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| Southeast Asia |
| Singapore man admits to 2001 airport terror plot |
| 2009-03-06 |
| A Singapore terror suspect admitted in court Thursday to helping plot a 2001 attack on the city-state's airport, saying members of his al-Qaida-linked militant network wanted to plow a hijacked Russian Aeroflot into the terminal. Mohammad Hassan bin Saynudin, 36, did not say why the Changi Airport strike was canceled. But prosecutors told the South Jakarta District Court that he and other Jemaah Islamiyah members backed out at the last minute - they already had tickets in hand - because the media had uncovered details about their plot. It is not the first time bin Saynudin has made such claims of responsibility. Last month, he told Singapore's newspaper, The Straits Times, he and fugitive JI leader Mas Selamat Kastari came up with the plan because they wanted to punish the city-state for supporting the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for a string of terrorist attacks on Western targets since Sept. 11, 2001, including the nightclub bombings on Indonesia's resort island of Bali in 2002 that left 202 people dead, many of them foreign tourists. They've also been linked to several foiled plots in the region - including the Singapore airport strike. Bin Saynudin and nine other alleged members of his group were arrested in July for allegedly planning an attack on a bar on Indonesia's western island of Sumatra. The Singaporean was speaking Thursday at the trial of two of those men. |
| Posted by:Fred |