Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Home Front: WoT

Pre-trial hearings resume for SEAsian suspects held at Guantanamo

2023-04-25

[BenarNews] Prosecutors preparing a case against three Southeast Asians incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay will finish sharing evidence with defense attorneys in January 2024, lawyers said Monday, illustrating the glacial pace of progress toward trial for men held at the controversial prison since 2006.

Indonesian Encep Nurjaman (also known as Hambali

...real name Riduan Isamuddin, close personal friend of Osama bin Laden, one of the founders of Jemaah Islamiyah and the planner of the 2002 Bali bombings. He was captured with the help of a mid-Eastern intel service, shipped to Guantanamo to rot but he'll likely be released eventually because that was a long time ago and we were all so much younger then...
) and Malaysians Nazir bin Lep

...more formally Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, informally Lillie. He’s one of Hambali’s lieutenants — they were captured together in Thailand in 2003...

and Farik bin Amin

... another Hambali lieutenant, he’s known more formally as Mohd Farik Bin Amin, his nom de guerre was Zubair Zaid and while it’s uncertain whether he was captured with the other two, the three spent years with the same interrogators. His cousin was master bomb maker Zulkifli Abdhir, called Marwan, who provided senior management and work product for the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, Jemaah Islamiyah, and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters until he intersected a hail of Philippine bullets in 2015...

were present in the courtroom at the U.S. military facility in Cuba for proceedings witnessed by news hounds via video link to Fort Meade, a military base about an hour northeast of Washington. The men face charges linked to terrorist bombings in Indonesia in 2002 and 2003.

Lead prosecutor Col. George C. Kraehe said his team was seeking to "get this case tried on the merits by March 2025."

Earlier, Brian Bouffard, who represents bin Lep, questioned the government’s pace in presenting evidence to the defense teams. Lawyers for bin Amin and Nurjaman raised similar issues.

"We are trying to uncover the reasons for delay after delay after delay," Bouffard told the court.

Military Judge Hayes C. Larsen noted the defense concerns about late filings.

Kraehe said his team was working to gather evidence for the trial, adding that it was working on this even during the hearing.

"This is not unusual in a national security case," he said.

Kraehe said that about 90% of the evidence had been turned over to the defense, and the remaining 10% was highly classified. Because of that, steps need to be taken before it is turned over to defense, he said, adding that he expected to finish doing so by late January 2024.

Referred to as "alien unprivileged enemy belligerents" in some court documents, Nurjaman, bin Amin and bin Lep face charges related to twin bombings that killed 202 people in Bali in October 2002 — Indonesia’s deadliest terror attack to date — and a bombing at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003.

Following their 2003 arrests in Thailand, the three were sent to secret CIA black sites before being moved to the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2006. A U.S. Senate report released in 2014 found that each was tortured during his time in the black sites.

INTERPRETATION ISSUES
Monday’s hearing — the first of three days scheduled — began with prosecutors questioning Larsen, who will be leaving the bench in June to assume command of the Navy’s Defense Service Office West. He said he did not have any information about who would take over the trial.

Twenty minutes into the hearing, Bouffard and Christine Funk, who represents bin Amin, complained — as they have done throughout the legal process — of inadequate translation services, saying their clients were hearing Bahasa Indonesia interpretation instead of their national language, Bahasa Malaysia.

Later, the two lawyers told Larsen that English words were being intermixed with the translations.

"It’s a tired refrain," Larsen responded, dismissing the complaint.

During their two-day August 2021 arraignment, lawyers for the three men spent much of the time protesting before Larsen regarding the poor quality of interpreting.

Larsen ordered military prosecutors to hire and assign qualified interpreters for any upcoming court action.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Innocent father dies in crossfire while visiting son at college for 'family weekend' in upstate New York

2022-10-05

[BizPacReview]

Liberals are all about "safe spaces" in which they can cocoon against words they don’t like, but the world they’ve created offers no refuge from murder and mayhem. Thus the tragic death of a father caught in the spray of a Dodge City-style shooting in his New York hotel.

Paul Kutz, 53, was shot to death Sunday morning on the final day of a Marist College "family weekend" in Poughkeepsie, New York. Kutz was there to visit his son when the tragedy occurred in the lobby of a Marriott hotel at around 7:30 AM, according to NBC.

Although police have not released many details of the incident, two men have been arrested and charged as a result of the killing. Roy Johnson has been accused of shooting Kutz in the chest and torso with a 9-mm semi-automatic handgun, in a felony complaint filed in Poughkeepsie Town Court. Johnson was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Both are felonies. Johnson’s last known address was reported as Hyde Park, located on the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie.

