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The Bali Bombing Thread- Merged

Spr.Earl

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Intelligence report concerns Australians

By Phil Mercer
BBC correspondent in Sydney  



The Bali bomb attacks took Australia by surprise  


"Good intelligence is arguably more important to government now than at any time since World War II," concluded Philip Flood in his report into Australia's spy agencies.
But the former diplomat went on to detail critical failures by the country's frontline defenders in the global campaign against terror.

There were mistakes, he said, over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and also in intelligence-gathering prior to the Bali bombings.

The report found that pre-war information on Iraq was "thin, ambiguous and incomplete".

But it cleared the government of manipulating intelligence to justify its involvement in the conflict - no doubt to the intense relief of Prime Minister John Howard, who is expected to call federal elections later this year.


Lack of information

The revelations about both Iraq and Bali are certain to cause alarm among Australians, but the latter will provoke particular concern.

More than 200 people died in the Bali attacks less than two years ago - almost half of them Australian tourists.

The Flood report decided that accurate assessments should have been made of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the radical Islamic organisation blamed for the attack, prior to the attacks taking place.

  Right from day one I've had a feeling that Australia really got caught by surprise, and I now know why. Our spooks just weren't up to it

Erik de Haart, Bali bomb survivor  
"Australia and regional countries should have known much more about Jemaah Islamiah, its development of terrorist capabilities and its intentions towards Western targets," the report concluded.

A concerted effort to investigate the group was only made when a plot to bomb the American and Australian embassies in Singapore was exposed in late 2001.

While it did not go as far as to say the bombings could have been prevented, the report did conclude that the delay in properly targeting JI's activities had contributed to the lack of warning.

Erik de Haart was on the holiday resort of Bali on the fateful night of 12 October 2002.

He lost six friends in the bombings, and he himself was outside the Sari nightclub when it was torn apart by explosives.

He told BBC News Online that he was "extremely disappointed" in the intelligence community following the release of the Flood dossier.

"Right from day one I've had a feeling that Australia really got caught by surprise, and I now know why. Our spooks just weren't up to it," he said.

As for the families of his dead friends, Mr de Haart believes many will be troubled by what the Flood investigation has revealed.

"I think there'll be extreme anger and disgust at our spy agencies. They were paid to protect us but they failed," he said.

The Australian newspaper agreed. "The end of the Cold War lulled Australia into a false sense of security... and left us unprepared for the challenges of the age of terror," the paper said in an editorial.

Political fall-out

Prime Minister John Howard has now emerged almost unscathed from two high-level investigations into the intelligence services.


The report cleared John Howard of 'politicising' intelligence
In March a parliamentary committee cleared the government of deliberately lying about the threat posed by Iraq's weapons capabilities.

Now his administration has been cleared of manipulating intelligence used to justify Canberra's involvement in the war.

The Flood inquiry is another good result for Mr Howard, on the eve of his 65th birthday and with a federal election expected by the end of the year.

Mr Howard has so far avoided any deep and damaging political potholes over his Iraq policy, and he has performed strongly in recent opinion polls.

But the future of around 900 Australian soldiers still in the Gulf will be a key issue in the election campaign.

While Mr Howard lives to fight another day, Philip Flood's findings are likely to cause a shake-up in Australia's intelligence apparatus.

The report said that future failures could be catastrophic.

"JI's rise demonstrates the crucial importance of Australian agencies being alert to shifts in the regional security environment and the emergence of new threats," the Flood dossier said.

"On South East Asia and the South Pacific, Australia needs to be an unquestionable global leader," it concluded.

But there is unlikely to be a complete overhaul of the intelligence system. The criticism levelled at Australia's spy network is tempered by general praise that it is performing well in other areas.

The report said there had been "intelligence successes" which receive scant publicity because of their secretive nature.

These are said to include "uncovering terrorist networks in South East Asia and helping to disrupt planned terrorist attacks".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3920743.stm

 
It appears that there may be an offensive starting up.   Bombings in Iraq continuing against Coalition Forces.   Now we have another attack on Tourists in Bali.   Are we able to trust all Foreign Intelligence Services, if they may have, in some cases, Islamic sympathies or infiltrators?

From CBC this morning (reliability unconfirmed) http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/10/01/BaliExplosions20051001.html
19 reported killed in Bali explosions
Last Updated Sat, 01 Oct 2005 11:04:42 EDT
CBC News
Hospital and police officials now say 19 people are dead and as many as 50 others injured as a series of bombs exploded Saturday in two tourist areas on the Indonesian island of Bali.

 
A victim of the bomb blast is helped from a fish cafe on Jimbaran beach on Oct. 1 in Bali, Indonesia. (Jason Childs/Getty Images)  
Three blasts occurred along Jimbaran beach, an area lined with seafood restaurants commonly used by tourists. Another hit a bustling outdoor shopping centre in downtown Kuta, about 30 kilometres away.


