Bali Bombers wanted to kill.......Americans!

[MKSheppard]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/200211 ... 10PO0.html

Bali Suspect Said Bombers Hate U.S.

Nov 8, 2:28 PM (ET)
By STEVEN GUTKIN

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The Bali bombers "hate Americans" and their real targets were U.S. citizens in the nightclub attacks that killed nearly 200 people on the resort island, a top investigator said Friday, citing the confession of a key suspect.

The reported confession of an Indonesian man identified as Amrozi has prompted more arrests and linked the blasts to a fugitive, Riduan Isamudin, also known as Hambali, who has been tied to the Sept. 11 hijackers.

The confession was the first major breakthrough in the case, and officials said Friday that Amrozi had admitted to taking part in a string of terror attacks in Indonesia.

Referring to the Oct. 12 bombings in Bali, Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said the goal was "to kill as many Americans" as possible.

"They hate Americans. They tried to find where the Americans are gathering. That is in Bali. But they were not that happy because Australians were killed in big numbers," Pastika said. The vast majority of the dead were Australians.

Police swept through Amrozi's home village in East Java province on Friday, arresting the principal of an Islamic school and the owner of a shop where bomb chemicals were allegedly bought.

Blame for the attack is increasingly turning to Jemaah Islamiyah - the al-Qaida linked terror group said to be seeking a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.

Two security experts - citing militant and intelligence sources - said Friday that Jemaah Islamiyah leaders met in southern Thailand earlier this year and agreed to target tourist venues like the Bali nightclubs.

Pastika didn't say who Amrozi was working for, but said his younger brother, identified only as Mukhlas, was a member of Jemaah Islamiyah.

The investigator said Amrozi, who was arrested Tuesday in his home village of Tenggulun, led authorities to a residence in Denpasar, Bali's capital, where a forensic unit found residue of the explosives used in the bombings.

Police said Amrozi owned the L300 Mitsubishi minivan laden with at least 110 pounds of explosives that blew up outside a packed nightclub on Bali. Though Amrozi's detention has catapulted the investigation forward, his ranking inside any alleged terror group remains unclear.

Pastika said Amrozi confessed after being confronted with evidence that included receipts from a chemical company for materials used in making the Bali bomb.

Amrozi told police he bought a ton of ammonium chlorate, sulfur and aluminum, purchasing between 220 and 440 pounds at a time over six months to avoid raising suspicion. Only 220 pounds of explosives were used in the Bali bombings, Pastika said, and it is unclear where the rest is. Pastika spoke in the Philippines.

Amrozi said plans for the bombing began in earnest in early September and that two or three men began building the bomb on Oct. 5, a few days after he purchased the van used to carry the explosives, Pastika said. Amrozi left Bali two days before the attack.

Pastika said detectives believe six to 10 people were involved in the two nightclub bombings that turned one of Asia's most frequented tourist destinations into an inferno.

"We have their names already," Pastika said. "We know their identities. What the police are doing now is searching throughout the country."

Police said Friday they raided three locations in Tenggulun, searching the home of Amrozi's father's first wife and two homes owned by a friend of Amrozi's.

"We raided the three places because we thought he kept explosives and guns in those places," said a police detective, who refused to be named. "But when we went there, someone had taken all his belongings."

Police also said they detained the principal of Tenggulun's Al Islam school, where Amrozi was a frequent visitor. In addition, they detained the owner of a shop in Surabaya, East Java's capital, where Amrozi allegedly bought chemicals used in the Bali blasts, according to the state-run Antara news agency.

"I would have never have believed that this school is a center of terrorist activity," Sadi Suheda, a teacher at the Al Islam school. "I'm shocked. Our lives have been completely disrupted."

Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang said Amrozi acknowledged he knows two Muslim clerics said to be leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah - the fugitive Isamudin and Abu Bakar Bashir, who is detained in a Jakarta hospital.

Other intelligence officials in Bali, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said Amrozi admitted he met personally with the two clerics.

The officials said Amrozi has confessed to taking part in a bomb blast at the Jakarta Stock Exchange that killed 15 people in 2000. He also acknowledged involvement in the bombing of the Philippines ambassador's residence in Jakarta in 2000 and the bombing of the Philippines consulate in North Sulawesi province on Oct. 12, the officials said.

Aritonang said Amrozi told investigators he visited several locations in Bali and several countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, before the bombings.

On Friday, Zachary Abuza, a security analyst who has written extensively on al- Qaida, said Hambali convened a meeting earlier this year in Thailand after several Jemaah Islamiyah members were arrested in Singapore and Malaysia for planning attacks on Western interests there.

"One Jemaah Islamiyah member I interviewed said that Hambali was very angry about the arrest of Jemaah Islamiyah members in Singapore and Malaysia," Abuza said. "Instead of going after symbolic hard targets like U.S. embassies, he authorized members to go after soft targets such as tourist spots."

Rohan Gunaratna, who has written book on al-Qaida, also said he had intelligence sources who said there was a meeting in Thailand.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra denied the claim of a meeting in Thailand, and intelligence officials contacted Friday would not comment.

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EDITOR'S NOTE - AP correspondent Oliver Teves contributed to this report from Manila.

[Mr Bean]

If they wanted to kill Americans how about do it the old fasion way an attack an embassy? Sure slightly harder target but much more American's to other people raito

[MKSheppard]

If they wanted to kill Americans how about do it the old fasion way an attack an embassy? Sure slightly harder target but much more American's to other people raito

You forget that most of our AMEMBs have been "hardened" in the years
since the African Embassy Bombings, and 9/11.....