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JI members say Bashir's the boss
Two Malaysian militants testifying in the trial of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir acknowledged on Tuesday that the elderly cleric was the spiritual leader of the regional terrorist group, Jamaah Islamiyah (JI). Malaysians Syamsul Bahri and Amran bin Mansur, who fled to Indonesia in 2002 and 2003 respectively to avoid arrest by the Malaysian police, also admitted that they were members of JI, which is the United Nations has declared a terrorist organization.

Bahri said he was told by Mukhlas, who was sentenced to death for his role in the Bali bombings, that the white-haired cleric assumed the JI leadership after founder Abdullah Sungkar died in 1999. Meanwhile, Amran, also known by his Indonesian name, Andi Saputro, said that he had also heard that Ba'asyir took over the JI leadership following the death of Abdullah Sungkar.

"I did hear people saying that Ba'aysir was selected to replace Abdullah Sungkar as JI leader but some people also said that it was Abu Rusdan, not Abu Bakar Ba'asyir," said Amran.

Both witnesses admitted that they had received military training during their time as JI members from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. "Mukhlas, who is my brother-in-law, offered me an opportunity to go to Pakistan to learn more about Islam, and when I arrived there I found much to my surprise that it was actually some sort of military training that was involved," Bahri said. He also said that he had been training to handle explosives in Pakistan and later learned how to make detonators in Solo, Central Java, after he fled to Indonesia in 2002.

Amran also admitted that he went to Camp Abubakar in the southern Philippines to receive further military training for around one month in 1998, and continued his training in Pakistan before heading for Kabul, Afghanistan, where he stayed for four months learning how to handle weapons.

Both witnesses said that they knew Azahari and Noordin Moch Top, believed to be the masterminds behind the Mariott bombing in August last year.

"At first I did not believe that JI members were behind the Bali and Marriott bombings because as far as I knew, our teachings did not permit such things (bombings). "However, I later learned that my fellow members Azahari and Noordin were suspected by the police of taking part in the Marriott bombing," Bahri said.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-12-01
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=50181