An Indonesian anti-terrorism official said the bombings are "clearly the work of terrorists."

A worker at the Graha Asih Hospital, close to Jimbaran Bay, had said earlier that at least eight people died and doctors were treating 13 other injured people.

In October of 2002 Kuta, on Bali, was the scene of a major bomb attack that killed 202 people, mostly tourists and including two Canadians. Those bombings were believed to have been the work of the al-Queda connected militant group called Jemaah Islamiyah

Western and Indonesian intelligence agencies have warned the same group was plotting more attacks.


Copyright ©2005 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved
 
CTV's version:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051001/bali_blasts_051001/20051001?hub=TopStories
 
Tragic, I hope they hunt the evil JI members down like dogs.

What can we expect though, in a country that will send you to jail for life for allegedly smuggling a bag of marijuana, yet will let somebody who is the spiritual leader of a major terrorist organisation responsible for hundreds of murders off with only 14 months jail, and then reduce that sentence as a national independence day celebration.

Intelligence agencies have been saying to avoid Indonesia for years, and after the first Bali bombings (202 dead, 88 Australians) and then the Marriot hotel and Australian embassy bombings each in Jakarta,m it was only a matter of time before it happened again.

My condolences to all the families and freinds of those killed, the free world stands with you.
 
Justice has been done.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5132525/bali-bombers-executed-prison-source/

Three Bali bombers have gone to their deaths shouting for their God, five years after being sentenced to die for killing 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Crack Indonesian soldiers, handpicked for the job, took aim and shot the Islamic militants through the heart on their prison island just after midnight (0400 AEDT) on Sunday.

The executions reportedly took place in an orchard on Nusakambangan Island in Central Java, where Mukhlas, his younger brother Amrozi and Imam Samudra lived out their last years in a high-security prison.

A source at the prison said the condemned men had shouted "Allahu Akbar", or God is greater, as they were escorted from their isolation cells shortly before the executions.

The news brought mixed reaction in Australia, with many survivors and relatives of those killed expressing relief, but others worried about reprisal attacks.

"At 12.15am (04.15 AEDT), the convicts ... were executed by shooting and followed up with an autopsy," Jasman Pandjaitan, a spokesman for Indonesia's Attorney General's Office, 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 (1500 AEDT) on Sunday.

The family of Mukhlas and Amrozi said they had been advised of the executions and were waiting to receive the bodies, which will be flown to their home village of Tenggulun by helicopter later on Sunday.

"May our brothers, God willing, be invited by green birds to heaven now," the men's brother Mohammad Chozin said outside an Islamic boarding school in the east Java village, as supporters shouted "Allahu Akbar".

Many 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.

The men were sentenced to die in 2003, but five years of legal appeals delayed their executions and exhausted those waiting for justice.

"... 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."

Erik de Haart, a member of Sydney's Coogee Dolphins football club who lost six mates in the bombings, said he didn't quite believe the news when he heard it.

"It took a while to sink in. It's been so long that you kind of don't expect it ... you think they've found another excuse not to do it," he told Sky News.

"We can close this chapter of the book and move on a bit."

But he said the grief for his lost mates would never end.

"The guys are never going to come back, all we're left with is our memories and our thoughts of these guys," he said.

Survivor Peter Hughes, of Perth, who suffered horrific burns in the bombings, said the three bombers 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. It doesn't feel good but they did do the crime and they've paid for it," he told CNN.

Former Adelaide magistrate Brian Deegan, who lost his son Josh, said he was full of trepidation about reprisal attacks.

"I have (a sense of) trepidation as to what might happen as a result of this," he told AAP.

"I'm very concerned about that. There's no shortage around the world of persons that are prepared to commit suicide to achieve a result."

Mr Deegan said he continued to grieve for his son.

"The tears don't roll quite as often, that absolute gut-ache has diminished a bit. But they don't go away."

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.

 
Finally justice courtesy of FNC's and 5.56mm ball.

For the 89 Aussie who wre MURDERED, and all the others (202), including a Saskatchewan man from Wynyard, I remember.

"May our brothers, God willing, be invited by green birds to heaven now," the men's brother Mohammad Chozin said outside an Islamic boarding school in the east Java village, as supporters shouted "Allahu Akbar". Heaven for murders, what a crock of shyte!


The ironly of it all, these cowardly terrorists who were executed today, were shot tied to a cross.

Meanwhile Australia has upgraded is security threat for Indonesia.

OWDU
 
Convicted in 2003 and dead after five years with one shot.

Now if only OUR system could be as efficient.  Remember that discussion on another thread on whether its cheaper to shoot VS incarcerate? hehe...

 
Ammo cheap and plentifull.

