Terror attack warning: Will be indiscriminate and target government

Terror attack warning: Will be indiscriminate and target government

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Terror bomb attacks may well continue, albeit with government
facilities as the new targets, as opposed to public places, an
official and an expert warned on Monday.

The terror attacks could also strike in unexpected places,
they said.

Insp. Gen. Ansjaad Mbai, chairman of the antiterror body at
the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and
Security Affairs, and expert Hermawan Sulistyo of the National
Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that the country's security
authorities would likely fail to prevent possible terror attacks
because "they simply do not have the ability to do so."

Ansjaad and Hermawan were commenting on Monday's bomb blast at
the House of Representatives compound in Central Jakarta.

"Even though we have been on the alert for possible bomb
threats in Jakarta and other cities, we cannot predict when and
where such terror attacks will occur.

"One thing for sure is that terror acts remain a threat in
this country and will continue to pose a problem, even if we
(security officers) manage to arrest many of the alleged
perpetrators. They (the perpetrators) seem to come up with new
motives to commit such acts all the time," Ansjaad said.

According to Ansjaad, the House, as well as other state-owned
assets, was under tight security, but since the perpetrators keep
changing their tactics, "they may still be able to attack those
places."

"Some of us believe that the more security officers we deploy,
the safer those places are ... but learning from the recent case,
no one knows when an attack will strike next," Ansjaad said.

Hermawan meanwhile expressed skepticism that the terror
threats would end, saying that the situation would be tougher for
the government's official security guard contingent because
"future bomb attacks will be indiscriminate and unpredictable."

Hermawan further said that the police had yet to improve their
ability to deter terror attacks.

"The police, as well as other security forces, have been on
the alert over possible bomb threats following the arrest of
Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) members last week in Semarang (Central
Java). And since their (JI members) scope of operation has become
limited, they will launch indiscriminate attacks," Hermawan told
The Jakarta Post.

Both Ansjaad and Hermawan speculated that JI -- a network
which has been put on the UN's international terrorist list --
was likely behind the explosion inside the House compound.
However, Hermawan stressed that "the clandestine group will not
conduct such terror acts on its own because there is a high
possibility that it has been infiltrated by various interest
groups, including those with a political agenda."

Hermawan pointed out that Monday's blast was not related to
the ongoing political activities at the House, including the
investigation over the purchase of Russian-made Sukhoi aircraft.

Both Ansjaad and Hermawan dismissed the possible involvement
of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the blast, considering that
the secessionist group "usually deploys low explosive bombs
instead of high explosive ones that went off at the House
compound."

"Looking at JI's patterns, I believe that they were involved
in the explosion at the House compound because it is the only
organization in this country that has the necessary
infrastructure to do so," Ansjaad said.