Also arrested at the scene was 26-year-old Devin Taylor of Poughkeepsie, receiving felony charges of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. According to the complaint, Taylor possessed a loaded .223-caliber rifle that had no serial number. The weapon has been reported as a "ghost gun."

The two men, whom officials said had at least one prior felony conviction apiece, were arraigned and a court date has been set for October 7. They are currently being held in the Dutchess County Jail.

The incident reportedly occurred when Johnson went to the lobby to get coffee and got into a heated argument with a group including hotel staff. When he started firing he reportedly emptied his 30-round clip.

Caught in the crossfire was Kutz, father of three sons with his wife of over 35 years, and a certified public accountant from East Northport on Long Island, who was felled on the spot.

"Investigators said that the handgun used in the shooting had a clip of 30 bullets, which was empty when it was recovered in the parking lot. It is believed that more than two dozen shots were fired inside and outside the hotel," NBC reported, also noting that the Glock had an illegal switch that turned it from semi-automatic to automatic firing mode, and continuing, "The senior law enforcement official had said Johnson and Taylor were in a hotel room smoking a PCP-like substance prior. Johnson was remanded without bail and Taylor was remanded on $1,000,000 bond. The pair, both homeless, are next scheduled to appear in court on Friday."

Both the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI are involved in the investigation of the incident that unfolded over several hours beginning with officers arriving at 7:30 AM, followed by the assistance of a bomb squad. Several sources reported that the kaboom Tannerite was discovered in the possession of one of the suspects.

Police Chief Joseph Cavaliere stated that instructional materials for making bombs were found in the suspects’ hotel room.

Marist College released a statement on the tragedy:

"Yesterday morning, authorities made us aware of the tragic, fatal shooting of a parent of a Marist student at a local hotel several miles from campus.

Our deepest condolences go out to the family, and we are offering the full support of the Marist community. We remain in contact with local authorities and will keep our community informed with any updates."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Guantanamo court sets pre-trial hearing for suspects in Bali bombings

2022-08-23

[BenarNews] An Indonesian and two Malaysians who have been incarcerated for more than 15 years at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on terrorism charges linked to the 2002 Bali bombings are scheduled to appear in court for a pre-trial hearing in late October, U.S. defense officials announced Monday.

If all goes to schedule, Indonesian Encep Nurjaman (also known as Hambali

...more formally Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, informally Lillie. He’s one of Hambali’s lieutenants — they were captured together in Thailand in 2003...

and Farik Bin Amin

will appear in a military court at Guantanamo from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4 — in what would be only their second court appearance since their arrests in Thailand in 2003. Their court hearing will take place a little more than two weeks after the 20th anniversary of the Bali bombings — the deadliest terrorist attack in Indonesia’s history.

When the three were arrested 19 years ago, they were sent to CIA black sites, where they were tortured, before being transferred to the U.S. military prison in Cuba in 2006, according to a 2014 U.S. Senate report.

The military court and the U.S. Department of Defense did not release details of the planned hearing for the three, "all of whom have been charged jointly in connection with their alleged roles in the 2002 and 2003 bombings in Indonesia," in a notice to media interested in covering the proceedings at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo.

The trio first appeared at a military court there during their arraignment in August 2021. At the time, their lawyers lodged a protest before military Judge Hayes Larsen about the poor quality of the audio translations their clients were receiving.

Referred to as "alien unprivileged enemy belligerents" in some court documents, Nurjaman, bin Lep and bin Amin face charges related to twin bombings that killed 202 people in Bali in October 2002 and a bombing at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003. None of the men entered a plea to the charges against them following their arraignment last August.

In an effort to improve translations, Larsen ordered military prosecutors to hire and assign qualified interpreters for any upcoming court action.

"The defense teams all indicated they need assurances in order to be able to use their government-provided defense interpreters for attorney-client communications," Larsen wrote in a January court filing ahead of what was supposed to be a pre-trial hearing in late February.

Responding to the judge, prosecutors said in a Feb. 1 filing that they were seeking to hire four full-time interpreters, two for each language.

"Because of the uncertain timeline involved in obtaining clearances for new hires who do not have clearances, it is too speculative to estimate when fully cleared full-time interpreters will be available to assist the commission," they wrote.

James Hodes, who represents Hambali, blasted the prosecutors, noting they had 18 years to prepare their case against his client, which included hiring "qualified commission interpreters."

"This is what you are tasked with and this is what you have failed to provide," he told BenarNews earlier this year while calling the lack of interpreters a "huge obstacle for a fair trial."

Hodes could not immediately be reached on Monday for comment on the proposed court dates.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Clemency Request for Guantanamo Inmate 'Enlightening,' Hambali's Lawyer Says

2021-11-07

[BenarNews] A Guantanamo Bay inmate’s testimony before a U.S. military tribunal last week about being tortured at a secret CIA site and the jury’s clemency recommendation tied to that account may have implications for the trial of three Southeast Asian terror suspects incarcerated at the notorious prison, lawyers and activists say.

Majid Khan, who acknowledged having served as a money courier leading up to the 2003 bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, was sentenced to 26 years in prison last week. Before his sentencing, he testified in graphic detail about torture he experienced at an overseas "black site" run by the Central Intelligence Agency after his arrest that year until he was transferred to the U.S. military prison in Cuba in 2006.

"I thought I was going to die," Khan, a Pak national, said while reading from a 39-page statement during his sentencing hearing at Guantanamo on Oct. 28, according to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named. "The more I cooperated and told them, the more I was tortured."

Link

Southeast Asia

Clemency Request for Guantanamo Inmate Could Affect Southeast Asian Suspects’ Trial

2021-11-06

[BenarNews] A Guantanamo Bay inmate’s testimony before a U.S. military tribunal last week about being tortured at a secret CIA site and the jury’s clemency recommendation tied to that account have implications for the trial of three Southeast Asian terror suspects incarcerated at the notorious prison, lawyers and activists say.

Majid Khan, who acknowledged having served as a money courier leading up to the 2003 bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, was sentenced to 26 years in prison last week. Before his sentencing, he testified in graphic detail about torture he allegedly experienced at an overseas "black site" run by the Central Intelligence Agency after his arrest that year until he was transferred to the U.S. military prison in Cuba in 2006.

"I thought I was going to die," Khan said while reading from a 39-page statement during his sentencing hearing at Guantanamo on Oct. 28, according to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named. "The more I cooperated and told them, the more I was tortured."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Accused Hezbollah Operative Slated to Speak In Washington, D.C.

2016-10-07

[FREEBEACON] A former Arab member of Israel’s parliament who was forced to flee the country after he was accused of working as a top Hezbollah operative is slated to speak next week in Washington, D.C., raising questions about how he obtained permission to enter U.S. soil.

Isn't this just the frosting on the cake of the past eight years.

Azmi Bishara, who is accused by Israel’s Shin Bet secret service of helping Hezbollah plot terrorist operations, is confirmed to speak next week at Washington’s downtown Marriott hotel as part of a conference organized by The Arab Center of Washington, D.C.

An official from the Arab Center confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that Bishara will be attending the event, raising questions about how an individual linked to a U.S.-designated sponsor of terror obtained permission to enter America.

Bishara was initially slated to speak alongside former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who the Free Beacon has learned cancelled his appearance. The talk was to focus on the promotion of democracy in the Arab world, according to a current conference schedule.

McFaul’s image was removed from the conference’s webpage several hours after the Free Beacon made an inquiry into the event.

Bishara remains listed as a speaker.

Bishara, who has been living in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates...
since he fled Israel in 2007, is accused by Israel of helping Hezbollah select targets during its 2006 assault on the Jewish state. Israel is still seeking to detain Bishara and charge him for these terror offenses. Israeli authorities have said they will arrest Bishara if he returns to the country, where he could face the death penalty, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Link

India-Pakistan

US Brushes Off Pakistani Claims Drone Strike 'Scuttled' Taliban Talks

2013-11-04

[TOLONEWS] The United States insists it has a shared interest in ending myrmidon violence after Islamabad accused Washington of scuttling efforts towards peace talks by killing Pak Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone strike.

Mehsud, who was under a $5 million US government bounty, was killed when a drone targeted his car in a compound in North

Wazoo tribal district on Friday.
The death of its young, energetic leader represents a major setback for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), a coalition of factions behind some of the most high-profile attacks to hit Pakistain in recent years.

But it also threatens the government's efforts to begin talks to end the TTP's bloody six-year insurgency that has left thousands of soldiers, police and civilians dead.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar condemned the US strike as a "drone attack on the grinding of the peace processor", saying a team of religious holy mans was about to meet the TTP with a view to starting peace talks when Mehsud was killed.

