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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesia Blames al-Qaida for Attack |
| 2002-10-14 |
| Indonesia's defense minister blamed al-Qaida and its extremist allies for the massive bomb attack that killed more than 180 people at a nightclub on the resort island of Bali. "We are sure al-Qaida is here," Matori Abdul Djalil said after a Cabinet meeting in Jakarta. "The Bali bomb blast is linked to al-Qaida with the cooperation of local terrorists." They will now begin to deny and obfuscate the self-evident fact: The leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, denied involvement and implicated the United States. Abu Bakar Bashir said that "I suspect that the bombing was engineered by the United States and its allies to justify allegations that Indonesia is a base for terrorists," he told the AP in telephone interview from Solo, a city in central Java, where he runs an Islamic boarding school. "Nope. Nope. Wudn't me. Prob'ly them danged Merkins. Bet the Jews wuz involved, too! They set it up!" Indonesian police refused to say whether Bashir would be questioned despite repeated calls by neighboring countries that he be arrested. Not if they can get by without doing it. Bashir's protection comes from 'way up... President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who wept as she toured the wreckage Sunday, promised to cooperate with other nations in the investigation. And other parties are determined to shortstop that determination... The defense minister's statement was the first time that a top government official had implicated al-Qaida in Saturday's attack, the worst of its kind worldwide since the Sept. 11 attacks in America. Until now, police investigators have said they had few clues and no suspects in the blasts that tore through the Kuta Beach nightclub district. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |