U.S. hopes to return militant Hambali to RI

U.S. hopes to return militant Hambali to RI

Agencies, Jakarta

The United States hopes to return accused bombing mastermind Hambali to his native Indonesia, but cannot say when, a top U.S. counter-terrorism official told reporters on Tuesday.

Hambali, an Islamic cleric authorities believe was Osama bin Laden's key link to Southeast Asia, has been in U.S. custody since his arrest in Thailand in 2003.

Indonesian authorities have long sought direct access to Hambali to question and try him over bomb attacks here.

Interest in Hambali has heightened since the suicide bombings in Bali on Oct. 1 that killed 23 people, including the three bombers. Hambali is accused of masterminding the 2002 blasts on the resort island that killed 202 people, and the Jamaah Islamiyah group he helped lead has been linked to both attacks.

"Our intention is clear. We hope to indeed return him to Indonesia but I cannot give you a time line on that right now," Henry Crumpton, the visiting U.S. State Department's coordinator for counter-terrorism, told a news conference here on Tuesday as quoted by Reuters.

He said Washington was passing on "information related to Hambali, related to any counter-terrorism investigation, any information that has a direct or even indirect threat to Indonesia."

Crumpton was speaking after meeting police officials and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto.

Widodo told reporters earlier that he had sought more U.S. help in building Indonesia's law enforcement, intelligence and training capabilities to fight terrorism.

"I think there are a lot of things that need to be developed, including training and facilities," Widodo said.

Since the Bali blasts in 2002, Indonesia has also suffered a car bombing of a luxury hotel in Jakarta in 2003 and a similar attack outside the Australian embassy in 2004, in addition to the bombings this month that again hit Bali.

Elsewhere, Crumpton said that weapons of mass destruction posed a real and serious threat to the world and warned that terrorists were constantly evolving and deploying new tactics.

While some progress has been made in the global war on terror, with several high profile arrests being made, Crumpton said "realistically, there will be more attacks."

"But what really concerns me is weapons of mass destruction," he said as quoted by AP, pointing to alleged statements made by bin Laden's terror network about its interest in biological and chemical warfare.

He also cited evidence U.S. officials said they found in Afghanistan that al-Qaeda was working on anthrax weapons.

Though U.S. President George W. Bush's claims that Iraq was harboring weapons of mass destruction turned out to be unfounded, Crumpton said the threat of biological and chemical weapons is "real" and "frightening."

Crumpton is touring Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines to discuss anti-terrorism efforts, said the best way to respond to that and other terrorist threats was through international cooperation.