"Brick by brick in the last seven weeks we tried to evolve a process by which we could bring peace to Pakistain and what have you (the US) done?" he said.

"You have scuttled it on the eve, 18 hours before a formal delegation of respected Learned Elders of Islam (religious scholars) was to fly to Miranshah
... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...
and hand over this formal invitation."

A State Department official declined to confirm that Mehsud had been killed and did not specifically address Nisar's comments, saying the issue of whether to negotiate with the TTP was an internal matter for Pakistain.

"The United States and Pakistain continue to have a vital, shared strategic interest in ending myrmidon violence so as to build a more prosperous, stable and peaceful region," the official said.

Pakistain's foreign ministry said it had summoned US ambassador Richard Olson to protest over the drone strike that killed Mehsud and another that hit a day earlier.
The ministry statement also stressed that despite the drone strike the government was "determined to continue with efforts to engage the TTP".

Islamabad routinely condemns drone strikes as a violation of illusory sovereignty, and Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
urged President Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money...
to end them during White House talks in October, but summoning the ambassador is an unusual step.

Mehsud's death is the third major blow struck against the TTP by the US this year, following the killing of number two Waliur Rehman in a drone strike in May and the capture of another senior lieutenant in Afghanistan revealed last month.

The TTP's supreme shura, or decision-making council, met Saturday to decide who should now lead the network, which emerged following a deadly 2007 military raid on the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad.

A Taliban capo told AFP the process was being held up because the meeting location keeps moving to avoid the attentions of the US drones that fly overhead almost continuously.

Candidates under consideration to take over from Mehsud include Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani
...a Pashtun tribe centered on Jandola, in Tank district. They are the hereditary enemies of the Mehsuds, unless there are furriners or infidels around, in which case they share ammunition and targeting data...
, the head of the central shura, and Khan Said, alias Sajna, who became number two after Rehman's death in May.

Senior Taliban capo Azam Tariq dismissed media reports that Said had been elected as "speculation", telling AFP a decision would be made "in the next few days".
He accused the government of running a "dual policy", supporting the US and at the same time saying it wants talks.

"Taliban will not talk with Pakistain until drone strikes are stopped," he said.

Opposition parties accused Washington of using the drone strike to stymie the grinding of the peace processor before talks proper had even started.

Former cricketer Imran Khan

... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five...
, leader of the Pakistain Tehrek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party that rules in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province, said the strike had "sabotaged" peace talks and showed the US did not want peace in Pakistain.

The PTI said it would call an emergency session of the provincial assembly to block NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
supply convoys transiting Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on their way to Afghanistan.

Pakistain blocked all NATO supply routes through its territory for seven months in 2012 in protest at a botched US air raid that killed 24 soldiers.

For the United States, Mehsud's death will represent a success for the CIA's drone programme at a time when it is under intense scrutiny over civilian casualties.

But the killing has prompted fears of TTP reprisals, as happened after the death of founder Baitullah Mehsud in 2009.

The TTP has risen to become arguably the biggest security threat facing Pakistain. It was behind the 2008 bombing of the Islamabad Marriott hotel and the attempt to kill schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai last year.

The TTP also claimed the 2010 Times Square bomb plot after training Pak-American Faisal Shahzad.

Link

India-Pakistan

Advantage Al Qaeda

2011-10-04

[Dawn] HIGH-PROFILE terrorist attacks in South Asia over the last few years demonstrate that Death Eaters are either quick learners or are part of the same nexus. Similarities in a few terrorist attacks across different countries and regions can be shrugged off as copycat acts, but when the likeness almost becomes a trademark it merits a closer look.

In recent years, Death Eaters have gone after new targets and evolved new tactics in a near-simultaneous manner that point to an increasing exchange of notes, so to speak. Shared ideological, political and, sometimes, operational objectives bring Death Eaters closer.

In that context, similarities between the Sept 13 attacks on US and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
targets in Afghanistan, the assault on Pakistain's Mehran naval air force base in May this year and the November 2008 Mumbai attacks may not be surprising.

The operational and tactical likeness of these attacks reflects that Death Eaters have enhanced their operational capabilities and demands counterterrorism measures that are commensurate with the new challenges.

A broader conceptual framework and effective coordination among states facing the shared threat of terrorism can build an effective pre-emptive mechanism. But such a synchronised effort to take on terrorism has not been achieved even a decade after 9/11. Interstate cooperation against terrorism remains a pipe dream in South Asia in particular, even as Death Eaters grow ever-savvy and constantly find sophisticated techniques of striking their targets.

