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Saudi teacher on trial for funding
Jakarta hotel bombs
BBC 24 February 2010
A retired Saudi Arabian schoolteacher has been charged with providing the funds for the deadly
attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta last July.
Jakarta hotel bombs trial begins
BBC 110 february 2010
The trial has begun of a man alleged to have assisted in the twin suicide hotel bomb attacks in Jakarta in July
2009 that killed seven people.
Amir Abdillah, 34, is charged under anti-terror laws of concealing information and harbouring terrorists.
Prosecutors said he had been the driver for alleged terrorist Noordin Top, who was shot by police in a September
raid on a central Java village.
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In pictures: Jakarta hotel blasts
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A retired Saudi Arabian schoolteacher has been charged with providing the funds for the deadly attacks on two
luxury hotels in Jakarta last July.
Al Khelaiw Ali Abdullah, 55, is accused of funnelling money through an internet cafe in West Java.
He is the fourth person to go on trial this month over the Jakarta bombings - along with the suspected driver,
bag-man and helpers in the attacks.
The twin hotel suicide bombings killed seven people and injured 50 more.
The BBC's Indonesia correspondent Karishma Vaswani says that Mr Abdullah came to Indonesia from Saudi Arabia in
November 2008.
Denies charges
He set up an internet cafe - a seemingly innocent business venture.
Prosecutors say that this is where they believe the money trail for the Jakarta bombings began.
They told the Jakarta court Mr Abdullah gave funds to a key contact in the group thought to be behind the blasts.
Prosecutors said he was then later introduced to the suicide bomber in the Jakarta blasts and another man who is
believed to have booked the room in the JW Marriott hotel where one of the bombs exploded.
If found guilty, Mr Abdullah could face up to 20 years in prison, but he says he is innocent.
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VIDEO
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Bali suspect killed in Java raid
BBC Thursday, 17 September 2009
Indonesia's most-wanted Islamist militant, Noordin Mohamed Top, has been killed during a raid in central Java,
say police.
The man wanted for a series of deadly attacks across the archipelago was among four killed in a raid near Solo
city, said the national police chief.
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It is not the first time Indonesian officials have claimed Noordin is dead.
Indonesia's president said the raid was a significant victory, but warned the militant threat was not yet over.
"We must continue to be vigilant and prepare for steps to tackle, optimally prevent and continue to hunt down
terrorist leaders," said Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Officials believe the Malaysian-born former accountant orchestrated a series of attacks across Indonesia.
Noordin was thought to be a key recruiter and financier for the regional Islamist militant group, Jemaah Islamiah,
but analysts say he formed his own more hard-line splinter group.
The Indonesian government has managed to stifle militant strikes since September 2005 - the second major attack
on Bali, which left 23 dead.
Noordin is not thought to have been involved in the Bali bombings of 2002, according to analysts.
The man thought to have been Noordin's closest ally, Malaysian bomb-maker Azahari Husin, was killed in 2005.
Two self-proclaimed JI leaders were then jailed in April 2008 and three Bali bombers were executed in November
that year.
However, the suicide attacks on two hotels in Jakarta in July 2009, which killed nine people including two suspected
bombers, raised concerns that Noordin's militant activities had resumed.
The country's anti-terror chief said there were "strong indications" Noordin's group was to blame.
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Terror
Mastermind Noordin Top Killed in Indonesia
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 17, 2009
SOLO, Indonesia (AP) -- Special forces raided a hide-out Thursday and killed militant mastermind Noordin Muhammed
Top, striking at the heart of the terrorist network behind a deadly campaign of suicide attacks in Indonesia, including
the Bali nightclub bombings.
It was the latest success against terror figures worldwide, starting with a U.S. missile that took out a key Taliban
commander in Pakistan last month.
Besides knocking out Southeast Asia's most-wanted man, Thursday's operation also netted a fugitive bombmaker believed
to have designed explosives for twin suicide bombings at luxury hotels in Jakarta in July.
A cunning and charismatic figure, Noordin had eluded capture for more than seven years. He was tracked down at
a house in the city of Solo in central Java, a breeding ground for militant Islam, where an overnight siege and
hours-long gunfight ended at dawn with an explosion.
The bodies of four suspects were recovered from the burned-out house, including Noordin and an alleged explosives
expert, Bagus Budi Pranato, believed to have manufactured the bombs used by suicide attackers in the July 17 attacks
on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed seven and wounded more than 50.
