{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1769971,
        "msgid": "double-agent-behind-silent-operation-tocapture-xananas-gusmao-1779955006",
        "date": "2026-05-28 13:37:26",
        "title": "Double Agent behind Silent Operation toCapture Xananas Gusmao",
        "author": "Robertus Belarminus",
        "source": "KOMPAS",
        "tags": "",
        "topic": " Politics",
        "summary": "A double agent named Mariano played a pivotal role in the 1992 silent operation that led to the capture of East Timor independence leader Xanana Gusmao. Indonesian military intelligence strategically expanded rather than dismantled the underground network, using dawn raids and psychological tactics to extract information. The operation highlights the meticulous planning employed by Indonesian forces to neutralise key figures in Timor's independence movement.",
        "content": "<p>Jakarta - Behind the silent operation to capture Xanana Gusmao, a\ndouble agent named Mariano played a crucial role in uncovering the\nhiding location of the former Falintil guerrilla leader in Dili on 20\nNovember 1992. Long before the arrest, a development exhibition was\nunderway in Baucau. Security was provided by the 315th Battalion. During\nthe event, an armed resistance group attacked, killing one soldier. For\nthe commander of Nanggala X\/East Timor Intelligence Taskforce at the\ntime, Lieutenant Colonel Mahidin Simbolon, the attack could not be\ndismissed as a routine security incident. Mahidin subsequently assigned\na junior officer, First Lieutenant Doni Monardo (former head of\nIndonesia\u2019s National Disaster Management Agency), to investigate the\nnetwork behind the attack. The inquiry led them to a student from the\nUniversity of East Timor, part of the clandestine network \u2013 an\nunderground organisation that served as a logistics, information, and\ncommunication hub for Timor\u2019s independence movement. During\ninterrogation, the student did not immediately talk. He only mentioned,\n\u2018Perhaps A knows\u2019. From one name, another emerged. From one node,\nanother followed. \u2018We didn\u2019t dismantle the clandestine network; we\nexpanded it,\u2019 said Major General (Retired) Mahidin Simbolon in an\ninterview with Kompas Brigade Podcast, cited on Thursday (28 May 2026).\nMahidin explained that the clandestine network was trained to resist\ncapture. Thus, he said, arrests were carried out differently. Targets\nwere pursued in the early hours, around three or four in the morning.\nAccording to Mahidin, people awoken suddenly from sleep panic more\neasily and lose composure compared to being arrested in public. Small\noperations were conducted quietly, house to house, from one informant to\nanother, all interconnected. \u2018Convince him he definitely knows,\u2019 Mahidin\nsaid regarding the interrogation method used at the time. From this\nprocess, another name emerged: Paul Alvez.<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/double-agent-behind-silent-operation-tocapture-xananas-gusmao-1779955006",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}