BIN doubts validity of terror report
Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief AM Hendropriyono questioned on Wednesday the validity of a document on planned terrorist attacks in the capitals of three Southeast Asian countries.
"If such operations were scheduled to occur, then why would the alleged terrorist groups provide the document of their plans and risk being caught?" Hendropriyono asked after a closed-door meeting with the House of Representatives' Commission I for defense, security and political affairs.
Hendropriyono was responding to a document unveiled by the Singaporean daily The Straits Times, which describes plans to attack U.S. embassies in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
He also denied he had given any information on terrorists or terrorist plans to the newspaper.
"There is no such thing... which intelligence did I give them?" Hendropriyono asked.
In its Monday edition, the Straits Times said that three terrorist hit squads had agreed to blow up U.S. embassies in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia with satchels of C-4 military explosives, according to plans stated in a 15-page document allegedly found in Surakarta, Central Java, by Indonesian intelligence officials.
The report however did not say how it obtained the document which outlined the plans but said it "understood" that Indonesian intelligence officers found it in Surakarta in October.
The daily did not identify the intelligence officers.
Foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda also played down the media reports on Wednesday.
"I just laugh every time I'm asked about that. Why do I often argue about something which does not necessarily exist?" Hassan asked, referring to allegations of terrorist cells in Indonesia, as quoted by AFP.
He said it was difficult to test the veracity of the Straits Times article because it cited "unnamed sources".
Hassan said the report might have been prompted by Indonesia's perceived sluggishness in dealing with terrorism, which he said was a misconception.
"Maybe some people are not content with us after Singapore and Malaysia arrested militant groups involved in terrorism and Indonesia has not," he said.
"We do what we think we need to do. We don't need to be influenced," he added
The news report identified the men who were allegedly involved directly in the terrorist plans, as Abbas Yahya, Zaenal Muttaqien, Muhammad Furqon, Abdul Talib, Zulfikar, Zulkarnaen Subairi, Fajri Al Farizi, Mohammad Yunus and Mohammad Ikram.
A Surakarta immigration official, M. Sembiring, said that those names did not exist in his official data, which lists the names of people leaving Surakarta for domestic destinations.
"We could not find any matches of the full names stated in the report... who had allegedly left for Batam on Oct. 30 last year, or Surabaya on Nov. 1 last year. In our data, those full names are not there," Sembiring told the Post in Surakarta.
The report, which was reportedly written in Indonesian and Arabic and was signed by members of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), also mentioned Fathur Rohman al Ghozi as a player.
Fathur is an Indonesian who was arrested in the Philippines on Jan. 15 on terrorism charges. Security officials thwarted the attacks, reportedly planned for Dec. 4 last year and arrested dozens of suspects in Malaysia and Singapore, the report said.
National Police asked the Surakarta police headquarters on Monday to investigate the claims of terrorists in the Central Javanese town.
"We have mainly alerted the police in Surakarta ... also in Batam and Surabaya, to check on available data of the men allegedly involved in the (terrorist) plans, as stated in a news report on Monday," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saleh Saaf told The Jakarta Post.
The 15-page document reportedly stated that the JI members had reportedly declared "a holy war" against the U.S. and Israel.