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Clues to JI/Chechnya link
Former Jemaah Islamiah (JI) regional leader Nasir Abas says he has not seen any VCD on bomb making by Chechens and neither has he heard of any JI member going to Chechnya. When contacted in Jakarta, he said he also did not come across any Chechen while undergoing training in Camp Sadr in Afghanistan. However, when The Star revealed the name of a JI leader who had travelled to Chechnya, he admitted knowing the person and was aware of his terrorist activities.
With little information available on links between the JI and the Chechens, investigators have probed deeper into the discovery of VCDs and documents on how Chechen separatists make and use land mines and bombs. This comes following reports that at least three JI leaders from Indonesia who are on the run have gone to Chechnya in support of their cause to set up an Islamic state in Russia. One of them has been implicated in the Bali bombing in Indonesia in 2002 that killed at least over 200 people. The fugitive is said to have close links with former al-Qaeda regional director Hambali, who is now in an unknown location under the custody of the United States. Last week, the Singapore Straits Times reported that al-Qaeda leader Mohd Mansour Jabarah @ Sammy, who is also being held by the United States, was believed to have confessed to security officials that he was inspired by the Chechen cause. The militant, a Canadian of Arab descent, had planned to bomb Western targets in Singapore with local JI leaders. According to news reports, he had spent hours on the Internet searching for information on the Chechen cause. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-27 |
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