News Search Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search Story archive		6-8-2003 Scotsman Evidence points to active Islamic terror group with links to al-Qaeda ANALYSIS By Gethin Chamberlain THE explosion at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta came just two days before a court in Bali was due to deliver its verdict in the trial of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, the first of about three dozen people accused of involvement in the Bali bombing. Bin Nurhasyim and his fellow defendants are members of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group, known to have strong links with al-Qaeda, and although no-one came forward to claim immediate responsibility for yesterday's attack, there seemed little doubt the same group had struck again. If so, it would be another indication that al-Qaeda and its associates, hindered in their ability to strike at targets in the West by the increased security measures introduced in the wake of 11 September, are prepared to pick away at soft targets where Westerners remain vulnerable. Since 11 September, it has been linked to attacks in Riyadh, Mombasa and Bali, with signs already that al-Qaeda may be planning another attack in the near future. On Sunday, in a tape recording on al-Arabiya TV, Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al- Zawahri, warned the United States not to harm any inmates at Guantanamo Bay, saying the US would pay a high price if any Camp X-Ray detainees were sentenced to death. Washington had also warned last week that the al-Qaeda network was planning new suicide hijackings and bombings in the US and abroad. Politicians, police and security experts suggested the nature and timing of yesterday's attack bore the hallmarks of Jemaah Islamiyah. Andrew Tan, of Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, said intelligence agencies had been warning for months of the possibility of attacks and the bulk of Jemaah Islamiyah remains at large. A low-key target such as the Marriott, a relatively new and upmarket five-star hotel in Jakarta, would have appealed to those planning the attack. It would be likely to be filled with foreign guests, offer little in the way of security measures, and send out a message to Western governments that their interests abroad remained vulnerable. An attack would also have coincided with this week's court case and the impending trial of its alleged leader, Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who has been charged with treason over a series of bombings in 2000. Jemaah Islamiyah (Islamic Community) was relatively unknown outside South-east Asia before the Bali bomb blasts that killed 202 people and wounded hundreds more. With its roots in Muslim nationalist movements of the late 1940s and early 1950s, its aim is to establish a Muslim state across South-east Asia. It initially concentrated its attacks on churches and shopping centres but, after 11 September, turned to western targets in the region. Suspected members have been arrested in Singapore, where they were accused of plotting to use trucks loaded with ammonium nitrate to bomb embassies and US targets, and in Thailand, where they were accused of plotting to bomb embassies and the beach resorts Pattaya and Phuket. The group's antipathy towards the West and its militant Islamic doctrine make it a ready bedfellow for al-Qaeda, which has played on its message of liberating Muslim countries from Western influence to build a power-base in South-east Asia; Indonesia in particular.
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