The security crisis and the insurgency that erupted in Iraq after the US invasion of that country in 2003 was a watershed moment in the history of terrorism. Iraq proved a virtual laboratory for Death Eaters where Al Qaeda tried and perfected new and sophisticated techniques of wreaking havoc, which were later exported to other regions, including Afghanistan and Pakistain.

Al Qaeda's edge in terrorism expertise influenced the Taliban and other turban movements in the region, which had been under immense pressure from the state after 9/11. Al Qaeda's support in the form of improved capabilities and techniques for striking their targets was a virtual lifeline for them.

The February 2008 suicide kaboom in Kandahar that targeted a dog-fight festival was the first in Afghanistan where the tactics could be compared to those involving attacks targeting pilgrims in Iraq starting 2003. The objective was similar: to kill as many members of opponent tribes, sects and political adversaries as possible, even if they were civilians. More destructive suicide jackets were developed to maximise the impact.

Also in 2008, Pakistain saw progression in techniques in three major terrorist attacks which targeted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building in Lahore and the Danish embassy and Marriott hotel in Islamabad. In the FIA attack, Death Eaters used a pickup truck loaded with over 50kg of C4 plastic explosives, in a tactic that was strikingly similar to the April 2005 botched attack on Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison by Al Qaeda, with the aim of freeing detainees and targeting US forces in a series of car boomings. The method adopted in the devastating Marriott suicide kaboom showed their enhanced capabilities and the ability to strike at will the most protected parts of the country.

The Mumbai attacks were another defining moment, when a new technique of urban guerrilla warfare proved brutally effective in the hands of terrorists, who have since developed such tactics further, adding elements of suicide kaboom to it and striking in Pakistain and Afghanistan more than a dozen times.

Terrorists imitated the Mumbai attacks in four major assaults in Pakistain in 2009: an attack on GHQ in Rawalpindi, an assault on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore and two attacks on a police training school in the same city. Afghanistan suffered a similar attack in Kabul in February 2010 when Death Eaters targeted a shopping centre, a guesthouse and a hotel.

One tactic has been to target a particular city through repeated strikes with a view to terrorising the population and enhancing the impact of attacks beyond just physical damage. In 2009, Death Eaters repeatedly targeted Beautiful Downtown Peshawar in that manner and in 2010 they focused on Lahore. In 2011, Bloody Karachi seems to be high on the terrorists' list. In Afghanistan, initially Kandahar was a magnet for such sustained attacks and now it is Kabul.

At the level of nexus, things have been much clearer. Terrorist groups that shared similar ideological and political ambitions not only borrowed tactics and techniques ascribed to each other, but also mirrored other terrorist outfits' approaches by merging or otherwise converging, transforming or altering their organizational composition. This happened in the case of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and a few Kashmire-based turban groups, mainly Brigade 313 headed by Ilyas Kashmiri.Under Al Qaeda's influence these outfits have transformed and have been imitating each other on the tactical, operational and organizational levels. Typically, the influence has impacted smaller groups who had been struggling to survive or had material deficiencies and required external help to survive. Al Qaeda has been more than willing to help out, through both ideological and operational support. There is little doubt that quid pro quo has been involved.

That was the conclusion that slain Pak journalist and expert on terrorism reporting, Syed Saleem Shahzad, had reached in his book Inside Al Qaeda and the Taliban, pointing out that Al Qaeda was in the driving seat and that the Taliban and other turban groups were essentially acting like its foot soldiers.

He had argued that the Mumbai attacks were planned by Al Qaeda, which used Lashkar-i-Taiba to execute the plan. He believed that Al Qaeda wanted to destabilise the region to break the alliance of the ruling Mohammedan elites and the masses with the West and make the region the base for a global caliphate.

The challenges that terrorism poses in the 21st century are complex, and in many cases insurmountable in the absence of interstate cooperation. Effective collaborations are impossible without trust, to state the obvious. When partners in the war on terror talk to each other through the media or consider arm-twisting and threats of use of force to be the preferred modes for winning cooperation, prospects for teamwork are doomed. By acting in this manner, states fall into the trap of terrorists.

No prizes for guessing which party to this new kind of war ends up the winner then and which ends up shooting itself in the foot.

Link

Southeast Asia

Abu Bakr Bashir gets 15 years

2011-06-17

[An Nahar] An Indonesian court on Thursday placed in long-term storage radical Islamist holy man

Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia ...
for 15 years for funding a terrorist group that was planning attacks against Westerners and politicians.