Fresh air,food,tv,schooling,books and other such perks for scum such as Paul Bernardo far outweigh the use of said ammo.  :threat:

Justice in Canada needs a swift kick in the arse.  :(
 
Good!!!  They won't kill or hurt anyone again. 

Our milksop system would bend over backwards for these losers. Good to see them get what they deserve.
 
All three of these AHs are now rotting in the jungle soils of Indonesia.

Worm food.

Again, how ironic they died 'on' the cross.
 
Bali mastermind confirmed dead

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/10/2841976.htm?section=world


Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has confirmed the death of one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombing.

The country's media have been reporting that senior Jemaah Islamiah figure Dulmatin was one of three men shot dead during a police raid outside Jakarta yesterday.
Television images had shown a man lying dead, holding a revolver.

At a lunch in Canberra, Mr Yudhoyono confirmed Dulmatin, who was believed to have been hiding in the southern Philippines, had been killed.
"I can announce to you that after a successful police raid against the terrorists hiding out in Jakarta yesterday, we can confirm one of those killed was Mr Dulmatin, one of the top South-East Asian terrorists that we have been looking for," he said through an interpreter.
"For the safety of our people, for the safety of Australians and Indonesians and the rest of the world, let us continue our cooperation to fight terrorism."

Australia congratulated Indonesia over the raids which killed Dulmatin, but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Mr Yudhoyono that he could not ease tough warnings of more extremist attacks in the country.
The families of those killed in the Bali bombings also welcomed the news.

A total of 202 people were killed in the bombings in October 2002, including 88 Australians.
Kevin Paltridge's 20-year-old son Corey was among the victims.
He says he and his wife heard the news of Dulmatin's death this morning.
"We both had a smile on our face and just thought, that's another one they've got and thank goodness they've got him," Mr Paltridge said.


Senior figure

Dulmatin, an electronics specialist who also trained in Afghanistan, was a top bomb technician for Jemaah Islamiah.
The US government had a $US10 million reward for the capture of Dulmatin, who is said to have been wounded after escaping a raid by Philippine security forces in 2006.

Dulmatin was thought to be working with the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines, said Noor Huda Ismail, an Indonesian expert on radical Islamist groups.
Yesterday's raid was part of a wider operation in Java and Aceh that has so far seen 21 alleged terrorists arrested.

The Densus 88 anti-terrorist unit has launched a series of raids across the archipelago following the discovery of a militant Islamic training camp in Aceh last month.
Indonesia has been dealing with militant attacks for the past decade from groups such as Jemaah Islamiah, some of whose members trained in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the southern Philippines.
 
Thoughts, anyone?


Australia and Indonesia Find It Hard to Make Up


By MARINA KAMENEV Marina Kamenev – Sat Mar 13, 12:50 am ET
On March 9, three terrorist suspects were killed by Indonesian police during a raid in Jakarta. Forensic experts carefully examined their bodies but kept their conclusions from the public until the following day, when, in a landmark address to the Australian parliament, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced that one of the dead was Dulmatin, the alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings. It was a matter close to his host's heart: The top bomb-technician, who had a $10 million bounty on his head, set off bombs that killed 202 people on the Indoneisan holiday isle, 88 of them Australians.
Yudhoyono's speech was greeted with applause from the audience in the Canberra government, and the office of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called Yudhoyono's address - he is the first Indonesian leader to speak before the Australian parliament in its 109-year history - a "milestone" for bilateral ties. But it was not the only grand gesture exchanged between the neighboring nations during his three-day visit to Australia this week. The Indonesian president was also awarded the Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia, the highest civilian honor in Australia, for encouraging democracy and economic ties between the two countries. (Other recipients of the prize include Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.) (Read how Yudhoyono is the man behind Indonesia's rise.)