Neighbors said the property was rented five months ago by a young couple who were teaching at a nearby Islamic
school. The husband was among those killed in the firefight and his wife, who was pregnant, was wounded but was
in stable condition at a hospital.
The prime target was Noordin, a Malaysian citizen and feared regional leader of al-Qaida with links to Osama bin
Laden, said national police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri.
Documents and laptop computers confiscated from the house prove that Noordin ''is the leader of al-Qaida in Southeast
Asia,'' he said. Police also recovered hundreds of pounds of explosives, M-16 assault rifles, grenades and bombs.
Noordin's fingerprints, obtained from Malaysian authorities and stored on an Indonesian police database, matched
those of one of the bodies, Danuri said. DNA tests had not yet been conducted, and the bodies were flown to Jakarta
for autopsies.
Indonesia had mounted one of the biggest manhunts in its history to try to capture Noordin, widely distributing
his photo and offering a $100,000 reward for information that led to his arrest. Yet he repeatedly managed to evade
authorities, most recently in August when, after an all-night raid on a safe house, the police discovered they
had killed the wrong man.
Noordin had an extensive support network, from Islamic schools to sympathetic radical groups, that helped him slip
across Indonesia's vast island chain undetected, resettling and taking new wives as he recruited followers and
plotted attacks. One of his wives was among those rounded up in the aftermath of the July hotel bombings, though
she told authorities she was unaware of her husband's true identity.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hailed Thursday's operation, saying it had removed a feared figure who ''disturbed
the life of this country, ruined our image in the international community and paralyzed the national economy.''
Still, he cautioned that Noordin's death should not be used as a reason for complacency.
A skilled bombmaker, Noordin has been implicated in every major recent attack in Indonesia, including 2002 and
2005 suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali that together killed 222 people, mostly foreigners
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BBC World News
Bomber not dead, say Indonesians
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Police hunting the suspected mastermind of Indonesia's hotel bombings, Noordin Mohamed Top, have said a man
shot dead in a weekend raid was not him.
DNA tests identified the man as one of Noordin's accomplices in the attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton
hotels in Jakarta on 17 July, police said.
Earlier reports had suggested the dead man was Malaysian-born Noordin.
His is one of Asia's most wanted men, and has been blamed for a string of attacks including the 2002 Bali blasts.
FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE
The BBC's Rebecca Henschke, in Jakarta, says police are trying to play down their disappointment, but the news
that Noordin was not killed will be a major blow for them.
They have been hunting him for seven years.
'Explosive smuggler'
Police named the dead man as Ibrohim and said he had worked as a florist at both of the hotels that were attacked
by suicide bombers.
Nine people were killed in the attacks.
"Ibrohim was a planner who was always present in the meetings with Noordin Top," police spokesman Nanan
Soekarna told a news conference.
Police released new security camera footage showing Ibrohim escorting the alleged Marriott bomber around the hotel
on 8 July, and later bringing bomb-making material into the hotel's staff-only loading bay.
This year's July bombings were an ugly reminder of past attacks
Mr Soekarna added that the militants were planning an attack on the house of President Susilo Bambang Yudohyono,
and claimed Ibrohim was going to be a suicide bomber in that operation.
On Saturday police mounted a siege of a farmhouse in Temanggung, central Java, after a tip-off suggested Noordin
was hiding out there.
Initial reports suggested Noordin had been killed after an hours-long shoot-out.
But analysts had doubted the claims, and police chiefs are now not certain whether Noordin was ever at the farmhouse.
He is believed to have formed a violent offshoot from the al-Qaeda-linked militant network Jemaah Islamiah.
As well as the 2002 Bali bombings, Noordin is thought to have been behind attacks on the Jakarta Marriott in 2003,
the Australian embassy in 2004, and also on a series of restaurants in Bali in 2005 in which more than 20 died.
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The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 10:33 AM
Temanggung
man was Ibrohim, not Noordin: Police
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 08/12/2009
A National Police spokesman has announced that the man shot dead Saturday in Temanggung, Central Java during a
counterterrorist siege has been identified as Ibrohim.
DNA evidence showed that the body is not, as was suspected, that of Noordin M. Top, Indonesia's most wanted terror
suspect and a prominent recruiter and advocate for the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist group.
Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna said during a press conference at Police Hospital in Kramat Jati that Ibrohim orchestrated
the suicide bombing attacks last month at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels.
He had been working as a florist at both hotels since 2005, Nanan added.
Ibrohim recruited two JI bombers, 18 year-old Dani Dwi Permana and 28 year-old Nana Ihwan Maulana. He also sneaked
the explosives to be used in the attacks into Room 1808 at the Marriott on July 16, a day before the incident.
Police intelligence has also revealed Ibrohim was to be a suicide bomber himself, in an attack devised to assassinate
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his private residence in Cikeas, West Java.
The plot, had it not been foiled, was to occur August 18, following Independence Day commemorations across the
country. (dre)
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The Age
Police
to concede Noordin still at large
Adam Gartrell, South-East Asia Correspondent
August 11, 2009 - 10:29PM .
Indonesian police are expected to finally concede on Wednesday that terrorist mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top remains
at large.
Police say they have formally identified the man killed in a counter-terrorism raid on a house at Temanggung in
Central Java at the weekend and will name him at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
"We will also announce the details of what happened surrounding the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton bombings,"
police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said on Tuesday.
Police initially believed the dead man was Noordin, a Malaysian-born Islamic extremist who has been on the run
for the past six years.
Police say they have been waiting on DNA tests to officially confirm the identity of the body before making an
announcement.
But fingerprint analysis has reportedly already confirmed that the body is someone else.
Noordin, who leads a hardline splinter group of terror outfit Jemaah Islamiah, is the suspected mastermind of last
month's attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta that killed nine, including three Australians
and two bombers.
Authorities believe he was also responsible for a 2003 attack on the Marriott, a 2004 attack on Australia's embassy
in Jakarta and the 2005 Bali bombings.
The Indonesian media has been rife with speculation that the body may actually be that of Noordin's father-in-law,
Central Java preacher Bahrudin Latif, alias Baridin.
Attention is focusing on the possibility it belongs to a man named Ibrohim, a florist who worked at the Ritz-Carlton
in the lead-up to last month's attacks.
Ibrohim disappeared the morning of the attacks. It is suspected he was the "inside man" who helped the
bombers stage their attacks.
Two other terror suspects were shot dead and up to half-a-tonne of explosives was seized in the weekend raids.
© 2009 AAP
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Indonesia police storm Java house
BBC: Saturday, 8 August 2009
Indonesian police have stormed a house in Java, believed to contain one of South-East Asia's most wanted men.
The move came after a stand-off lasting 16 hours, including exchanges of gunfire and explosions.
Police said the anti-terror operation in the Temanggung district followed the arrest on Friday of several suspected
militants loyal to Noordin Mohamed Top.
Noordin, a Malaysian citizen, is suspected of involvement in last month's bombings of two Jakarta hotels.
Smoke was seen coming out of the roof of the house, on the outskirts of a village, and four explosions were heard
as police moved in, an AFP reporter at the scene says.
Gunfire was heard as police with anti-blast shields came close to the house, which is considerably damaged, and
detonated further charges.
At least 75 police are reported to be around the property.
It is still not known whether Noordin is inside the house.
Workshop raid
In a separate incident, police said they had killed two suspected militants near the capital, Jakarta.
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Al
Qaeda group said to claim Jakarta hotel bombings
CNN: 29 July 2009
(CNN) -- A group claiming to be the Indonesian arm of the al Qaeda terrorist network is purportedly taking responsibility
for a pair of deadly bombs that exploded within minutes of each other at two luxury hotels in Jakarta.
The July 17 blasts at Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed nine people, including at least two
presumed suicide bombers, and wounded more than 50.
On Wednesday, Noordin M. Top -- the suspected leader of a small splinter group of the militant Jemaah Islamiyah,
which has ties to al Qaeda -- purportedly issued statements claiming responsibility for the attacks on behalf of
"al Qaeda in Indonesia." Top purportedly signed the statements posted on radical Islamist Web sites as
the head of al Qaeda in Indonesia.
CNN could not independently authenticate the statements.
One of the statements says the Ritz-Carlton attack was carried out by "one of our mujahedeen warriors against
the American lackeys and stooges visiting the hotel."
"God has given us a blessing for us to find a way to attack the biggest hotel that America owns in the Indonesian
capital of Jakarta -- the Ritz-Carlton, where security was very tight making it very difficult to initiate the
attack that we did," the statement says.
