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| Southeast Asia |
| Abu Bakar Bashir's son al-Qa'ida's propaganda man |
| 2010-06-04 |
| Hardline Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir had a direct line to al-Qa'ida around the time of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US because his son was working in the organisation's propaganda department. The revelation was made by the chief of Indonesia's counter-terrorism taskforce, an outfit known as Detachment 88, as expectations mounted that Bashir could soon be arrested over a terror cell uncovered this year in Aceh province. Bashir's youngest son, Abdul Rohim, was already known to have spent several years in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the late 1990s engaging in jihad-related activities. Bashir was closely linked to the 2002 Bali bombings, including a conviction for criminal conspiracy, although that was later overturned on constitutional grounds. Rohim is part of his father's operation at the al-Mukmin school in Solo, Central Java, where Bali bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Ali Imron were students. Brigadier General Tito Karnavian, the head of Detachment 88, has revealed that Rohim, now aged in his early 30s, had lived with September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and was an active member of al-Qa'ida around the time of the US attacks. "Abdul Rohim is a real part of al-Qa'ida because he was staying with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Kandahar, being staff of media, of propaganda, of al-Qa'ida," the anti-terror chief said. While Rohim's role as a point man between al-Qa'ida and Southeast Asian-based terror groups such as his father's Jemaah Islamiah has been established, the revelation that he was working directly for Osama bin Laden's group as a propagandist is new. It comes as police interrogate members of Bashir's current organisation. Jemaah Anshorut Tawhid, over the preacher's alleged involvement in the recent Aceh terror plot. |
| Posted by:ryuge |