Security efforts directed against terrorism, not Islam: FBI

Security efforts directed against terrorism, not Islam: FBI

Terrorists targeted, not Muslims say FBI

Zen
The Jakarta Post
Nusa Dua, Bali

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert S
Mueller restated here on Friday night that U.S. security efforts
in operation in various countries around the world, were directed
at terrorism and not Islam.

"We understand that this is a war on terrorists, persons who
kill women and children. It is certainly not a war against
Muslims or Islam," he told a brief press conference after
attending a closed-door meeting with Indonesia's Coordinating
Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono and National Police Chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar.

The meeting was held in the Frangipani Room of the Sheraton-
Bali International Convention Center under unusually tight
security.

The FBI agents, who apparently commanded the meeting's
security arrangements, were so concerned about the safety of
their director that they initially prohibited journalists from
entering the building.

When the journalists were eventually allowed to enter, their
bags and equipment were carefully searched by an FBI agent in the
building's entrance.

The agents' anxious demeanor was in stark contrast to their
Indonesian counterparts, who looked calm and friendly.

Mueller also had a meeting with Indonesia's National
Intelligence Body (BIN) chief AM Hendropriyono on Saturday
morning at the five-star Ritz Carlton Hotel, where the FBI
entourage stayed during their two-day visit to Bali.

The United States, Mueller added, had large Muslim
American, Seikh American, and Arab American communities. He
described how in the days immediately after the September 11
terrorist attack the U.S. administration sought to assure the
security and safety of those communities.

Since that tragic day, Mueller said, the FBI had investigated
325 allegations of threats and assaults against Muslim Americans.

As the result of those investigations eighty five individuals
had been indicted by local authorities, and eleven individuals
had been charged at federal level.

"The point we wish to make is that Muslim Americans, Arab
Americans, and Sikh Americans are part of our community, and we
will aggressively investigate and prosecute anyone who seeks to
make threats or takes action against those communities," he said.

Concerning the possibility of the existence of Al-Qaeda
terrorist cells in the South East Asia region, Mueller said that
the U.S. government, together with the countries in that region,
were seeking to identify those individuals, and to assure that
they did not and could not present a threat of additional
terrorist attacks.

"We had, in my mind, an exceptionally productive meeting. I
look forward to additional meetings not only today or tomorrow
but also in the future, perhaps in Washington DC."

A similar tone of satisfaction over the result of the meeting
was conveyed by Coordinating Minister for Political, Social, and
Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"I have described our policy, strategy, and operational steps
in dealing with the international terrorism issue. The National
Police chief has also explained in great detail our concrete
measures, and I am under the impression that the United States
understands that Indonesia is, and will keep, working seriously
to address that issue," he said.

Susilo stressed that the United States government did not ask
the Indonesian government to fulfill certain sets of requirements
or conditions in order to show that Indonesian was serious in
combating international terrorism.

"I refute the allegation that Indonesia did nothing to fight
international terrorism, but I have to explain that we have very
complicated domestic problems, which we must deal with
simultaneously."

Besides terrorism, those problems included communal conflicts,
separatism, and law and order enforcement, he said.

Susilo said that international cooperation in the
war against terrorism must be based on a mutual understanding
that each country had different legal systems, laws, and domestic
mechanisms to cope with the terrorism threat.