Saudi 'gave money' to JI for explosives, expert says<\/p>\n
Reuters, Singapore<\/p>\n
An unidentified Saudi supplied funds to the Indonesian-based
\nJemaah Islamiah network to buy explosives that may have been used
\nin the Bali bombing, an authority on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
\nsaid on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The information on the Saudi funding was gathered in U.S.
\ninterrogations of Omar al-Faruq, a Kuwaiti linked to al-Qaeda who
\nwas arrested in Indonesia last June and later handed over to U.S.
\nauthorities in Afghanistan, said Rohan Gunaratna, author of the
\nbook Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.<\/p>\n
The money was sent to Jemaah Islamiah earlier this year, said
\nGunaratna, who has seen the U.S. interrogation papers. The amount
\nsent by the Saudi donor was $74,000, the Financial Times said.<\/p>\n
Gunaratna said the explosives were bought from Indonesian army
\nofficers who sold the material illegally.<\/p>\n
In Bali, police chief Budi Setyawan would neither confirm nor
\ndeny a Washington Post story that a former member of the
\nIndonesian Air Force had confessed to building the bombs that
\nkilled 181 people, mostly foreign travelers, on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Asked about the story at a news conference, he said: \"Later
\nthat information will be developed. I will give that to
\ninvestigators.\"<\/p>\n
Jemaah Islamiah, which has links to al-Qaeda, is a prime
\nsuspect behind the blasts in a strip of bars and clubs packed
\nwith foreign travelers on Bali's Kuta Beach on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Gunaratna said the explosives obtained from the military could
\nhave been used in the Bali bombings.<\/p>\n
Initial indications have reportedly shown traces at the site
\nof the military explosive C4, the same material used in the al-
\nQaeda-linked bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden in Yemen
\ntwo years to the day before the Bali attack.<\/p>\n
Gunaratna said the explosives bought by Jemaah Islamiah were
\nshipped to the Indonesian island of Ambon, the site of numerous
\nbloody attacks between Christians and Muslims in recent years,
\nand divided among different Islamist groups.<\/p>\n
In a sign militant Islamic groups may be on the defensive, the
\nLaskar Jihad, a group whose fighters have battled Christians in
\nthe Maluku Islands -- of which Ambon is one of the largest --
\nsaid on Tuesday it had disbanded and would withdraw its
\ncombatants.<\/p>",
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