BIN doubts validity of terror report

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.