The statement mentions members of Britain's Manchester United soccer team, which had been scheduled to check
into the Ritz-Carlton on July 19 but canceled its trip after the bombing.
"Those players are Christians and therefore do not deserve Muslims' money and respect," the statement
says.
The other statement addressed the Marriott attack. It claims that the target in that bombing was Americans with
ties to the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, known as Kadin.Police say a third bomb had been planted
in an 18th floor room of the Marriott two days before the other two bombs exploded. The unexploded bomb -- which
was timed to detonate on the upper floor before the first blast tore through the Marriott's lobby area at 7:47
a.m. -- was found and defused, police said.
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Bombing Probe Points to Notorious Terrorist
WSJ ASIA NEWS
JULY 19, 2009.
Unexploded Device Indicates Link to Bomb Maker Blamed in Previous Indonesian Attacks
By TOM WRIGHT
JAKARTA – An unexploded bomb found at one of the Jakarta hotels targeted by suicide bombers on Friday provides
"strong indications" that Southeast Asia's most-wanted Islamic terrorist was behind the deadly hotel
attacks, a senior Indonesian antiterrorism official said a day after the explosions.
Even before the bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton, which killed nine people, Indonesian police had ramped
up a hunt for Noordin Mohammad Top, a Malaysian master bomb-maker who is wanted in connection with a string of
deadly terrorist attacks in Indonesia, said Ansyaad Mbai, the head of counterterrorism at Indonesia's Coordinating
Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, in an interview Saturday.
Earlier this week, police raided a house belonging to Mr. Noordin's father-in-law in Cilacap, a port town on the
south coast of Indonesia's main Java island, Mr. Mbai said. In the house, investigators uncovered material for
making home-made bombs similar to an unexploded device found in room 1808 of the JW Marriott, which the suicide
bombers were using as their command center.Mr. Mbai said the link wasn't "hard evidence," but the unexploded
bomb showed "strong indications" that Mr. Noordin or terrorist cells linked to him were involved in Friday's
events. "The bomb in the Marriott was similar to ones we found in Cilacap," he said.
Also Saturday, police raised the death toll from the near-simultaneous suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and
Ritz Carlton to nine from eight. Four foreigners -- three Australians and a New Zealander -- are confirmed dead.
Police said a trade official at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, whose identity they earlier couldn't confirm,
had died in the attacks. All the foreigners confirmed killed so far in the attacks were attending a breakfast talk
given by a Jakarta-based U.S. business consultant.
Police said 53 people were injured, including 16 foreigners, of which six were U.S. citizens. Some of the dead
had suffered such horrific injuries that it was difficult to fully identify all of them. Police said they had recovered
at least two torsos without heads.
Attempts to identify the two suicide bombers, who were among the nine dead, were ongoing. Police believe a least
one of the bombers to be Indonesian.
Intelligence officials and analysts say Mr. Noordin played a leading role in planning and executing many, if not
all, of the major terrorist attacks in Indonesia in recent years, including bombings in the resort island of Bali
in 2002 that killed more than 200 people; an attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004; and an earlier
bombing at the JW Marriott hotel in 2003 that left 12 people dead. Mr. Noordin is believed to be an operative in
the region's best-known terrorist organization, Jemaah Islamiyah, a local Islamist terrorist network linked to
al Qaeda.
The suspects in Friday's bombings checked into the JW Marriott two days earlier and assembled explosives in their
room, evading the kind of tight security that has helped convince foreigners it is again safe to do business in
Indonesia.
Suicide bombers at the JW Marriott and nearby Ritz-Carlton hotels struck at the heart of corporate Indonesia.
The Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott are seen as symbols of the country's new economic strength and growing appeal
to foreign investors. They have marble floors and gold-plated columns, and Indonesia's rich and famous dine at
their restaurants and hammer out business deals in their lounges, adorned with spacious armchairs and grand pianos.
Nearby are some of the city's most expensive restaurants, which often have Ferraris parked outside.
Both hotels have security measures intended to prevent terrorists from driving a car full of explosives toward
their lobbies, as Islamist radicals did in the 2003 bombing of the JW Marriott. Since Indonesia's last terrorist
attack in Bali in 2005, new security measures and a major crackdown on Islamic terrorists by U.S.-trained Indonesian
antiterrorism police made Westerners feel more secure.
