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Southeast Asia

Inside the making of the Bali bombs

2012-02-12

Long look at the bomb-builder of the Bali terrorist attack. Worth noting the connections to Abbottabad and his proximity to bin Laden for a time. JAKARTA, Indonesia: An Indonesian militant charged in the 2002 Bali terrorist attacks told interrogators he spent weeks holed up in a rented house, painstakingly building a half-ton bomb using household items including a rice ladle, a grocer's scale and plastic bags. A transcript of the Umar Patek's interrogation obtained by The Associated Press offers extraordinary detail of the Bali plot just days before Patek -- a radical once Southeast Asia's most-wanted bomb-making suspect -- goes on trial in Jakarta for his alleged role in the nightclub attack that killed 202 people. Patek, known as "Demolition Man" for his expertise with explosives, says he and other conspirators stashed the 1,540-pound (700-kilogram) bomb in four filing cabinets, loaded them in a Mitsubishi L300 van along with a TNT vest bomb. The van was detonated outside two nightclubs on Bali's famous Kuta beach on Oct. 12, 2002. Most of those killed were foreign tourists. Although homemade bombs are easily assembled by militants all over the world, making such powerful devices as those used in Bali -- and using such unsophisticated equipment -- would have taken enormous amount of care and expertise. Patek, 45, goes on trial Monday following a nine-year flight from justice that took him from Indonesia to the Philippines to Pakistan, reportedly in pursuit of more terrorism opportunities. He was finally caught in January 2011 in the same Pakistani town where US Navy Seals would kill Osama Bin Laden just a few months later. Boy howdy, what a coincidence. Wonder if he and Binny shared the community pool? Patek was hiding out in a second-floor room of a house in Abbottabad, a $1 million bounty on his head, when Pakistani security forces, acting on a tip from the CIA, burst in. After a firefight that left Patek wounded, he was captured and extradited to Indonesia. Should have been extradited to Diego Garcia... His capture was seen as a yardstick of the successes that Asian security forces, with US help, have achieved against Jemaah Islamiyah, the Al-Qaeda-linked regional terror group blamed for the Bali bombings and several other attacks in Indonesia. All its other leaders have been executed, killed by security forces, or are on death row. Patek is charged with premeditated murder, hiding information about terrorism, illegal possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit terrorism, and now faces a possible death sentence as well. The indictment also accuses Patek of providing explosives for a string of Christmas Eve attacks on churches in 2000 that claimed 19 lives. Interviews with intelligence officials in Indonesia and the Philippines, the interrogation report and other documents obtained by the AP reveal the peripatetic life Patek led after the Bali attacks as he ranged widely and freely, often without passing through immigration checks, while allegedly passing along his bomb-making skills to other terrorists. Patek, whose real name is Hisyam bin Alizein, is the son of a goat meat trader. He went to computer school and learned English before being recruited into Jemaah Islamiyah by Dulmatin, a fellow militant who was gunned down by Indonesian police in March 2010. After his arrest, Patek told his interrogators that he learned to make bombs during a 1991-1994 stint at a militant academy in Pakistan's Sadda province, and later in Turkhom, Afghanistan, where bomb-making courses ranged "from basic to very difficult." He said he was living in Solo, Indonesia, when mastermind Imam Samudra approached him to make a bomb in Bali. He agreed and flew to Denpasar, Bali's capital, and was taken to a rented house. "In one room of the house, I began to mix the explosive ingredients, which were already in the rental house," he said. "For about three weeks, I made the explosive ingredients into black powder with the assistance of Sawad (a co-conspirator). For tools used in the mixing of the ingredients, I used (a) scale that will usually be used in a food store, rice ladle and plastic bags as containers." Dulmatin separately worked on the electronic circuits, which were later attached as detonators to the bombs packed into the filing cabinets. "When we were lifting the filing cabinets into the white L300 van, an explosion occurred which was caused by friction of the filing cabinet with the floor of the room, because the floor still had some leftover black powder on it," he said. Patek left Bali a few days before the attacks were carried out. Afterward, officials said, Patek and Dulmatin went to the Philippines and allegedly joined forces with the local extremist group Abu Sayyaf, spending the next several years training militants and plotting attacks, including against US troops in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Imam Samudra and two other masterminds of the Bali attacks -- brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron -- were caught, tried and executed. Patek returned to Indonesia in June 2009, living in various rented houses in Jakarta. He held several meetings with radicals and aspiring militants at home and held assault rifle and bomb-making training sessions at a beach in Banten near Jakarta. But Patek's heart was set on going to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taleban or other extremist groups, said Ansyaad Mbai, Indonesia's anti-terrorism chief. He told the AP that Patek intended to continue his fight in a more defined battleground with a larger radical group, and refused Dulmatin's offer to become an instructor in a new militant camp in Indonesia's Aceh province. "He wanted to fight with a larger extremist group, and Afghanistan was the ideal battleground for him," Mbai said. But to reach Afghanistan, he would have to go to Pakistan first. A police investigator said that a 37-year-old Pakistani in Indonesia, Nadeem Akhtar, helped Patek get a Pakistani visa from his embassy in Jakarta. Why not just print up a fresh one? After Patek arrived in Lahore, a courier with links to Al-Qaeda then brought him to Abbottabad, possibly to meet with Bin Laden. Mbai did not rule out the possibility that Patek went to Abbottabad to not only gain a foothold into Afghanistan but also to obtain funds for setting up a militant training camp in Jolo in southern Philippines. But before he could make much progress or meet Bin Laden, he was caught. Patek's trial not only seeks justice for the Bali bombings, but also is a coup for intelligence officials. He is believed to have valuable information about Al-Qaeda and its links with Jemaah Islamiyah, which was founded by Indonesian exiles in Malaysia in the early 1990s. The Bali bombing remains JI's most spectacular attack. Though there have been several others since, but none as deadly. Analysts credit a crackdown that has netted more than 700 militants since 2000, including the death of several key leaders in police action.

