Police claim solo run in probe into Bali blasts<\/p>\n
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Amid various \"intelligence reports\" appearing in the media in
\nconnection with the investigation into the Bali blasts, a source
\nclose to the National Police suggested on Sunday that the
\nintelligence agency had done little to help police arrest key
\nsuspect Imam Samudra.<\/p>\n
\"Police success in capturing Imam Samudra was 90 percent
\nattributable to the work of their detectives and forensic
\nexperts,\" said Hermawan Sulistyo, a political researcher, who
\nhelps advise the Indonesian police investigating the case.<\/p>\n
According to Hermawan, the National Intelligence Agency (BIN)
\nintelligence information has hardly been used by police
\ninvestigating the case.<\/p>\n
Instead of using BIN reports, the police officers on the
\nground developed and used their own networks to hunt down the
\nperpetrators and unravel the case, said Hermawan.<\/p>\n
\"I don't know whether the exchange of information between BIN
\nand the National Police took place at a high level, I am still
\nnot sure it does happen,\" he told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the Bali bombing, the government set up a
\nterrorist desk that incorporates police and intelligence bodies
\nto deal with the bombing attack.<\/p>\n
Hermawan hinted that various reports in the media, which
\nrelied mostly on intelligence sources, might be false.<\/p>\n
This includes reports released by Time magazine.<\/p>\n
Based on intelligence information, the magazine has run
\nstories suggesting that al-Qaeda operative Syafullah from Yemen,
\nZubair from Malaysia and local hard-liner Syawal were the
\n\"generals\" in the Bali bomb blasts, playing down Samudra's role
\nin the Bali bombing.<\/p>\n
So far, police have insisted that Samudra, whose real name is
\nAbdul Azis, is the principal planner in the Bali blasts, which
\nkilled almost 200 people.<\/p>\n
\"That is a raw information. The police did not use it, as
\nstronger clues and evidence are being sought to confirm the
\nreport,\" said Hermawan of intelligence reports, adding that the
\npolice investigating the case used all information they developed
\nin the field.<\/p>\n
Regarding foreign involvement in the bomb attack, as suggested
\nby intelligence sources, Hermawan said the tip-off lacked
\nevidence.<\/p>\n
Among a series of bomb blasts that rocked Indonesia in the
\npast few years, only one had links to foreign hands, he said.<\/p>\n
He was referring to the explosion in Atrium shopping mall in
\nSenen area, Central Jakarta in 2000, which involved a Malaysian.<\/p>\n
\"Therefore, having learned from the pattern, the foreign
\ninvolvement theory is not accepted in the bombing cases here,
\nincluding the Bali bomb blasts,\" said Hermawan.<\/p>\n
Hermawan's remarks supported an earlier statement by the top
\npolice officers who said they had not found any links between the
\nBali blasts and international networks such as terrorist group
\nal-Qaeda.<\/p>\n
Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil, citing intelligence
\nreports, has pointed to al-Qaeda as the principal planner of Bali
\nbombing.<\/p>\n
The National Intelligence Agency's spokesman Muchyar Yara was
\nnot available for comment on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Hermawan also supported the police investigation in the case,
\nwhich is not confined to the investigation into the Bali bomb
\nblasts.<\/p>\n
\"By investigating other cases, such as Batam and Pekanbaru
\nbomb blasts, the police have finally obtained a comprehensive
\npicture linking the Bali carnage and earlier blasts,\" said
\nHermawan.<\/p>\n
Separately, several Muslim leaders from the Central Java town
\nof Surakarta visited fellow cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on Sunday,
\nwho is being detained at the Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
Ba'asyir is accused of masterminding the planned assassination
\nof then vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri and the bomb blasts
\non Christmas Eve in 2000.<\/p>\n
Muzakkir, the leader of the clerics visiting Ba'asyir said
\nthat the Muslim leaders demanded that the police speed up the
\nlegal proceedings against the suspect.<\/p>\n
According to them, Ba'asyir detention had produced nothing
\nsubstantial for police investigators, therefore they suggested
\nthat the case be quickly brought to court.<\/p>\n
\"In court, the truth will be revealed at last,\" he was quoted
\nby detik.com news portal as saying on Sunday.<\/p>",
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