THE WASHINGTON POST, Saturday, March 29, 2003; Page A14
Inquiry Shows Indonesian's Ties to Al Qaeda
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Foreign Service
PAMOKOLAN, Indonesia -- Long before he achieved notoriety as Hambali, the most
wanted Islamic militant in Southeast Asia, the man was known to his neighbors in
this village as a youngster who idealized America. He dreamed of rocketing into
space like lunar pioneer Neil Armstrong, of visiting the United States and seeing its
powerful computers.
"At that time, America was the image of status, the most advanced in technology,"
said a former classmate, Ujang Iskandar. "He kept saying, 'I want to travel around the
world and see for myself and decide.' "
But over time, Hambali came to view the United States as a major cause of the
Muslim world's problems. He moved deeper and deeper into radical Islamic groups,
and today the 38-year-old cleric is sought by police worldwide as the prime leader of
al Qaeda in Southeast Asia.
Investigators said Hambali approved, planned or financed at least eight successful or
abortive attacks in the region, including the October 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali
that killed more than 200 people. Analysts said he set up a meeting of September 11
conspirators in Malaysia in 2000 and arranged for flying lessons in Malaysia for a
would-be hijacker.
The capture of al Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Pakistan four
weeks ago has given investigators new insights into his operations. According to
intelligence officials in Southeast Asia familiar with a report on the subsequent
interrogation, Mohammed has told of working for years with Hambali. Just last
November, Mohammed said, he sent $50,000 to Hambali to finance an attack on the
U.S. Embassy in Jakarta or Bangkok.
Intelligence analysts said al Qaeda has counted on Hambali since the assaults on the
United States to put fresh attacks on the scoreboard. With Mohammed's capture, the
stocky, 5-foot-5 Hambali ranks as one of the world's most senior al Qaeda leaders
still on the loose. He is now the strategic guide of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asia
terrorist network that began in the early 1990s as an al Qaeda spinoff, analysts said.
Police continue the search. One analyst in Southeast Asia said Hambali may be in
Thailand; other reports have placed him in southeastern Bangladesh, near the
Burmese border.
Here, in the village of Pamokolan, in the foothills of West Java, people remember
Hambali by his given name, Encep Nurjaman, a serious young man who lived up a dirt
lane near the mosque.
Growing up as the second of 13 children, the son of a teacher who was a mosque
leader, Hambali had a tendency to play the moralist, friends and acquaintances said.
That was not unusual behavior; his village is in a stronghold of Darul Islam, a religious
movement that seeks to establish an Islamic state.
"He was very critical, asked a lot of questions," recalled his former fourth grade
teacher, Apip Arifin. "If I made a mistake, he would complain." He excelled at math
and tried to teach himself English with a book called "24-Hour English." And he had
that interest in America.
As Hambali grew into adolescence, he became interested in social issues, criticizing
the U.S.-supported government of President Suharto for political oppression.
Hambali graduated from high school in 1983 and failed an exam to enter the military,
recalled his former classmate, Ujang. In 1985, he went to Malaysia to find work. In
those years, Malaysia was also the chosen place of exile for Indonesians who felt
persecuted. He was deep into Islamic studies now.
By 1987, he was in Afghanistan and involved in militant Islamic causes, according to
Umar Abduh, a former Darul Islam activist. There, said Umar Abduh, Hambali trained
in a camp with an Islamic guerrilla movement fighting Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan. He acquired the nom de guerre Hambali, borrowed from a revered imam
of Islamic history.
And there he met Khalid Sheik Mohammed and forged their close relationship. They
became attack organizers -- strategists, not operatives. "There are very few people in
the world who can put big operations together," said Rohan Gunarratna, a terrorism
analyst affiliated with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "You need years of
experience and a certain mind-set. Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Hambali have that
mind-set."
In 1989, Hambali returned to Southeast Asia, taking up residence again in Malaysia,
said Umar Abduh. During this period he lived with Abubakar Baasyir and Abdullah
Sungkar, two Indonesian militants who were exiled in Malaysia and founded Jemaah
Islamiah in 1993-94. He often led religious services.
