Two days ago a mail bomb exploded at the office of an Islamic group in Jakarta, injuring four people including two police officers who tried to defuse it. The package was addressed to Ulil Abshar Abdalla, a liberal Islamic scholar and activist known for his criticism against radical Islamist groups in Indonesia. Ulil, as he is widely known in the media, is the founder and former director of The Liberal Islam Network (JIL), whose office was the package’s destination. He is also a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s (SBY) …
The Chief of the Indonesian Police has confirmed that murderer Noordin Top, Indonesia’s and Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorist, was killed yesterday during a police raid in Central Java, Indonesia. Noordin was the mastermind behind the July 17 attacks on the Jakarta JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton that killed 7 people and wounded 53. He has also been implicated in every major terrorist attack in Indonesia beginning with the first Bali bombing in 2002 that killed 202 innocents. The Islamist terrorist network in Indonesia will be severely damaged by this loss. …
Friday’s terrorist bombing of Jakarta’s JW-Marriott and Ritz-Carlton is truly a reminder not just to Indonesia, but to the world, that however well we may be preventing terrorist attacks, there is another team on the field. Terrorists can adjust tactics, morph organizations, and strike in unexpected ways at unexpected times. Details are not yet sifted in Jakarta, but indications are that the July 17 attacks were the work of Al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), or splinter groups thereof. Police are focused on the possibility that suicide …
