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| Southeast Asia |
| Singapore details terror network |
| 2003-01-10 |
| Singapore has said that it has discovered close ties between Jemaah Islamiah - widely blamed for the Bali bombing - and other Islamic militants in South East Asia. A White Paper published by Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said the training of JI militants was carried out at the base of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a Philippines group. I'm not surprised. Are you surprised? I'll bet the Singaporeans aren't surprised... The report said that sometime in 1997, the MILF allowed JI to set up its own training facility within the MILF's headquarters at Camp Abu Bakar on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao. "Training within this camp ranged from the basic to more specialised training in explosives-handling," it said. Just one of those little fraternal Islamic gestures... The 50-page report also revealed more details of alleged plots by JI to attack Western interests in Singapore in 2001 or 2002. It said that JI was planning to import Arab suicide bombers to carry out the attacks on US naval facilities, the Israeli embassy and the Australian and British high commissions. All the usual intended attack victims... It also warned of daily repercussions from the JI arrests for the Singapore bomb plot. "Besides, JI, other militant groups in the region may also want to mount attacks to show their solidarity with JI and to retaliate", for the detentions. These would be local versions of the Secret Army of Doom — pickup teams... Singapore will now "investigate more deeply" groups such as the MILF, the report said. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |