JI used donations to fund bombings: Report<\/p>\n
Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Southeast Asia's chief terrorist suspect collected hundreds of
\nthousands of dollars through a front charity in Malaysia and used
\nthe funds for bombings and to send recruits for military
\ntraining, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, also received 95,000
\nringgit (US$25,000) from suspected al-Qaeda leader Sheikh
\nMohamed, or Mokhtar, to run Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), a regional
\nextremist network suspected in the Bali bombings and a series of
\nother attacks in recent years, The Star newspaper reported.<\/p>\n
U.S. officials have identified Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a
\nKuwaiti-Pakistani, as a mastermind of Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in
\nthe United States. It was not immediately clear if the two names
\nbelong to the same man.<\/p>\n
Citing intelligence reports and police sources, The Star said
\nHambali amassed at least 2 million ringgit (US$526,000) to fund
\nJI operations.<\/p>\n
Some 800,000 ringgit ($200,000) came from donations to
\nPertubuhan al-Ehasan, a nongovernment organization Hambali
\nordered set up in Malaysia in 1998.<\/p>\n
The organization, which solicited donations by promising to
\nhelp suffering Muslims, was a JI front, officials cited by the
\npaper said.<\/p>\n
The money was used to buy weapons, send JI recruits to
\nAfghanistan and the southern Philippines for military training
\nand support the Christian-Muslim conflict in Ambon, Indonesia,
\nthe paper reported.<\/p>\n
It was also used to finance the bombing of a train station in
\nthe Philippines capital, Manila, and a series of church bombings
\nin Indonesia, the paper said.<\/p>\n
The money was also used to buy four tons of ammonium nitrate,
\na fertilizer that can be made into explosives and which
\ninvestigators say was used in the Oct. 12 Bali bombings, which
\nkilled 192 people.<\/p>\n
Hambali "collected money from unsuspecting people, not only in
\nMalaysia, but all over the world," The Star quoted Malaysia's
\nnational police chief Norian Mai as saying.<\/p>\n
Officials were not immediately available to comment on the
\nreport. But the details fit generally with what security
\nofficials have previously told The Associated Press about JI's
\noperations in Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Hambali, an Indonesian who was based in Malaysia for years
\nuntil 2001, is believed to be JI's main contact with al-Qaeda. He
\nis wanted in several Southeast Asian countries in connection to
\nbomb plots, including a foiled plan to blow up the U.S. Embassy
\nin Singapore, and for organizing a meeting of al-Qaeda
\noperatives, including two Sept. 11 hijackers, in Malaysia in
\n2000.<\/p>\n
Since mid-2001, predominantly Muslim Malaysia has arrested
\nmore than 70 religious militant suspects, including dozens of
\nalleged members of JI.<\/p>",
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