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Jakarta bomb investigators point to terror group JI By John Aglionby in Jakarta Published: July 19 2009 13:43 | Last updated: July 19 2009 16:32 Indonesian police expressed increasing confidence on Sunday that regional Islamist terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah carried out last week's double suicide bombing in two Jakarta luxury hotels as concerns mounted about President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's crisis management in the wake of the attacks. National police spokesman Inspector General Nanan Soekarna said investigators were now "almost certain" militants operating under Noordin Top, JI's military commander, perpetrated Friday's near-simultaneous bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed nine people. EDITOR'S CHOICE Audio slideshow: John Aglionby on whether the bombings will hit investment - Jul-17 Home-grown terrorists prime Jakarta suspects - Jul-17 Hotel explosions weigh on Indonesia stocks - Jul-17 Suicide bombs kill 9 in Jakarta hotels - Jul-17 Indonesia rising - Jul-09 "The clues are still being pieced together but they're pointing in that direction," he said. "Once we've identified the bombers' bodies we'll be able to reach a clear conclusion." JI is considered Al-Qaeda's main south-east Asian affiliate. It was thought to have been severely crippled following the arrest and prosecution of several hundred militants and the absence of major attacks since 2005. The seven other fatalities include three Australians and a New Zealander. They were attending a regular executive networking breakfast at the Marriott hotel within metres of where the bomb was detonated. Speculation is mounting the Marriott suicide bomber was Nur Hasbi, who was in the same school class as Asmar Latin Sani, the suicide bomber in the 2003 attack on the Jakarta Marriott and is known to have been in Mr Noordin's inner circle since 2005. Sidney Jones, a JI expert with the International Crisis Group think-tank, said: "If it's Nur Hasbi then that would clinch that this is the Noordin network. It's very hard to look beyond Noordin now." Mr Noordin is believed to have been a central JI figure for years. The school Mr Nur Hasbi and Mr Asmar attended was the Ngruki Islamic boarding school run by Abu Bakar Bashir, JI's co-founder and, until a few years ago, its spiritual leader. Concern, meanwhile, grew over Mr Yudhoyono's reaction to the bombings. On Friday he made an emotional speech in which he implicated his opponents in the attacks and warned of a campaign to destabilise the nation. He cited as evidence photos of masked men shooting at a target covered in a picture of his face that were seized from the house of a recently arrested radical. Ms Jones, however, is confident that the photos were taken in 2004. "Yes it was a new arrest but not new photos," she said. Politicians and diplomats are saying Mr Yudhoyono's judgment must be questioned in the wake of the speech. Fuad Bawazier, a key aide to Jusuf Kalla, the vice-president, during Mr Kalla's failed attempt to win this month's presidential election, said the president should not have made such comments. "It didn't create calm, rather it was accusatory speculation all over the place," he said after visiting a hospital where some of the 53 injured in the bombings are being treated. Some diplomats said the speech revealed a new, worrying, side to Mr Yudhoyono's character. "We always knew he was thin-skinned but this shows he's highly emotional and maybe unreliable in a crisis," one said. "If I were a foreign investor I'd be more worried about the speech than the bombings." Mr Yudhoyono's aides have tried to downplay the speech. They have insisted the usually calm president is on top of the investigation but are also saying there is mounting evidence of "escalating illegal activities to trigger unrest". [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