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Southeast Asia

Indonesian court slashes Bashir's sentence

2011-10-28

In a potentially consequential blow to Indonesia's counter-terrorism efforts, Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has had his sentence cut by six years on appeal. The 73-year-old's trial, for funding and planning a terrorist militant training camp in Aceh, ended in June with him a 15 year jail sentence, which would have been likely to have put Bashir away for the rest of his life. It was the biggest prosecution by the Indonesian state against an Islamic terrorist since the executions three years ago of 2002 Bali bombers Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Huda bin Abdul Haq (Mukhlas). However, the Jakarta High Court has reduced Bashir's sentence on appeal to nine years, which could see Bashir, also tried but ultimately acquitted of conspiring in the 2002 bombings, freed by the end of 2017. It is up to state prosecutors, who had wanted a life sentence for Bashir on the Aceh charges, to appeal to the Supreme Court. However, there was no word from authorities by last night. The sentence reduction, as is often the case in Indonesia, was decided without any announcement or even notification to Bashir's lawyers. It was confirmed by a court spokesman yesterday: "The chief judge verbally confirmed that Bashir's sentence has been reduced to nine years," official Ahmad Sobari said. The decision was apparently taken last Thursday. Bashir lawyer, Ahmad Richdan, said,"We lawyers haven't received any court decision, so we cannot comment yet. They should tell the lawyers first . . . it's a pity that we learn from the media - I tried to confirm the news today but nobody was picking up the phone." The lawyer confirmed that Bashir's team would continue to try to have Bashir's convictions overturned completely and the cleric freed.

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Southeast Asia

Indonesia: Bali bombers asked Islamists to join them, claims group

2008-11-11

(AKI) - A radical Islamic group, Majelis Mujahideen Indonesia has claimed that one of the Bali bombers executed at the weekend had asked the group to be collaborate on the 2002 bomb attacks. "Amrozi had asked us to collaborate on the Bali bomb attacks," said Muhammad Bachroni, a spokesman for MMI, in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). He was referring to Amrozi Nurhasyim, one of the three Bali bombers executed on Sunday. "We said no, because our way of fighting for (Islamic) Sharia law does not include violence," said Bachroni. Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) were executed by firing squad at the island prison of Nusakambangan off southern Java on Sunday, government officials said. The three, who belonged to Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, were found guilty of planning the twin attacks on nightclubs at the resort of Kuta on the island of Bali in October 2002. A total of 202 people died in the attacks, most of them foreigners. Responding to the executions on Sunday, Bachroni said they were rushed and unfair. "The attack in Bali was carried out with a small nuclear bomb made in Israel. Amrozi and the others were co-opted in participating in the attack organised by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)," Bachroni told AKI. "There needed to be more time to discover the other perpetrators," told Bachroni to AKI. MMI is an Islamist organisation considered close to JI which aims at turning Indonesia into an Islamic state. Until last July, MMI was led by Abu Bakar Bashir, a radical cleric considered the spiritual leader of JI. Bashir has since formed another group called Jemaah Anshori Tauhid or defender of believing in one and only God teaching. JI is widely considered south-east Asia's most dangerous terrorist organisation and was believed to be behind the bloodiest attacks in Indonesia. Intelligence agencies claim Bashir is the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah and has links with Al-Qaeda. In March 2005, Bashir was found guilty of conspiracy over the 2002 attacks. He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. In December 2006, Bashir's conviction was overturned by Indonesia's Supreme Court.

