunity again today.
It has been reported that Mukhlas, his younger brother Amrozi, and Imam Samudra have undergone final health checks in preparation for their executions.
And yesterday, all workers not directly employed at the bombers' prison on Nusakambangan Island were ordered to leave.
About 100 chanting militants descended on the offices of the national human rights body as the bombers' lawyers met officials inside to demand access for the families. The radicals condemned the executions and praised the bombers as "holy warriors". They carried banners pledging to follow the bombers' path of jihad or "holy war" and warning that "hell" awaits the executioners.
A total of 202 people, including 88 Australians, died in the bombings Mukhlas, Amrozi and Samudra helped carry out.
The Indonesian government has said only that the bombers will be put to death by firing squad in "early November". Terrorism experts have warned that the delay risks undermining the Indonesian government's credibility in the fight against terrorism.
"This slow execution is a sign the government is not being strict in combating terrorism and law enforcement in Indonesia," former Indonesian National Human Rights commissioner Sholahuddin Wahid said.
"If this execution is postponed again, the government's credibility will decrease."
Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, of Singapore's International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, agreed.
"The government should be strong (and) carry out the executions. Not to do so would be a huge mistake ... it would be a big victory for the terrorists."
As time drags on, the security situation appears to be worsening.
In the past few days, there have been death threats against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as well as bomb threats against the Australian and US embassies in Jakarta.
The delay has also allowed dozens of religious extremists to gather in Tenggulun, the east Java village that was home to Amrozi and Mukhlas.
The bombers' supporters relished in the media attention yesterday, repeating their jihadist message to journalists. Around 20 radicals from a group headed by radical preacher Abu Bakar Bashir, who is linked to the Jemaah Islamiah group blamed for the Bali attacks, angrily denounced the executions and exhorted Muslims to "martyrdom".
Despite the lengthy preparations, the families have not received permission to pay a final visit to the bombers.
Rights body chairman Ifdhal Kasim said the prisoners had a right to meet their families before they faced the firing squad.
"A prisoner awaiting execution must be given a chance to meet their families," he said after meeting the defence lawyers, promising to take up the matter with prosecutors.
The bombers have said they want to die to become "martyrs" for their dream of creating an Islamic utopia across Southeast Asia. Source:The Australian
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Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
E-mail: info AT ReformIslam.org
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AN INTENSE security review is under way as the Obama Administration considers holding a trial in Washington for the Guantanamo Bay detainee suspected of planning the deadly Bali nightclub bombing.
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