While the relationship between Indonesia and Australia has improved dramatically since Australia's intervention in East Timor in 1999, even Yudhoyono admitted this week that it's still one of "love-hate." Since the 2002 Bali bombings, Australian travelers to Indonesia now receive a travel warning which Indonesia says promotes an overly negative image of the country. In 2006 several Australian drug smugglers - dubbed the Bali Nine - were sentenced to life imprisonment after being caught planning to smuggle heroin from Bali to Australia. Three are currently on death row in Indonesia. The next year, an Australian coroner ruled that the killings of the Balibo Five, five journalists - including two Australians, who were murdered in Indonesia in 1975 - were committed deliberately by Indonesian special force soldiers. A war-crimes investigation was launched into their deaths by the Australian Federal Police last September , and if the inquiry finds the deaths to be to be war crimes, it could trigger another rift in relations, as one of the military commanders at the time of the murders is now an Indonesian MP. (See Yudhoyono in the 2009 TIME 100.)
This week's summit, however, was largely dominated by another issue high on Rudd's list of priorities: people smuggling. Indonesia has become a hub for asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan looking to make the perilous journey to Australia by boat. Twenty-three vessels, many piloted by Indonesian fishermen, have been intercepted in Australian waters this year, an increasing number of illegal arrivals that has become a fire-hot domestic issue that could hurt Rudd's popularity during an election year. Yudhoyono announced during his visit that people-smuggling would now be punishable with a five-year sentence in Indonesia, and a new agreement to combat the practice was signed. The two leaders also announced increased collaboration in other areas, including fighting terror and transnational crime, and will hold annual meetings between MP's to maintain relations. The two countries made no leeway on a free trade agreement, which was discussed during Yudhoyono's visit.
Rudd seemed pleased with the course of the dialogue, but Yudhoyono warned there were still issues the neighbors needed to iron out. "There are Australians who still see Indonesia as an authoritarian country or a military dictatorship or as a hotbed of Islamic extremism, or even as an expansionist power," the Indonesian president said in his address. In a latter speech, he tersely criticized Australia's enduring travel warning to Indonesia: "We only know that Indonesia is now one of the top 10 tourist destinations for Australia, in spite of your government's advice against traveling to Indonesia." (See "Asylum Seekers Stuck in Indonesia-Australia Standoff")
Hugh White, a professor at the Australian National University and a visiting Fellow at the Lowy Research Institute, says SBY's warnings could further sow the seeds of distrust in Indonesia, and that Rudd lacks political courage when dealing with Indonesia. "Anyone that thinks the most important relationship between Indonesia and Australia is people smuggling has vastly overestimated how important people smuggling is, and vastly underestimated how important Indonesia is," says White. Instead, White believes that Australia should demonstrate more engagement with Indonesia's economy, the third fastest growing in Asia, as well as their strategic position in the South East Asian region. "Rudd doesn't seem interested in how far the country has come in the last ten years and how far it will continue to grow. We see it as a big country, but a weak country... Indonesia is actually a very strong country, that's vital to Australia's future," says White. "Our attitude needs to change dramatically."


From TIME.
 
Terror suspect in Bali bombings caught in Pakistan
ADAM GOLDMAN, NINIEK KARMINI
WASHINGTON— The Associated Press
29 March 2011

A senior Indonesian al-Qaeda operative wanted in the 2002 Bali bombings has been arrested in Pakistan, a rare high-profile capture in the war on terror that could provide valuable intelligence about the organization and possible future plots.

Umar Patek, a suspected member of the al-QaEda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, was arrested earlier this year in Pakistan, foreign intelligence sources said Tuesday.

It's not clear if Pakistan stumbled on Mr. Patek or his capture was the result of an intelligence tip. Details about what he was doing in Pakistan also remain murky, raising questions about whether he was there to plan an attack with al-Qaeda's top operational leaders as the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks looms over the U.S.

Mr. Patek, 40, a Javanese Arabic man, is well-known to intelligence agencies across the world. He's believed to have served as the group's deputy field commander in the nightclub bombings that left 202 people dead, many of them foreigners.

The U.S. was offering a $1 million reward for the arrest of the slight Mr. Patek, who is known as the “little Arab,” in the attack that killed seven Americans.

News of his arrest came from two intelligence officials in Indonesia and Philippines. Mr. Patek's exact whereabouts were not immediately known. Both spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the information.

The question of what to do with him could become a key indicator of how President Barack Obama will handle major terrorist suspects captured abroad. However, American officials declined to comment on the case.

Under former president George W. Bush, he likely would have been moved into the CIA's network of secret prisons. For instance, one of Mr. Patek's accused co-conspirators in the nightclub bombing, Hambali, spent years in the prison system and is now being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But the CIA's secret prisons are closed and Mr. Obama is trying to empty Guantanamo, not add new inmates.

Mr. Patek is believed to have been among a group of Indonesians, Malaysians and Filipinos who travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s for training and fighting.

On their return to Southeast Asia, they formed Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for a string of suicide bombings targeting nightclubs, restaurants, hotels, and a Western embassy in Indonesia. Together more than 260 people have died.

Mr. Patek fled to the southern Philippines after the Bali bombings, seeking refuge and training with both the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Muslim separatist group, and later, the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, security experts have said.

But he is believed to have remained heavily engaged in Jemaah Islamiyah operations at home. His arrest in Pakistan is likely to raise questions over how such a high-profile terrorist can travel across international borders. There are also likely to be competing interests among intelligence agencies as each jockey for control over Mr. Patek.

In March, 2010, Mr. Patek was believed to be in the Sulu province in the far southern Philippines. According to the Jamestown Foundation, a national security policy institute in Washington, Mr. Patek was one of the “last senior JI (Jemaah Islamiyah) commanders with significant experience” in the original Afghan al-Qaeda camps and long-standing ties to the international jihadist network and its donors.
 
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