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Southeast Asia

Bali bombers bodies buried

2008-11-09

Three Islamic terrorists militants executed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people were buried Sunday before hundreds of emotional supporters. Some hard-liners shouted "God is great!" and called the men holy warriors. Fearing attacks in retaliation for the executions, Indonesia increased security at tourist resorts, shopping malls and office buildings. Several embassies, including from the U.S. and Australia, urged their citizens to keep a low profile, saying they could be targeted. Imam Samudra, 38, and brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim, 47, and Ali Ghufron, 48, were taken before firing squads in a field near their high-security prison on Nusakambangan island just after midnight, Jasman Panjaitan, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, told reporters. The men died instantly, he said, adding that their eyes were left uncovered at their request. The three men never expressed remorse, saying the blasts were meant to punish the U.S. and its Western allies for alleged atrocities in Afghanistan and elsewhere. They even taunted family members of victims — 88 of whom were Australian — at their trials five years ago. The executions, which were sensitive for both political and security reasons, ended years of uncertainty about their fate. Repeated postponements have frustrated survivors and relatives of victims, and enabled the bombers to rally supporters from behind bars by calling for revenge attacks in interviews aired on local television stations or published in newspapers and books. The bombers' bodies were taken by helicopters to Tenggulun and Serang, their hometowns in east and west Java respectively, where thousands of sympathizers and onlookers turned out Sunday for their funeral processions. Dozens of radicals scuffled briefly with police in Tenggulun, home of the two brothers, Nurhasyim and Ghufron, but there were no serious disturbances. Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, led the prayers for the brothers, one of their final requests. Former terrorists militants and police allege Bashir headed Jemaah Islamiyah in the early 2000s. But while he was found guilty of giving his blessing to the Bali attacks, his conviction was overturned after he spent more than three years in jail. Bashir said Saturday the bombers had "sacrificed their lives" for "the struggle of Islam." Though the three Bali bombers said they were happy to die as martyrs, their lawyers fought for years to stop their executions, arguing they were convicted retroactively on anti-terrorism laws. They also opposed death by firing squad, saying their clients preferred beheadings because they were more "humane."

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Southeast Asia

Final Court Appeal of Convicted Bali Bombers Dismissed

2008-07-18

Indonesia has denied final appeals for three men on death row convicted for deadly bombings on the island of Bali in October, 2002. Chad Bouchard reports from Jakarta. The Indonesian Supreme Court rejected appeals from the three Islamic militants, and sent their decision to a district court in Bali. The decision means Ali Ghufron, Imam Samudra and Amrozi Nurhasyim are one step closer to the firing squad. The men were convicted in 2003 for their part in deadly nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people on the resort island. Court officials say their most recent appeal, which was filed in May, was declared invalid. Their last option is to appeal for clemency from Indonesia's president, but the men have repeatedly stated they would not do so because they are unwilling to admit wrongdoing. Deputy Attorney General Abdul Hakim Ritonga says the three men are running out of legal options. He says in the case of the three bombers, they are waiting word on the decision from the Supreme Court. After that, he says, there will be no longer a reason to delay the executions.

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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Bali bombers to be executed

2008-03-24

Yet another Grim Tombstone ™ for terrorists: THREE Bali bombers on death row over the 2002 bombings could soon be executed after a dramatic end to their final appeal today. Their lawyer Fahmi Bachmid today withdrew from their last-ditch legal appeal, bringing it to an abrupt end. Outside court, Chief Judge Ida Bagus Putu Madeg said the judges would now treat the appeal, known as a judicial review, as if it had "never existed". "With this, whatever happened in the previous hearings is considered to not exist," Madeg told AAP after the hearing for convicted terrorist Imam Samudra. "We will not convey this (case) to the Supreme Court because it's not something for which a decision is needed. "So the case will stay here. It is considered that the judicial review request never existed." Denpasar District Court had held three separate judicial review hearings, one for each of the three terrorists: the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi Nurhasyim; his brother Ali Ghufron (alias Mukhlas); and Imam Samudra. The trio played key roles in the Bali nightclub bombings on October 12, 2002, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. But the hearings became weighed down by a protracted bid to either have the bombers brought to Bali to testify or to have the appeal held in Cilacap District Court, off central Java, closer to their island prison. No witnesses were called to testify in any of the four hearings. In court today, Bachmid presented a letter formally objecting to the decision not to move the hearing or bring the convicted terrorists to the Bali court. "We really object to the judges' decision," Bachmid said. "The reasons are really unreasonable according to the existing law." But after a brief adjournment, Chief Judge Madeg said the judges retained their position. Bachmid then thanked the judges, but said he had no alternative but to withdraw from the case. "I will give it (the case) back to Amrozi, Samudra and Ali Ghufron, whether to continue with the judicial review or not," he said. Outside the court an angry Bachmid rejected accusations the entire case had been a tactic to stall the executions. He said the trio must now send a letter if they wanted to formally withdraw the appeal, a point disputed by prosecutors. The prosecutor in Amrozi's case, I Wayan Suila, said there was no obligation for the judges to ask the convicted terrorists if they wanted to withdraw the case, and it was now considered closed. These three devils are known as "the smiling assassins" for the moronic grins they wore in court (see pic at link). I'm sure the hangman will provide a more appropriate expression.

