Ba'asyir terrorists still an enigma<\/p>\n
Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The lawyer of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) chief Abu
\nBakar Ba'asyir said on Thursday there was no evidence of a link
\nbetween his client and the al-Qaeda network.<\/p>\n
The lawyer, Achmad Michdan, said that during his client's two
\ndays of questioning last week the National Police officers cross-
\nchecked reports from Malaysian authorities that showed that
\nBa'asyir could have links with the Afghanistan-based organization
\nled by Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n
Achmad said the police focused their questions on how close he
\nwas to an alleged al Qaeda-linked suspect, Muslim preacher Abu
\nJibril, a native of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara who was arrested
\nin Malaysia under the Internal Security Act last June for
\nallegedly conspiring to establish an Islamic state.<\/p>\n
\"Ustad Ba'asyir has met Ustad Jibril personally a few times...
\nboth are known preachers. It doesn't mean they were working
\ntogether to form Daulah Islamiah (Islamic government),\" Achmad
\ntold The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
\"Ustad Ba'asyir also admires Osama bin Laden. But that does
\nnot mean he works for the man.\"<\/p>\n
Intelligence officers said Abu Jibril was the nickname of
\nMohamad Iqbal A. Rahman.<\/p>\n
Intelligence sources said on Thursday that detained members of
\na militant wing of the Malaysian group Kumpulan Militan Malaysia
\n(KMM) and detained members of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) in Singapore,
\nkept strong links and also claimed to be headed by three
\nIndonesian leaders, identified as Ba'asyir alias Abdus Samad, Abu
\nJibril and Hambali, alias Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin.<\/p>\n
The detained members had met and traveled between Singapore
\nand Malaysia quite often, to discuss among other things, the
\nforming of an Islamic state. The detained KMM members in Malaysia
\nalso allegedly had links with Zacarias Moussaoui, a French
\ncitizen who is the only person yet to be indicted in the United
\nStates for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.<\/p>\n
\"The Indonesian Police have received a lot of heat from the
\nMalaysian and Singaporean authorities ... not directly, but via
\nour government. This is why, the police needed to clarify certain
\nissues about Ba'asyir,\" an intelligence officer told The Jakarta
\nPost on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The police, he said, have not found any evidence of the
\nreports and were uncertain whether they would summon Ba'asyir for
\nanother round of questioning.<\/p>\n
Ba'asyir was detained last December along with 13 members of
\nKMM by Malaysian authorities, but was released due to lack of
\nevidence.<\/p>\n
The Muslim cleric is running an Islamic boarding school in
\nSukoharjo in Central Java.<\/p>\n
Another source told the Post that the names of Ba'asyir and
\nHambali had also been linked to one of the detained Malaysians,
\nidentified as Yazid Sufa'at.<\/p>\n
The source said that Yazid, a businessman, had been singled
\nout as an agent of bin Laden who had helped in running and
\ndeveloping a terrorist network in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore
\nand the Philippines.<\/p>\n
Yazid, 37, was arrested by Malaysian authorities in Kedah on
\nDec. 9 last year.<\/p>\n
\"The news we received here was that Osama had also (allegedly)
\ncommanded Yazid via an Indonesian preacher, to meet with two
\nSaudi Arabian men ... Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mirdha, the
\nmen who (reportedly) crashed a plane into the Pentagon in the
\nSept. 11 attacks,\" the officer said.<\/p>\n
\"Whether the preacher is Ba'asyir, or Hambali or Iqbal or
\nwhoever ... we still need to make absolutely sure. For that, we
\nneed to gather more evidence.\"<\/p>\n
Yazid also allegedly met up with Zacarias in Malaysia in
\nSeptember 2000 and had allegedly paid Zacarias \"large sums of
\nmoney\" to carry out terrorist activities.<\/p>\n
A group of Indonesian attorneys known as the Muslim Defense
\nTeam (TPM) announced plans on Monday to sue the Philippine and
\nMalaysian governments for creating the impression that Indonesia
\nis a hub for terrorists, and for naming Ba'asyir as a member of
\nthe al-Qaeda terrorist network.<\/p>",
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