Was it Al Qaeda in Bali? Get out of the US and other potential bombers emerge. Megawati Sukarnoputri is a women. A women in a leadership role in an Islamic country is, by itself, enough to terrorize the public. Some news reports say the bomb contained C4 meaning a military connection. A retired Air Force officer was cited by some reports as confessing to making a bomb. Megawati is not popular with the military. Already there have been multiple assassination plots executed against Megawati. Anything to make the nation unstable would mean Megawati would be removed as, for example, being a weak woman. There are plenty of reasons for Indonesian political terrorists to have set multiple, simultaneous bombs including the one in Bali.
Long before 11 Sept, major oil companies had already shut down operations in Aesch because of Islamic terrorism - nothing to do with Al-Qaeda. Local terrorists had even bombed the Jakarta stock exchange. However, in the US where international news is rarely reported, it is now easy to blame problems on Al Qaeda. It is the mindset of this American government that will next attempt to connect it all to Iraq. There is no reason at this point, other than speculation, to associate bombings in the Sari Club with Al Qaeda. In America, take such claims with extreme suspicion because of this current administration's needs to blame everything on Al Qaeda and Iraq.
Simultaneously with the Bali bomb was another bomb on the island of Sulawesi against the Phillippine consulate. Was Al Qaeda also attacking the Fillipinos - or are these bombs really a local militant operations as has been ongoing throughout SE Asia - such as by Jemaah Islamiah and its rumored leader - Abu Bakar?
Indonesia has openly ignored Islamic extremism in the belief that if not attacked, then religious terrorists would go elsewhere to attack. For example Islam Defenders Front had been attacking and ransacking bars and nightclubs without any police response. People sometimes have to die before a government is provided public support to respond. Previously Indonesians had publically supported those who oppose any crackdown on religious terrorists. Indonesia secretly handed two foreign terrorists to America without further investigation because of public opinion. Reportedly, Indonesia finally wants to talk to these people since all they currently have only what America reports.
It is now politically acceptable to investigate and arrest terrorist organizations. Previously, Indonesia had angered even its neighbors for inaction. Another Islamic group accused of attacking a Christian church, Lakar Jihad, is now reported to be disbanding - due to new Indonesian political atmosphere.
The Bali bombing was particularly destructive. Virtually every hotel in Kuta had guests who were killed or missing. Football teams from Perth, Syndney, Adelaide, the Gold Coast (Queensland), and Forbes (New South Wales) all celebrating the end of a season instead lost friends. But there is no reason to believe this is Al Qaeda.
After 11 September, noted here was that Aesch would be a fine place for Osama bin Laden to move. Even the strait between Indonesia's westernmost island and Malaysia is home to most of the world's pirates - who are quite active in highjacking or raiding this, one of the world's busiest sealanes. If neither Indonesia nor Malaysia can stop simple pirates, then imagine how ideal Aesch - the western most edge of the island - would be to Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. However, Al Qaeda appears not to be there. Even the Phillippines appears to be a more preferred base for Al Qaeda terrorists.
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