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Southeast Asia

Bali bombers fight for their lives

2008-02-25

LAWYERS for three of the Bali bombers will today return to court in a last-ditch attempt to prevent their execution. Denpasar District Court is due to hold three case review hearings - for the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi Nurhasyim, his brother Ali Ghufron (alias Mukhlas) and Imam Samudra - who played key roles in the Bali nightclub bombings on October 12, 2002. The twin attacks killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. The three should burn in hell, but I suspect the Indonesian courts are looking for a way to release them with clean suits turbans and a wad of cash ... The judicial case reviews have delayed the impending executions of the men. The hearings are expected to focus on the retroactive terrorism laws under which the men were convicted and the decision of the judges to reject earlier case reviews. Lawyers for the men sought the latest review of their cases last month as a deadline for them to seek clemency neared. Indonesia's Supreme Court accepted the terrorists' application for the judicial review, but rejected another request that the hearings take place in Cilacap District Court, close to the island prison where the men are detained. None of the bombers - housed in a prison on Nusakambangan Island, known as Indonesia's Alcatraz - will attend court. Three judges have been appointed to hear each of the men's cases, which are expected to run for the next three weeks. Police have been asked to provide extra security for the terrorists' legal team. The bombers had originally been due to be executed in 2006. A spokesman for Indonesia's attorney-general has said the bombers will not be executed until the Supreme Court hands down a final decision.

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Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia Terrorist Group Splits, But Retains Islamic Militancy

2007-03-01

The Southeast Asia group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which has been blamed for a series of bombings over the past several years, has splintered into factions and may be heading in new directions. VOA’s Nancy-Amelia Collins traveled to the heart of JI territory in Central Java, in Indonesia, and has this report. In this part of Indonesia’s central Java island, most people quietly eke out meager livings from the land and sea. But this region has become notorious, after three brothers brought shame to their village. They helped carry out the bombings on the resort island of Bali in October 2002 that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. Here in the sleepy village of Tenggulun, those three brothers lived and thrived. Now Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Gufron are sentenced to death. Their brother Ali Imron is serving a life sentence. All three had significant roles in the hard-line Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah. And while the Central Java district is known as a spiritual home of the terrorist group, not everyone here supports it. Thirty-two-year-old Malik was born and raised in Tenggulun and says the three brothers do not represent the village. He says he does not know why Amrozi and his brothers carried out the terrorists bombing on Bali, but he says many people in the village hate what they did. The three brothers are representative of a radical faction of JI that is headed by Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorist, Malaysian Noordin Top. Under Noordin’s leadership, the faction’s goal has been to attack Western targets, and as result, hundreds of people have died. Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir represents another faction. He was released from a Jakarta jail in June after serving 25 months for his alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings. Indonesia’s Supreme Court cleared him of the charges in December. The 69-year-old Bashir is accused of being the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah. It is a charge he denies. But he does not deny his belief in radical Islam. In this Jakarta mosque, and many more like it across Java, Bashir preaches against non-Muslims, or infidels. He calls for the implementation of Sharia, or Islamic law, across the sprawling archipelago of Indonesia, a secular nation with the world’s largest Muslim population. He says infidels will stay in hell forever and live in insecurity because they are the worst creatures living on earth. He says the person who is not ruled by Islam is poor in dignity. The vast majority of Indonesians practice a moderate, tolerant form of Islam, but Bashir seeks an Islamic state across much of Southeast Asia that leaves little room for non-Muslims. He says according to Islam, infidels must not live freely, but must be monitored under Islamic law because they will cause destruction and kill people. Bashir says while the infidels cannot be forced to become Muslims, they must be forced to bow to Islamic law. Nasir Abas was once a Jemaah Islamiyah leader, and he is the brother-in-law of Amrozi, one of the Bali bombers now on death row. He was arrested in 2003 and now works with the Indonesian police as an informant. Like many of the group’s leaders, he fought against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He later ran one of the largest JI training camps in the southern Philippines. And, like many others, he split with the organization after the 2002 Bali bombing. “What they did is killing the civilians, killing unarmed people, killing a non-military people,” he said. “So this is something that I can say - that is not war. That is not battle. That is not jihad. But that is a mass kill. A mass killing operation.” Indonesian authorities have arrested and prosecuted more than 300 Islamic militants over the past few years. While that has hampered JI’s activities, the organization remains alive. Sidney Jones, the Southeast Asia director of the research organization the International Crisis group, worries about a new, third Jemaah Islamiyah faction. Its members are fighting in the district of Poso, on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, where the population is divided between Christians and Muslims. Until recently, Poso had been fairly calm after about 1,000 people died in sectarian fighting there between 2000 and 2001. But recent violence in Poso following police raids to arrest Muslims militants has claimed the lives of 17 people. “I think the danger of what happened in Poso is that they’ll be able to attract people from outside the Poso area who don’t believe in Noordin’s targets at all but who also don’t want to sit around quietly and do nothing, and who may see the opportunity for a jihad against what they see as anti-Islamic forces as being exactly what they were waiting for,” said Jones. Jemaah Islamiyah is a splintered organization, but it also is fluid and relentless. Experts say it continues to threaten Indonesia’s secular, democratic society and security in the region.

