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Bali bomb terrorist betrayed by his own side
Details coming out:Hambali, the Islamic militant whose arrest has been hailed as a breakthrough in the war on terrorism, was betrayed after members of his Jemaah Islamiah network fell out over money, according to a senior official in Thailandâs defence ministry. In a rare dispute within the tightly knit terrorist network, members of a JI cell in Singapore were angry that comrades in Thailand had frittered away a sizeable sum of money they had sent them to fund a suicide bombing team for operations in the kingdom. It figures, all that untraceable cash was bound to have tempted a few people. When the Singaporeans were later arrested, they opened up to investigators, according to the defence official. "Those damm Thaiâs, we worked hard to steal that money!" Their evidence led to the arrest in Thailand of a Malaysian national, Zubair bin Mohammed, who in turn knew the whereabouts of Hambali - Osama bin Ladenâs chief ally in south-east Asia. "The Singaporeans were told by the Thai group that no suicide bombers could be found," said the Thai defence official, who has been closely involved in the counter-terrorism investigations. "They said the money had been spent on mosques and âpersonal investmentsâ." "Hey, Bob, you want to blow yourself up?" "What, are you crazy! Not me, how about you?" "Nope, what ya wanna do with all this money then?" "I could use a new stereo." An official in Thai military intelligence told The Telegraph that bin Mohammedâs arrest last month, in a joint Thai-CIA operation, was extremely low-key so as not to alert Hambali, who was born Riduan Isamuddin in 1966. "The arrest of Hambali resulted from information Zubair gave under interrogation," the intelligence official said. A computer seized in Ayutthaya revealed connections between the two men, and police also found documents containing information on the embassies of the United States and some of its allies. Posted by: Steve 2003-08-18 |
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