Indonesia's Hamzah Haz

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