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Southeast Asia

Amrozi claims Bashir is no terrorist

2006-04-19

An Indonesian militant awaiting execution for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings testified Wednesday that he was tortured into implicating a Muslim cleric alleged by Washington to be Southeast Asia's terror chief. Amrozi Nurhasyim made the remarks during an appeal of Abu Bakar Bashir's conviction and 2-year sentence for conspiring in the blasts, which killed 202 people, mostly foreigners on vacation. The attacks were blamed on the al-Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiyah network. Bashir, 70, who was not in court, is scheduled to be released from prison in June when his sentence ends, and his lawyers have acknowledged that it is unlikely that judges will rule in the appeal before that date. A victory would have symbolic value to hardliners in the world's most populous Muslim nation, where some see the aging cleric as a victim of foreign interference. ``We were all tortured to say we were ordered by Abu Bakar Bashir (to carry out the blasts),'' Nurhasyim told the court to cheers and shouts of ``God is Great'' from about 100 Bashir supporters. ``But this old man has no links (with terrorism),'' he said, without elaborating on the torture allegations. Police have denied mistreating any of the more than 30 militants convicted in the attacks. The United States and Australia maintain Bashir is a key leader of Jemaah Islamiyah. Bashir has always denied any wrongdoing, but admits knowing several key Southeast Asian militants in the 1980s and 1990s who went to Afghanistan and trained there with al-Qaida. Before the Bali attacks, he was best known for his fiercely anti-American and Jewish views and his campaign to transform secular Indonesia into an Islamic state. Nurhasyim, nicknamed the ``Smiling Bomber'' for his frequent gloating over the blasts, arrived at the court after traveling by boat from a nearby prison island, where he and two other militants sentenced to die for the bombings are being held. He smiled at reporters, and jokingly asked the judges if he could have a cup of coffee. When asked by judges what his profession was, Bashir's supporters shouted: ``Holy warrior! Holy warrior!'' At Bashir's original trial, prosecutors said Nurhasyim visited the cleric three months before the attacks to ask for his blessing, which they said he obtained. Prosecutors cited a confession by Nurhasyim that he allegedly made to police. Nurhasyim said he had met Bashir at a boarding school the cleric used to run, but that they did not discuss his plans to bomb the nightclubs on Bali island. ``From the beginning, police told me to say I was ordered by Abu Bakar Bashir. They said 'if you admit that you will receive a lesser punishment, or even be freed.''' Bashir's lawyers plan to continue with the appeal even after his release in June. Bashir was first arrested in 2002 shortly after the Bali bombings amid intense pressure on Indonesia to detain suspects in the blasts. In the trial that followed, he was acquitted of heading Jemaah Islamiyah, but sentenced to 18-months in prison for minor immigration violations. As his release date approached, U.S. and Australian officials both publicly called on Indonesia not to free him, saying he was a key terrorist leader. Denying they were acting on the orders of foreigners, police arrested Bashir as he left jail in 2003 and charged him with several terror crimes based on new evidence. But judges only convicted him in the Bali attacks and sentenced him to a relatively short prison term.

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