Southeast Asian group linked to al-Qaeda<\/p>\n
Rohan Sullivan, Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
When Yazid Sufaat arrived home to Malaysia after months in
\nsouthern Afghanistan, police were waiting.<\/p>\n
Authorities say his arrest has helped expose a Southeast Asian
\nterror network that has surprised governments and security
\nexperts. They say its structure and capacities are frighteningly
\nsimilar to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.<\/p>\n
Since December, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines have
\nall announced arrests of purported cell members suspected of
\ninvolvement in a plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Singapore,
\nNavy ships and other pro-Western targets in the wealthy city-
\nstate.<\/p>\n
Philippine National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said there
\nare indications that the militant group, which uses the name
\nJemaah Islamiyah, has become \"very active.\"<\/p>\n
Investigators say its aim is to spread radical Islam across
\nthe region -- a concept with scant support among a majority of
\nthe region's Muslim residents. Indonesia and Malaysia are both
\nMuslim-majority nations, but their governments are secular. The
\nPhilippines is mostly Roman Catholic, while Singapore is mostly
\nChristian or Buddhist.<\/p>\n
Malaysian authorities say in their country, as many as 200
\npeople are members of Kumpulan Militant Malaysia, a group with
\nties to Jemaah Islamiyah. They include Yazid, who is suspected of
\ntraining in al-Qaeda camps and playing host to two of the Sept.
\n11 hijackers two years ago at his weekend home. He was arrested
\nDec. 9 as he crossed from Thailand into Malaysia.<\/p>\n
As authorities across the region piece together information
\ngleaned from separate investigations, they say it has become
\nincreasingly clear that the group was linked to al-Qaeda and
\npossibly hoped to emulate it.<\/p>\n
An Indonesian man in Philippines custody since Jan. 15 told
\nauthorities there that he financed bombings that killed 22 people
\nin Manila in December 2000 with Jemaah Islamiyah money, according
\nto affidavits given to prosecutors Friday.<\/p>\n
In the sworn statements, Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, 31, said he
\njoined the group while he was a student in Pakistan in 1990-1995.
\nHis arrest led authorities two days later to more than a ton of
\nexplosives and 17 M-16 rifles in southern General Santos city in
\nthe Philippines. In the affidavits, al-Ghozi said those
\nexplosives were intended for attacks in Singapore.<\/p>\n
\"All this definitely shows a terrorist organization that is
\nworking across the region, and not just in Singapore\" said Dana
\nRobert Dillon, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Heritage
\nFoundation, a Washington-based think tank.<\/p>\n
The structure of the network -- individual cells operating
\nindependently but able to call on each other for help in specific
\ntasks - was comparable to al-Qaeda, Dillon said.<\/p>\n
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller recently said for the first
\ntime that some of the planning for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on
\nthe United States took place in Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaz al-Hazmi, who were aboard the
\nhijacked American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon
\non Sept. 11, visited Malaysia in January 2000, staying in an
\napartment Yazid owned outside its largest city, Kuala Lumpur. The
\nfuture hijackers met an al-Qaeda operative suspected in the
\ndeadly USS Cole bombing, said Malaysian officials on condition of
\nanonymity. Both attacks have been blamed on al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n
Yazid also helped Zacarias Moussaoui, charged in the United
\nStates with conspiring to kill thousands of people on Sept. 11,
\nwhen he visited Kuala Lumpur in Sept. 2000, officials allege.<\/p>\n
Singapore alleges another fugitive, Indonesian cleric Riduan
\nIsamuddin, also known as Hambali, was a regional Jemaah Islamiyah
\nleader who organized physical and religious training in Malaysia
\nfor activists while sending others to camps in Afghanistan.
\nMalaysian officials say he also sent recruits to rebel camps in
\nthe Philippines.<\/p>\n
U.S. authorities have praised cooperation from both Malaysia
\nand Singapore, and the United States sent troops to help train
\nthe Philippine military in its fight against militant Islamic
\ngroups there.<\/p>\n
In Malaysia, officials told The Associated Press that Yazid
\nbought four tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be
\nused in explosives. Singapore said suspects in its custody had
\nstored the same amount of ammonium nitrate inside Malaysia and
\nwere trying to get 17 tons more to be used in truck bombs. The
\nfour tons Yazid bought were later moved out of Malaysia before
\nthe December arrests, officials said, but they don't know exactly
\nwhen or to where.<\/p>\n
Alan Dupont, an Asian security expert at the Australian
\nNational University, said the reports indicate that al-Qaeda had
\npartnerships with fundamentalist Islamic groups in the region as
\nwell as agents of its own who were \"actively targeting,
\ndeveloping plans, and financing.\"<\/p>\n
He said he expects an \"intelligence bonanza\" from evidence
\ncollected in Afghanistan that will shed more light on the
\nsuspected links.<\/p>",
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