The 72-year-old preacher showed little emotion as Judge Herri Swantoro read out the guilty verdict and sentence at the end of a four-month trial in the South Jakarta district court.

"Abu Bakar Bashir has been proven guilty of planning and misleading other people to fund terror activities ... and is sentenced to 15 years in jail," the judge said, triggering a gasp from the holy man's supporters in the court.

Draped in his customary white robes and skull-cap, the man seen as the spiritual leader of regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah immediately promised to appeal the sentence, which he called the work of the devil.

"This is haram (forbidden in Islam). I reject this because it is cruel and disregards Islamic sharia law. This ruling is by the friends of the devil and it is haram for me to accept it," he said in response to the judge.

About 500 forces of Evil erupted into shouts of "~~holy shit!~~ Allahu akbar" (God is great) outside the court as the verdict was read. Some 3,000 police backed by armored vehicles and snipers were on hand in the event of violence.

"This trial was a joke. They haven't looked for the truth, they only want to serve the interests of the current political power," said a front man for Bashir's radical organization, Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT).

Prosecutors had demanded a 20-year life sentence for Bashir, who was found guilty of channeling about $50,000 to a terrorist cell that was conducting military-style training in Aceh province in 2009.

Police say the so-called al-Qaeda in Aceh group, which was discovered in February last year, was planning liquidations and Mumbai-style attacks by highly trained suicide gunnies.

Bashir had been facing the death penalty for providing illegal weapons to the group but authorities dropped those charges early in the proceedings. The court also acquitted him of a charge of possessing illegal weapons.

He rejects all allegations of materially supporting terrorists, while publicly exhorting his followers to wage jihad or "holy war" against the West and Indonesia's form of secular, democratic government.

For decades the frail but pugnacious preacher has agitated in mosques, Islamic schools and through radical groups such as JAT, which he established in 2008, for the creation of an Islamic state under strict sharia law.

Several JAT members are under arrest and have implicated Bashir in the Aceh cell, which was operationally led by Dulmatin, one of Southeast Asia's most bandidos until he was killed in a police raid in March last year.

Bashir told news hounds before the sentencing session began that he was being framed by Australia and the United States, a claim he has repeated throughout his trial.

"They want me to disappear from Indonesia... The benefit to them? To kill Islam, to kill defenders of Islam, jugged and killed without reason," he said.

Police have tightened security at shopping centers across the sprawling city and deployed extra personnel following threats of kabooms in the event of Bashir's conviction.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks by Jemaah Islamiyah and its offshoots, including bombings of tourist spots on Bali, the Australian embassy and luxury Jakarta hotels.

Bashir served almost 26 months behind bars over the 2002 Bali bombings but his conviction was overturned after his release in 2006.

Prosecutors have also unsuccessfully charged him with involvement in church bombings in 2000 and an attack on the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003.

Analysts said Bashir's jailing would not reduce the Islamic exemplar threat in Indonesia, the world's most populous Mohammedan-majority country and a key U.S. ally in Southeast Asia.

"A new leader will try to prove he's worthy by launching a big attack of some sort," said University of Indonesia expert Andi Widjajanto.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesian cleric says US behind terror charges

2011-05-26

[Asia One] Radical Indonesian holy man

Link

Home Front: Politix

Lieberman to Retire

2011-01-18

Thats what Connecticut politico Kevin Rennie is reporting:

United States Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) is expected to announce Wednesday that he will not seek a 5th term in 2012, Daily Ructions has learned. Lieberman has invited supporters to an event at the Marriott hotel in Stamford Wednesday afternoon for his announcement.

Cook has Liebermans seat as Lead D in 2012.

UPDATE: Former Connecticut secretary of state Susan Bysiewicz has already announced shell vie for the Democratic nomination for Liebermans seat. Her internal polling purportedly shows her ahead of much of the probable field, including Linda McMahon

Link

India-Pakistan

Punjabi Taliban preparing for major terror attack: Malik

2010-06-03

[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday claimed that the Punjabi Taliban were preparing for a major terror attack in the country and said Lashkar-i-Jhangvi was involved in the attacks on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, the GHQ in Rawalpindi and the terror attacks in Lahore.

Malik, while briefing the Senate Standing Committee, said the Punjabi Taliban are a big threat to the country and they are preparing to launch a major attack.

He said the government was cooperating with the US in the Faisal Shahzad case.

He further informed the committee that he had asked the Punjab government to take immediate action against the terrorists.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More