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| Southeast Asia |
| JI has thousands of potential troops |
| 2005-11-24 |
| Indonesian officials have begun leaking to the media their fears that thousands of Indonesian Muslim militants have infiltrated cities in Java and West Sumatra. Two Indonesian intelligence officers speaking on condition of anonymity said that the militants had received training and combat experience in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Libya. Indonesian intelligence is attempting to ascertain if the militants have any direct links to the Jemaah Islamiyah network headed by Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top. Antara news agency reported that the chairman of Indonesia's Muhammadiyah organization recently stated that 3,000 former Afghanistan guerrillas had been recruited since 1980 to wage jihad in Africa. The two intelligence officers said that 5,000 Indonesian Muslim jihadists had trained abroad. Washington is increasingly recognizing Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, as an essential ally in the war on terror. On Wednesday Washington lifted its arms embargo on Indonesia, imposed in 1999 following Indonesian army excesses in East Timor. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 More or less. There's been a lot of caterwauling from the usual suspects about Indonesia's human-rights record when the arms embargo was lifted. Funny how the same suspects manage to stay silent about schoolgirls getting beheaded, or churches and their congregations getting wiped out. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-11-24 12:59 |
| #1 Keep your friends close and your enemys closer? |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2005-11-24 09:52 |