Embassy fears fan threat by elusive Indonesian terror suspect

Embassy fears fan threat by elusive Indonesian terror suspect

Jane Macartney, Reuters, Singapore

Round-faced with spectacles and a wispy beard, Riduan Isamuddin
could blend into any crowd in Southeast Asia. And he does.

That ability to fade into the background is a trump card in
what Western intelligence experts say is the task set by Osama
bin Laden for the 36-year-old Islamic preacher to sow fear and
wreak devastation around the region.

Australia and Canada said on Thursday they had closed their
embassies in Manila after receiving information of a planned
attack in the next few days. Both governments urged their
citizens to defer all non-essential travel to the Philippines, an
archipelago of sugar-white beaches and dive havens.

That means Ridouan Isamuddin, better known by the alias
Hambali, is meeting the mandate laid down for him by his equally
elusive boss bin Laden, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001,
strikes on New York and Washington.

Western intelligence experts say Hambali is nothing less than
bin Laden's man in Southeast Asia.

"Hambali was brought into al-Qaeda in the late 1980s," wrote
U.S. academic Zachary Abuza in a new report, Tentacles of Terror:
Al Qaeda's Southeast Asian Network.

"He is remarkable in that he is one of the only non-Arabs to
become a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda, and was a member of the
shura, its highest decision-making body," Abuza wrote.

Charged with overseeing military operations in the region,
Hambali is the operational mastermind of Indonesia's shadowy
Jamaah Islamiah (JI) network and the man allegedly behind the
Oct. 12 Bali bombing that killed more than 190, about half of
them Australians, intelligence experts say.

Even if he is not linked to the threat against the Manila
embassies, any such attack would fall within his remit.

"Hambali is in charge of operations in the region," said
counterterrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al
Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.

Details of his activities since he went underground in May
2001 have emerged from U.S. interrogation of a young Canadian-
Kuwaiti, Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, who was arrested for his
alleged role in plans last December to bomb Western embassies in
Singapore, Abuza wrote.

According to Abuza, Hambali held a meeting in southern
Thailand in January 2002 -- attended by Mansour -- at which he
switched targets from symbolic hits such as embassies to soft
targets such as bars.

Details of the meeting were given by FBI investigators to the
Thai authorities in August and that country with its relatively
relaxed immigration procedures may remain his favored
headquarters, Gunaratna said.

"There is no record of Hambali leaving Thailand in his name or
under any known alias," he said, dismissing rumors Hambali had
sought refuge in Pakistan or even at home in Indonesia.

Thailand has raged against reports that such a meeting took
place on its soil, apparently in the more Muslim south. "There
are no such things... Sometimes those rumors could damage us,"
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters on
Thursday.

"Perhaps, these people might have visited or traveled through
Thailand because we are geographically central, an attractive
country to visit. We are the most visited country in the region.
They (terror suspects) would not come to Thailand for terrorism
purposes," he said.

U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Darryl Johnson said on Wednesday
the Thai government had done enough to ensure American interests
were safe, despite a general U.S. travel warning for Southeast
Asia in the wake of the Bali bombings.

Thailand, worried its economy will be hit by tourist and
foreign investor nerves, has tightened security at major resorts
and launched a publicity campaign to persuade potential visitors
that the country is safe.

Western embassies in Manila, diplomatic missions in Singapore
and U.S. interests everywhere offered easy pickings for radicals
-- at least until Sept. 11.

"Southeast Asian states were what I term 'countries of
convenience' for terrorists," said Abuza, describing "tourist-
friendly and minimal visa requirements, lax financial oversights,
well-established remittance systems for overseas workers, porous
borders, often weak government control, endemic government
corruption, and a vast supply of illicit arms".