On Friday, some of Jakarta's best-known Western and Indonesian business figures gathered for a regular 8 a.m. breakfast
meeting at the Marriott hosted by Jim Castle, an American who runs CastleAsia, a prominent local consulting firm.
Mr. Castle, who has lived for almost 30 years in Indonesia and regularly appears on cable news shows, was at the
Marriott during the 2003 blast. He wasn't injured then, and has expressed a cautious optimism about the country's
prospects. Among topics for discussion at the conference: The success of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a
former army general who was re-elected a week earlier on a platform of restoring law and order.
Upstairs, in Room 1808, a number of guests had checked in Wednesday under aliases -- including one similar to Mr.
Noordin. A police spokesman declined to say how many people had checked in or to give their nationalities.
Shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, security video footage showed, a man wearing a cap and pulling a bag on wheels crossed
the lobby of the JW Marriott, walking toward the restaurant. A flash followed, and smoke filled the air.
A few minutes later a blast went off at the restaurant of the Ritz-Carlton. Cho Insang, a South Korean who runs
a modeling agency and was organizing a fashion show in the hotel in August, was having breakfast when the bomb
exploded. He was knocked to the floor, and was able to run out into the lobby. "The room was full of smoke
and people panicking," he said. He suffered minor facial injuries.
The lobby areas of both hotels were left a mangled mess of steel and glass, full of damaged furniture and other
debris. The sidewalks outside were caked with blood.
Police stand guard in front of the Ritz Carlton in Jakarta after nearly simultaneous explosions at the Ritz-Carlton
and the Marriott on Friday.
.The blasts sent workers running into the street, many in their nightclothes or underwear. Local television showed
images of mangled and bloodied bodies slumped on the floor. Plumes of smoke from the blasts shrouded the area as
the injured were laid out on a nearby square of undeveloped land.
When the dust settled, four well-known expatriate business leaders attending the CastleAsia breakfast were dead:
They included Timothy Mackay, a New Zealander who headed Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd.'s local operations, and
Nathan Verity, an Australian who ran his own Jakarta-based recruitment company.
The injured who were at the breakfast included Noke Kiroyan, an Indonesian former chairman of miner Rio Tinto's
local operations; Andy Cobham, an American who previously headed cellphone company Motorola Inc. in Indonesia;
and David Potter, an executive at Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
Mr. Castle's hearing was affected after the blast but he was in a stable condition, his assistant said.
In a televised address, a visibly angry Mr. Yudhoyono said the bombings were attempts to destabilize the country
after the elections. "I'm confident just like when we have uncovered [terrorists] in the past, the perpetrators
and those who moved this act of terrorism will be caught and brought to justice," Mr. Yudhoyono said, pausing
for seconds at a time to control his emotions.
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Suicide Bombings Call Indonesia's Recent Stability Into Question
WSJ - ASIA NEWS
JULY 17, 2009
By TOM WRIGHT
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The bombings that rocked Jakarta Friday morning struck at the heart of corporate Indonesia
at a time when optimism about Southeast Asia's largest economy was higher than any time in nearly a decade.
Many of the victims were top Western and Indonesian business figures who had gathered at the city's J.W. Marriott
for an 8 a.m. breakfast meeting hosted by a prominent local consulting firm. Among topics for discussion: the success
of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former army general who was re-elected a week earlier on a platform of
restoring law and order.
When the dust settled later in the morning, suicide bombers at the Marriott
and nearby Ritz Carlton had killed two well-known expatriate business leaders -- Timothy Mackay, a New Zealander
who headed Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd.'s local operations, and Nathan Verity, an Australian who ran his own
Jakarta-based recruitment company -- and six others, and left as many as 53 injured, including 18 foreigners and
several of the city's business elite. A U.S. official said at least eight Americans were wounded in the blasts,
the Associated Press reported.
The bombings left residents and intelligence experts wondering if Indonesia, which only recently seemed to be getting
its footing after years of political instability, was sliding back into chaos.
A police spokesman said officials were investigating suspects who had checked into room 1808 in the Marriott two
days earlier under aliases and who appeared to have used the room as a command post, assembling bombs there from
parts they smuggled into the hotel. Indonesia's bomb squad later detonated a third device that did not go off in
the room, according to the police spokesman. He declined to say how many people had checked in or give details
of their nationalities. It remained unclear whether the suicide bombers were included in the death toll of eight
people.
