FEER, Issue cover-dated October 03, 2002
War On Terrorism
Gently Turning The Heat Up
American Officials Seek Out Megawati
By Barry Wain and John McBeth
Issue cover-dated October 03, 2002
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri took the call from U.S. President George
W. Bush at 6 p.m. local time on September 16. He had intended to talk about Iraq,
American officials say, but the conversation ended up focusing on terrorism and the
imminent arrival in Jakarta of Karen Brooks, the National Security Council's director
for Asian affairs and a close friend of the Indonesian leader.
Megawati shouldn't have been surprised. Earlier in the day, she had been given a
highly unusual personal briefing by U.S. officials on the same subject. They told her
about an Al Qaeda plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Jakarta and their concerns
about the alleged complicity of Abu Bakar Bashir, the Indonesian Muslim cleric
suspected of heading Jemaah Islamiah, dozens of whose alleged members have been
arrested in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
When the Indonesian-speaking Brooks slipped quietly into town the following day for a
48-hour visit, she also wanted to talk about terror with the head of state, who treats
her like a sister. "Time is telescoping," Brooks reportedly told Megawati, a reference
to Washington's plans to put Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Bakar Bashir-- and what one
senior U.S. official says may be other individuals--on the U.S. government's list of
terrorist organizations.
Although they appeared to be tearing ahead at full speed, the Americans say they
actually slowed things down. They wanted to meet a request by Singapore to be able
to announce, on September 19, the arrest in August of a fresh batch of suspected
Islamic militants, most of them allegedly members of Jemaah Islamiah. But most of
all, the Americans sought to give Megawati an opportunity to act against Abu Bakar
Bashir before it would appear that she was responding to direct U.S. pressure to do it.
Not yet anyway. U.S. officials grouse that the cautious president and her security
advisers talk endlessly about finding sufficient evidence to nail Abu Bakar Bashir in a
country that does not even have a law to define terrorism. "We tell them that's not the
nature of the crime," says one senior U.S. official, indicating that Washington would
prefer Indonesia to discard legal niceties and do whatever is necessary to ensure that
the cleric is jailed. "The more we learn about him, the more we realise we can't ignore
him," the official adds.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency documents containing pointed new allegations
against Abu Bakar Bashir--the ones conveyed to Megawati--were leaked to the U.S.
press, apparently by an Asian intelligence agency, and circulated worldwide by
e-mail. The charges against Abu Bakar Bashir stem from the CIA's interrogation of
Omar al Faruq, who was arrested in Indonesia in June and is believed to be Al
Qaeda's representative in Southeast Asia.
The Americans still wonder how long they should give Megawati before moving to ban
Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Bakar Bashir. According to a variety of sources, Megawati
and her security advisers reached a consensus at a limited cabinet meeting on
September 18 to intensify their investigation of terrorist activities in Indonesia, though
the government remains reluctant to acknowledge publicly that Al Qaeda cells exist in
the country.
In many ways it may be too late. The leaked CIA report, containing at least one
dubious allegation about an assassination attempt against Megawati, has been
enough to convince many Indonesians that the U.S. is meddling in the country's
internal affairs and indulging in black propaganda. The danger is that public opinion
could easily become inflamed with anti-U.S. sentiment. And, as Megawati reportedly
told her various U.S. interlocutors, Abu Bakar Bashir would likely be hailed as a
"martyr" if he were arrested now.
Copyright ©2002 Review Publishing Company Limited, Hong Kong. All rights
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