Al-Qaeda funded Bali attacks: Reports

Al-Qaeda funded Bali attacks: Reports

Agence France-Presse, Washington

Alleged terror chief Hambali told U.S. investigators that al-
Qaeda financed last year's Bali nightclub bombings and had
considered new attacks on western targets in Southeast Asia, Time
magazine reported in Monday's edition.

Hambali, whose birth name is Riduan Isamuddin, was arrested by
Thai and U.S. authorities in Thailand in mid-August.

He is being questioned at the U.S.-British air base on
Britain's remote Indian Ocean island Diego Garcia, the magazine
reported, citing a regional intelligence official.

According to copies of his confession obtained by Time,
Hambali said al-Qaeda had sent him US$30,000 to fund the bombings
of two nightclubs in Bali that left 202 people dead.

"Al-Qaeda was highly satisfied with the Bali bombings and as a
result provided additional money" totaling $100,000, an
interrogation report said.

From that money, $45,000 was given to Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) in
Indonesia, Hambali said. Another $15,000 was to support the
families of the imprisoned Bali bombers, and $30,000 was to
finance new attacks.

Hambali said some of the money could have been used for the
August bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in South Jakarta, where
12 people were killed, the magazine said.

Other targets considered for future attacks included U.S. and
British embassies in Bangkok, nightclubs in Thailand, and
shopping centers popular with western expatriates in Manila's
elite Makati district.

"The prisoner mentioned that Jewish targets were always the
main priority," according to a report about Hambali obtained by
Time, which said he had scouted the Israeli embassy and a
synagogue in Manila.

One of Hambali's closest aides, Bashir bin Lap, also known as
Lillie, said two Israeli-owned businesses in or near Bangkok's
backpacker district were also considered for attack, as was the
Israeli carrier El Al's ticket counter and airplanes at the
city's airport.

Hambali and Lillie both described links between al-Qaeda,
Jamaah Islamiyah and the Philippines' Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF), saying $27,000 had been transferred this summer to
the group, according to Time.

Hambali also said that JI's members train in camps protected
by the Moros, and that it is "most likely a large number of
members of JI Indonesia are hiding in the Philippines and
supporting the MILF," the magazine said.

Hambali is believed to be the Asian pointman for al-Qaeda,
which conducted the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, and
the operations chief of JI, a regional militant group accused of
carrying the October 2002 Bali bombings and a string of other
attacks.