Indonesia's Hamzah Haz

One month ago, a bomb blast destroyed two Balinese nightclubs, killing almost 200 and wounding hundreds. In an impressive bit of sleuthing, Indonesian investigators have since brought into focus the extensive links between the country's Islamic radicals and al-Qaeda.

The primary suspect in the Oct. 12 massacre, a man named Amrozi, is a student of cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, spiritual leader of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist group. Singapore and Malaysia both have arrest warrants out for him. A former al- Qaeda operative accuses him of being the mastermind behind church bombings in Indonesia on Christmas Eve two years ago. Yusef Taul, one of three arrested for the Sept. 23 grenade attack on an American diplomatic residence in Jakarta, fingered Abu Bakar for organizing that operation.

Amrozi's brother Mukhlas is also a member of JI and a suspect in an attack on the Philippine ambassador's house in Jakarta and other assaults. During interrogations by Indonesian authorities, Amrozi implicated Abu Bakar's head of operations, Hambali, in the Bali attacks and other terrorist strikes. Hambali, or Riduan Isamuddin, is linked to two al-Qaeda agents, including Indonesian Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, who is under arrest for possession of bombing devices and conspiracy in the Philippines.

Hambali met with Khalid al-Mihdar in Kuala Lumpur for what Malaysian intelligence agents believe to have been strategy sessions for the Oct. 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen and the Sept. 11 attacks. Al-Mihdar piloted the commercial airliner that struck the Pentagon.

Despite the mounting evidence, a few of Indonesia's most powerful officials deny that there are terrorist breeding grounds in the country. Vice President Hamzah Haz has maintained that there is still no proof that al Qaeda exists in Indonesia. In an interview released Tuesday by the Australian Broadcasting Company, he clarified that he did not think JI was behind the Bali bombings. Militant Muslims in his country, he stated "are a very small group, if they exist at all."

Haz, head of the largest Islamic political party, has a history of providing verbal aid and comfort to extremists. After Sept. 11 he averred that the mass murder might help "cleanse the sins" of America. If police want to arrest Abu Bakar, he said, "you should arrest me first."

He declined to withdraw support from the JI founder, who applauded Osama bin Laden after Sept. 11 as "a real Islamic fighter" and al-Qaeda for leading the "struggle for the rights of Muslims."

Australian officials have voiced frustration with Jakarta's lack of consistent cooperation in investigating the Bali attack. Australian and U.S. criminologists claim they were denied access to physical evidence.

In Hong Kong on a trade mission on Tuesday, Michael Rann, premier of South Australia, told us that following the enormous shock of Oct. 12, "We must all be extraordinarily vigilant in prevention, detection, intelligence sharing and response" to terrorist activity. Contradicting claims that the fight against terror is solely America's war, Rann stated that, "Australia's position was quite clearly supportive of the American position even before Bali ... There was never any debate whether we were to be involved."

--The Asian Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong