U.S. monitors blast probe for technology used

U.S. monitors blast probe for technology used

Agencies, Bangkok

The United States could review its trade in dual-use and
military technology with troubled Indonesia as a result of the
Bali bombing, a senior U.S. trade official said on Monday.

U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Kenneth Juster, who is
touring Southeast Asia, told reporters Washington was keeping a
close eye on the investigation of the Oct. 12 nightclub blast
that killed more than 180 people, many of them foreign tourists.

"Obviously as the investigation unfolds in Indonesia we will
have a better sense of whether any high technology items from the
United States were involved in that," he said as quoted by
Reuters.

But Juster, who heads the Bureau of Industry and Security
responsible for regulating the export of sensitive technologies,
including dual-use technology that has both military and civilian
applications, said there was no indication any U.S. technology
had been used in the Bali attack.

"I have no reason whatsoever to believe that this is the case,
but that is always something we monitor," he said.

"I think it is too early to tell what the ramifications would
be in terms of exports to Indonesia until one can really further
investigate the causes and individuals behind the terrorist
activity."

Few details of the investigation in Bali have been released,
but investigators have said they believed military-type C4
plastic explosives were used.

The C4 plastic explosive used in the Bali bombing is a very
powerful substance mainly manufactured in the United States but
widely supplied to military forces around the world.

"It's a standard issue, military plastic explosive based on an
explosive ingredient called RDX, to which a polyisobutene
plasticizer is added," Mark Ribband, head of a British company
that manufactures this explosive, told AFP last week.

Ribband said C4 was manufactured "in several countries, but
it's primarily US."

"If you see C4 in another country's military inventory, it
tends to be because there has been American influence there, like
C4 and M-16s means America, and AK-47s and Semtex mean Eastern
Bloc."

The M-16 is the standard U.S. military assault rifle whose
Soviet equivalent is the Kalashnikov, or AK-47. Semtex is a
powerful plastic explosive that, in the Soviet era, was made in
Czechoslovakia.

The United States does not have broad-based sanctions against
trade with Indonesia, but sensitive dual-use technology and
conventional weapons sales are reviewed on a case-by-case basis
by the commerce and state departments, Juster said.

He did not say what dual-use items the United States exported
to Indonesia.

The Bali bombing has already prompted debate over whether the
United States should resume ties with Indonesia's military, cut
after its suppression of dissent in now independent East Timor.

Some analysts say the bombings and presence of militant cells
in the Southeast Asian country underscore the need for much
better training and equipment for Indonesia's security services.

Juster said the Bali blasts and recent bombings in the
Philippines showed the urgent need for closer cooperation between
governments and the private sector.

"Industry is more dependent on security than ever before," he
said. "Unfortunately I can't see these problems going away
immediately... This is not an issue governments alone can handle.
It has to be done in partnership with the private sector."