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Justify base { October 14 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/14/international/14CND-INDO.html"The United States intelligence agency is behind the Bali bombings in an attempt to justify their accusation that Indonesia is a terrorist base," said Abu Bakar Bashir, the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical Islamic group that many analysts say may itself have organized the attack.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/14/international/14CND-INDO.html
October 14, 2002
Indonesia Blames Al Qaeda for Bali Bombing
By SETH MYDANS
BALI, Indonesia, Oct. 14 — In the government's most explicit acknowledgment to date that Al Qaeda is operating in Indonesia, the defense minister linked the terrorist group today to a nightclub explosion on Saturday that killed and injured hundreds people on this resort island.
"The Bali bomb blast is linked to Al Qaeda with the cooperation of local terrorists," the defense minister, Matori Abdul Djalil, said after a cabinet meeting in the capital, Jakarta. "I am not afraid to say, though many have refused to say, that an Al Qaeda network exists in Indonesia."
[In Washington, President Bush also linked Al Qaeda to the bombing in Bali, as well as an explosion aboard a French oil tanker off Yemen last week and a deadly attack on American marines in Kuwait last week.
"I believe the attack on the French vesel was a terror attack," Mr. Bush said in Washington. "Obviously, the attack on our marines in Kuwait was a terror attack, and the attack in Bali appears to an Al Qaeda-type terrorist — definitely a terrorist attack, whether it was Al Qaeda-related or not, I assume it is — and therefore it does look like a pattern of attacks."]
In recent weeks, top Indonesian officials who had denied the problem in the past had begun to concede that the world's most-populous Muslim nation faces a terrorist threat. Saturday's attack, in which many of the victims were foreign holidaymakers, seems to mark a turning point.
"This has to be realized by all of us, including our political elites, that the danger is real and potential here," the country's foreign minister, Hassan Wirajuda, said after a meeting today with foreign ambassadors.
The United States and some of Indonesia's neighbors have been making similar statements for months, only to be brushed aside by the government.
Today, however, it was the Indonesians, rather than the Americans, who were warning of further terrorist attacks. The security minister, Bambang Susilo Yudoyono, told reporters that security was being increased at American-run industrial sites, including an Exxon Mobil liquefied natural gas plant in the province of Aceh and a Caltex refinery in Sumatra.
Although Indonesia overwhelmingly embraces a moderate form of Islam, radical groups have raised their profile in the last year, exploiting widespread anti-American sentiment as well as divisions within the government.
Some Islamic militants were pressing a theory that the United States had masterminded Saturday's attack as a means to manipulate the Indonesian government and to strengthen its argument for a war against Islam.
"The United States intelligence agency is behind the Bali bombings in an attempt to justify their accusation that Indonesia is a terrorist base," said Abu Bakar Bashir, the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical Islamic group that many analysts say may itself have organized the attack.
Mr. Bashir condemned the bombing and denied that his group was involved. "All the allegations against me are groundless," he told a news conference. "I challenge them to prove anything."
Then he offered his rationale. "It would be impossible for Indonesians to do it," he said. "Indonesians don't have such powerful explosives." The same argument is made by some Western analysts for the likelihood of al-Qaeda involvement.
Another prominent Islamist, Aswar Hassan, who heads the Committee to Uphold Islamic Law, suggested on a television panel discussion today that American forensic investigators who are arriving in Bali are intended to be the leading edge of a planned American military presence here.
As evidence of an American conspiracy, he pointed out that only a handful of Americans had been among the casualties on Saturday. The State Department reported that two Americans had been killed and three injured in the attacks.
The attack in Bali clearly came as a shock to the government. Indonesia's tourism industry is second in foreign earnings only to oil and gas, and Bali is its most lucrative lure.
More than 5 million foreigners visited Indonesia in 2001, bringing in more than $5 billion in foreign exchange.
"We're finished," said Aburizal Bakriecq, chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as tourists continued to evacuate this sunny island today. "Our defense to convince people that doing business in Indonesia is safe is finished."
As in the months of riots and violence that followed the ouster of former President Suharto in 1998, the terrorist attack sent the Indonesian currency, the rupiah, plunging in value and pushed the stock market down by almost 10 percent.
The atmosphere of nervousness intensified in Jakarta today as a bomb threat shut down the American embassy's club for the second day. The Australian school in the capital also closed as a precaution.
In a gesture of no-confidence that is likely to further shake the country's reputation among visitors and investors, the United States embassy ordered all non-essential personnel and family members — about 300 people — to leave the country following Saturday's attack.
"This is an order," said Greta Morris, the embassy's spokeswoman. "This is not a voluntary departure."
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