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| Southeast Asia |
| KL detains five JI men - one with Osama link |
| 2002-10-17 |
| Malaysia yesterday detained five members of Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Police say that there was no evidence linking the five with the attack in Indonesia but one of them has ties with the Al-Qaeda network. Tan Sri Norian Mai, the country's top police officer, made it clear the arrests were the result of investigations under way before the Bali attack. Meaning the Malays lost patience with this nonsense a while ago... Of particular interest to security officials here is self-employed Nik Abdul Rahman Mustapha. While studying in a religious school in Pakistan, he travelled to Afghanistan, where he received military training and met Osama bin Laden on several occasions. The Straits Times understands that he also took a pledge of loyalty, promising to do everything possible for the terrorist leader, failing which his family would have to bear the consequences. "If I don't do every thing you tell me, boss, go ahead and kill my Mom." That's a religion of peace! Another frequent visitor to Afghanistan was Shaari Mustapha, a Karachi University graduate who worked in a madrasah in Kelantan as a religious teacher. He recruited students there to study in Pakistan and urged them to visit camps in Afghanistan. Get 'em while they're young and impressionable, and you keep them until they explode... Police believe two other detainees - Abdul Murad Sudin and Azahar Abdul Samad - headed terror cells in Perak and Pahang. The fifth member detained is Bakkre Mahmud, a civil engineer who recently returned from Mindanao in the Philippines. He's just getting started, I guess. I have a hard time understanding how engineers — theoretically familiar with cause and effect — can become involved with Islamist mumbo-jumbo. The arrests mean Malaysia is now holding nearly 70 suspected militants under its Internal Security Act. Tan Sri Norian said that operations to track down other JI members would continue, with emphasis being placed on eight senior leaders of the group who are believed to have With something like half the effort, Indonesia could have three times that many in half the time. They're just afraid they're going to get all the Bad Boys in town swarming the streets, rolling their eyes and shaking guns. That's a tough situation — one can almost sympathize. But it's a "pay me now, pay me later" situation. They can't wish their way out of it. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #3 Engineers do not equal poverty do they? Seems to shoot that bon mot of the left down. Also, I think bin Laden subscribes to the Charlie Colson school of winning friends and influencing people: "If you have them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow". |
| Posted by: Jack 2002-10-18 05:15:21 |
| #2 It's weird just how many engineers seem atracted to radical Islam, in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood is sometimes referred to as the Engineers Brotherhood (Engineer rhymes with Muslim in Arabic). |
| Posted by: Paul 2002-10-18 04:06:04 |
| #1 I suspect many Indonesians remember the wave of killings of "communists" in 1965 which convulsed their country. Even the usually-gentle Balinese pitched in with notable enthusiasm. Perhaps they're a bit hesitant about stirring up this level of animosity within the country. |
| Posted by: Tresho 2002-10-17 21:57:02 |