'Activated' Asian terror web busted
The arrest of dozens of Al Qaeda suspects shows the organization's depth in Asia.
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Rahman is currently in Malaysian custody, while Hambali is a fugitive. Bashir, a campaigner for the creation of an Islamic state, returned to Indonesia in 1998. He denies involvement in any terrorist activities and Indonesian police say they have no evidence to arrest him.
In Singapore, Maidin's lectures took a sharp anti-American turn after US troops were stationed in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. The Americans are infidels, he preached, and the presence of their troops in the holy-land an attack on Islam. In 1993, Maidin attended one of the Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan; at least seven more of his students also attended Al Qaeda camps, Singapore officials allege.
Jaffar told Singapore investigators that he grew convinced that Maidin's view of the world was correct. In 1995, he and another member of his cell went on an adventure holiday to Malaysia, and he boasted when he returned that he'd acquired jungle survival skills. In 1997, Jaffar began to develop plans to attack US sailors in Singapore. Vessels in the US Seventh fleet regularly put in to port here.
Jaffar worked up plans to attack ships in the harbor similar to the Cole attack and also proposed blowing up a bus ferrying American sailors from the port to a subway station near his home. In August of 1999, Maidin sent Jaffar to Afghanistan, where he briefed Al Qaeda leaders on the plan. Jaffar provided them with a videotape of his proposed target.
That tape was found in mid December by US intelligence agents in Afghanistan in a burned out Al Qaeda safe-house. It was turned over to Singapore officials in late December, after the arrests here.
Jaffar told interrogators that his plan was well-received, but for reasons unknown, were not pursued. But intelligence analysts say that plan served to convince the Al Qaeda leadership that the cell was capable enough to help carry out an attack.
In late September, Al Qaeda contacted the Jemaah Islamiyah through a Malaysian member, Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana, and told them to prepare for action. In early October Sammy, the Al Qaeda operative who Singapore officials said is of "Arab extraction," and an Indonesian who called himself "Mike" flew into town and began piecing together details for an attack.
They were clearly planning a devastating operation. The foreign experts told the local cell that Malaysian contacts had already procured 4 tons of ammonium nitrate, a volatile fertilizer frequently used by terrorists, and that they'd need a further 17 tons to carry out their plan. The 1995 Oklahoma City bomb that killed 168 people contained just two tons of ammonium nitrate. Unknown to the alleged plotters, Singapore already had many of them under surveillance, and as they moved to acquire explosives, the authorities decided to close in, making their first round of arrests on December 6.
Sammy and Mike had already fled. Philippines officials arrested "Mike" last week. They say his proper name is Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, a self-described munitions expert who was trained by Al Qaeda.
The Filipino's said they recovered a ton of explosives and detonators after interrogating Ghozi. Sammy, whose identity is not yet known, remains at large.