Hambali lived frugally, and married a Chinese Malaysian woman who had converted to
Islam. Whenever he brought her to the home village for a visit, she would remain in the
background, veiled from head to toe in a chador, only her eyes visible. "Only the
family were allowed to talk to her," Apip said. "He said, 'My wife is my personal
property.' "
As early as 1996, according to the sources who have seen reports of the Mohammed
interrogation, Hambali worked for Mohammed on al Qaeda's media committee, which
publicized the network's exploits with a newspaper, fliers and videos, and culled press
reports for leader Osama bin Laden.
In 1996, Mohammed visited Malaysia and Singapore to observe Hambali's recruitment
and found him to be "charismatic and popular among his recruits," according to an
account of his interrogation. Hambali and his group, "unlike Gulf Arabs, were poor,
and therefore take great care in how they spend money for operations," this account
said.
After the fall of Suharto in 1998, a Christian-Muslim armed conflict erupted in the
Molucca islands of eastern Indonesia and it greatly influenced Hambali. He saw it as
emblematic of a worldwide war on Islam and used it to motivate Jemaah Islamiah
members, showing them graphic videotapes of attacks on mosques and villages,
according to a report of an interrogation of an operative captured in Singapore.
Hambali was growing so trusted within the al Qaeda network that he was tapped to
arrange a meeting in Kuala Lumpur in January 2000 at which, analysts said, about a
dozen senior al Qaeda members discussed the pending attacks on the USS Cole in
Yemen and the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings. He also arranged flight lessons for Zacarias
Moussaoui, now awaiting trial at U.S. District Court in Alexandria on charges of aiding
the Sept. 11 plot.
But Hambali was also actively carrying out assaults in this region as well,
investigators said. They included a bombing attack on the Philippine ambassador to
Indonesia in August, 2000, and on Christian churches in 11 Indonesian cities on
Christmas Eve that year.
Mohammed told investigators that it was Hambali who planned a car bomb attack on
the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta in the summer of 2001, an unsuccessful operation
previously thought to be the work mainly of al Qaeda operatives from Yemen.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Hambali was back in Afghanistan, wanting to be close to bin
Laden and Mohammed, said Gunaratna, citing an interrogation report of a captured al
Qaeda suspect. After the hijackings, Hambali returned to Kuala Lumpur, where he
worked on yet another plan, to attack Western embassies in Singapore with truck
bombs. In mid-December, Singapore foiled that plot and he fled to Bangkok,
according to intelligence reports.
In a January 2002 meeting there with al Qaeda members, Hambali discussed
conducting "small bombings in bars, cafes, or nightclubs frequented by Westerners"
in Southeast Asia, another captured al Qaeda member, Mohammed Mansour
Jabarah, has said, according to an FBI document. That meeting, intelligence officials
from countries in the region said , provided the inspiration for the Bali attacks.
And last November, Mohammed sent him the $50,000 for further attacks. According
to three intelligence sources in Southeast Asia who have seen summaries of
Mohammed's interrogation, it was decided that if the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok or
Jakarta proved too difficult to hit, Hambali's network would strike a "tourist" or
"economic" target, similar to the Bali nightclubs.
A highly placed U.S. official added that Mohammed said Hambali also planned an
attack on an oil company or tanker and possibly an Israeli embassy in the region.
Apip, his former teacher, said he feels very sorry for the man. "If I had the chance to
meet him," Apip said, "I'd say, 'Please surrender yourself. Your family is under a lot of
pressure.' " Right after the Bali bombing, Apip recalled, television reporters descended
on the dirt lane where Hambali's mother lives. She could not bear to talk to them, he
said, and she fainted.
* Staff writer Susan Schmidt in Washington and special correspondents Noor Huda
Ismail and Natasha Tampubolon in Jakarta contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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