-Caveat Lector- http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/12/173217.shtml
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Wolfowitz: Don't Wait to Confront Terrorists in Indonesia Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001 Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles that examines the potential targets of America’s continuing War on Terror. Also see: Target Somalia? Expert Tells NewsMax, ‘No One To Fight’ and Iraq’s Money Pipeline Wins Allies. "Going after al-Qaeda in Indonesia is not something that should wait until after al-Qaeda has been uprooted from Afghanistan,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz stated recently. "There are activities that we don’t like that are going on there.” A former ambassador to Indonesia, Wolfowitz echoed concerns voiced by Robert S. Gelbard, then U.S. ambassador to the world’s largest Islamic country, who predicted Sept. 16 that the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta would be the next target of terrorists led by Osama bin Laden. The alarmed ambassador further cautioned that bin Laden’s network had joined forces with extremist groups within Indonesia led by Laskar Jihad (Jihad Troops). Gelhard has since been followed by Bush appointee Ralph Boyce, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Sept. 26, and sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia on Oct. 9. Rohan Gunaratna from St. Andrew’s University Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence agrees with them, opining recently that the al-Qaeda network has a number of cells active in Indonesia. Extremist Islamist organizations in Indonesia include: Darul Islam, Islamic Defenders Front, and Laskar Jihad. According to a Darul Islam leader, the organization is largely made up of about 15,000 Indonesians who returned from Afghanistan after fighting alongside the mujahadeen against the Soviet Union. Bin Laden also fought alongside the mujahadeen in the 1980s, as did the leader of the Laskar Jihad, who admits to meeting Osama bin Laden there. 'Holy' War Shortly after Bush’s meeting with the Indonesian president Sept. 19, Indonesia’s top Islamic authority, the Council of Indonesian Ulemas, called for Muslims to unite and join a jihad (holy war) against the United States in the event of U.S. bombing attacks against Afghanistan. Since then, however, the Council has qualified that "jihad” has peaceful as well as warlike forms. Similar threats of jihad in whatever form against the U.S. have also been made by Laskar Jihad and Islamic Defenders Front. Those predicate bombing attacks, of course, are now under way. As a caution to the threats, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta withdrew non-essential staff in late September. Furthermore, families of the staff of some American companies, such as Nike, have been evacuated. Even before Sept. 11, intelligence from Europe indicated bomb threats and a worrisome surveillance of the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia by Sudanese nationals linked to the al-Qaeda network. So far, the promised jihad seems to be limited to demonstrations against the U.S. On Oct. 8, for instance, more than a thousand members of a number of organizations including Islamic Defenders Front picketed the American Embassy. Even Indonesian President Megawati Yudhoyono recently chided, "It is unacceptable that someone, a group or even a government, with the reason of searching for terrorists, attack a people or another country for whatever reason.” Remarks such as this have been interpreted as backsliding from Yudhoyono’s earlier pledge to Bush committing her country to the war on terrorism. Jaffar Umar Thalib, the leader of Laskar Jihad, minces his words even less: "We will continue with this anti-American movement, regardless of the brutal attempts by police to shut us down. This movement will continue until Bush decides to stop sending missiles into Afghanistan.” In the meantime, other links to militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan have surfaced. The Indonesian director of immigration, Muhammad Indra, has conceded that members of Afghan militias regularly enter Indonesia illegally. A Muslim activist and writer claimed that an envoy of Osama bin Laden had visited Indonesia at least four times, and that Darul Islam and al-Qaeda enjoy a "special relationship." Perhaps even more troubling over the long run, Indonesian students typically study in the Islamic religious schools of Pakistan and elsewhere, being exposed to the same radical teachings as the Taliban. So far, Indonesia’s biggest contribution to the war on terror has been an investigation of several bank accounts with suspected links to international terrorism. But the country’s laws have stymied action. Communication Minister Syamsul Mu’arif said a new decree was needed to allow authorities to block terrorist funds without violating Indonesian banking laws, the newspaper reported. But perhaps the greatest dilemma of Indonesia is that the country’s military has waged terror campaigns against civilians. Indonesian militias savaged East Timor in September 1999, leaving up to 1,000 dead. Just as troubling: the military’s close ties with extremist Islamic groups in its own country. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! 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