Backup for antiterror war lamented<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro and Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The absence of legal grounds to deal with transnational crime
\nand a lack of coordination among government institutions are
\nobstructing the country's efforts to curb terrorist-related
\nactivities, according to intelligence sources.<\/p>\n
The sources also said that the military had often fed
\nintelligence data to the police, but the latter failed to follow
\nit up because "intelligence reports are not acceptable for the
\ndue process of the law".<\/p>\n
To illustrate his point, he referred to the country's efforts
\nto uncover here the network of the international terrorist group
\nal-Qaeda.<\/p>\n
"Legally, we can arrest suspected terrorists under the
\nexisting laws, considering that we do not have an antiterrorism
\nlaw following the revocation of the Antisubversion Law in 1999,"
\na source told The Jakarta Post on Monday.<\/p>\n
The 1999 Antisubversion Law granted intelligence officers the
\nunlimited right to take any action, which included arresting and
\nquestioning people based on an intelligence report.<\/p>\n
Today, an arrest can be made by using an immigration law or
\nforgery charges instead of the Antiterrorism Law, he said.<\/p>\n
Suspected terrorist Omar al-Faruq, for example, was arrested
\nand deported on charges of violating the Immigration Law, not of
\nterrorist acts.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, another intelligence officer urged for the
\nestablishment of an antiterror body involving security officers
\nto curb terrorist acts. He said the Army's Special Force's
\n(Kopassus) antiterror detachment was trained to deal with
\nproblems caused by terror acts -- such as hijacking or hostage
\ntaking -- rather than taking preventive action.<\/p>\n
Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. introduced an
\nantiterrorism law which stipulates that intelligence data is
\nacceptable for prosecuting suspects. The law declares a state of
\nwar and adopts a military law that does not acknowledge a
\nsuspect's rights, including the right to be silent, the source
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
"Based on this antiterrorism law, the U.S. has made several
\narrests on suspected terrorists, including the recent arrests of
\nOmar al-Faruq, claiming to be a Kuwaiti citizen, and Muhammad
\nIqbal Saad Madni, an Egyptian. But it (U.S. law) cannot be
\napplied here," he said.<\/p>\n
"It is different now as the police can only arrest and
\ninvestigate people through the proper procedures and strong
\nevidence," he said.<\/p>\n
He was referring to the police's failure recently to prosecute
\nAbu Bakar Ba'asyir, the chairman of the Solo-based Indonesian
\nMujahiddin Council (MMI), and Ja'far Umar Thalib of the Laskar
\nJihad. Both are alleged to have links with the international
\nterrorist group al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n
Under the New Order regime, the military could launch
\nintelligence operations in all areas of society, including in
\npolitics. Many of the operations victimized civilians. Following
\nthe downfall of former president Soeharto, Indonesia was hit by a
\nseries of bomb attacks, but so far only a few cases have been
\nbrought to court.<\/p>\n
"For intelligence output, we follow the so-called intelligence
\ncycle, which starts with the collection of data or information as
\npreliminary evidence, an analysis of the data and then a
\nconclusion of whether or not the data is valid," the source said.<\/p>\n
"Once it (the data) meets the requirements of an intelligence
\nproduct, we report it to the related institutions, to our
\nsupervisor or the decisionmaker," the source said.<\/p>\n
He added that during the analyses, intelligence officers
\nconducted Positive Clandestine Intelligence, or PCA. The process
\nis carried out through an underground operation, which sometimes
\nrequires the officer to interrogate people behind closed doors.
\nThe process is also called elicitation.<\/p>\n
The source admitted that intelligence reports were sometimes
\nfabricated for the sake of political interests, and "such
\npractices are still going on until now".<\/p>",
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