http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgeneral.asp?fileid=20061224135138&irec=0
Police guard churches amid warnings of Christmas terror JAKARTA (AP): Tens of thousands of police were deployed at churches across Indonesia on Sunday amid warnings by Western nations that Islamic militants may be plotting Christmas bombings. Indonesian officials downplayed the bulletins, which have become something of a tradition themselves since Christmas Eve bombings at churches across the world's most populous Muslim nation in 2000 killed 19 people. The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and Australia warned that the threat of an attack over the holiday season was "serious" and "credible" and that foreigners could be targeted, but did not say on what the alert was based on. "The Australians and the Americans can say what they want, that is democracy," Indonesia's police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana. "But up until now we have not seen any frightening signs." Nevertheless, 18,000 officers had been deployed at churches in the capital, Jakarta and tens of thousands more will be on duty elsewhere in the sprawling nation, he said. Bomb squad officers planned to search Jakarta's Dutch-era cathedral for bombs and Christmas Eve worshippers at major churches would be frisked before they entered, he said. The United States and its regional ally, Australia, have long posted generic warnings that terrorists are plotting attacks in Indonesia, but they routinely issue fresh bulletins ahead of the holiday season. The warnings are not based on intelligence of a specific threat, but rather reflect a general belief that attacks by Muslim extremists are more likely over Christmas. Since then the 2000 bombings, militants from the Jamaah Islamiyah terror group have staged four major attacks, the most deadly being the October 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists. The last attack was more than 14 months ago. Indonesian officials do not like the terror warnings, saying they hurt the country's economy by frightening tourists and are unfair given the global nature of terrorism. (***) +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