Although police stress they do not yet know who carried out the attacks, senior antiterrorism officials say the
investigation is focusing on Islamic terrorists. Islamists linked to al Qaeda carried out a number of attacks on
churches, hotels, nightclubs and Western embassies in Indonesia between 2000 and 2005 -- the last time the nation
was struck -- killing more than 200 people in total.
Islamic radicals targeted the Marriott once before, in 2003, killing 12 people. But in the past four years, a major
crackdown on Islamic terrorists by U.S.-trained Indonesian antiterrorism police made Westerners feel more secure.
After Friday's attacks, the lobbies of the hotels were a mangled mess of steel and glass, with damaged furniture
and other debris strewn everywhere. The sidewalks outside were caked in bloodstains.
In a televised address, a visibly angry Mr. Yudhoyono said the bombings
were attempts to destabilize the country after the recent elections. "I'm confident just like when we have
uncovered [terrorists] in the past, the perpetrators and those who moved this act of terrorism will be caught and
brought to justice," Mr. Yudhoyono said, pausing for seconds at a time to control his emotions.
Investors remained fairly upbeat throughout the day, though the main stock index closed down 0.6% at 2106.35 points,
while the U.S. dollar hit its highest level against the rupiah in about three weeks.
Australia urged citizens to reconsider travel to the country, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd describing the attacks
as "barbaric." "We continue to receive credible information that terrorists could be planning attacks
in Indonesia and that Bali remains an attractive target for terrorists," an Australian foreign ministry statement
read. The U.S. and E.U. also strongly condemned the attacks.
Manchester United, the British Premier League soccer team, was supposed to check into the Ritz Carlton ahead of
an exhibition match in Jakarta on Monday, but that was canceled following the bombings.
After struggling in the early years of this decade amid terrorist attacks and widespread complaints of corruption,
Indonesia saw its economy expand 5% annually over the past few years, in part because of Mr. Yudhoyono's steady
leadership and the nation's abundant natural resources, including coal and natural gas. Growth is forecast to reach
up to 4% this year despite the global economic slowdown.
The Ritz Carlton and Marriott are widely seen as symbols of the country's new economic strength and growing appeal
to foreign investors. Both have marble floors and gold-plated columns. The rich and famous of Indonesia like to
dine and hammer out business deals in the hotels' lounges, which have huge armchairs and grand pianos. Nearby are
some of the city's most expensive restaurants, which often have Ferraris parked outside.
Both also had tight security, making it difficult for terrorists to target
the hotels by driving a car full of explosives toward the lobby, as occurred in the 2003 Marriott incident.
Friday's business forum was hosted by Jim Castle, an American who runs a business consulting firm CastleAsia and
has lived for almost 30 years in Indonesia. Mr. Castle, who consults for foreign businesses and regularly appears
on cable news shows, was at the Marriott in 2003 during its earlier blast, but was uninjured. He has maintained
a cautious optimism toward the country, and was cheered by Mr. Yudhoyono's anti-terrorism drive.
The blasts stunned guests and sent workers running out into the street, many in their nightclothes or underwear.
Local television showed images of mangled and bloodied bodies slumped on the floor. Huge plumes of smoke from both
blasts shrouded the area as the injured were laid out on a nearby square of vacant land that has not yet been developed.
Cho Insang, a South Korean who runs a modeling agency and is organizing a fashion show in the Ritz Carlton in August,
was having breakfast in the hotel when the bomb exploded. He was knocked to the floor, suffering minor facial injuries,
before running out into the lobby. "The room was full of smoke and people panicking," he said.
Johan, a Ritz Carlton kitchen employee whose white overalls were covered in blood, said there were huge amounts
of smoke after the explosion that made it hard to breathe and added to the confusion.
Many of those attending Mr. Castle's business meeting ended up in a nearby hospital, according to an employee of
CastleAsia, and some were transported to Singapore for further treatment.
The injured included Noke Kiroyan, an Indonesian who is the former chairman of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio
Tinto's local operations, and Andy Cobham, a U.S. citizen who formerly headed cell phone company Motorola Inc.
in Indonesia. David Potter, Executive Vice President for exploration at Phoneix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper and
Gold Inc., was also injured. Mr. Castle's hearing was affected after the blast but he was in a stable condition,
said his assistant, who was at the hospital. Attempts to reach several injured men and Mr. Castle were unsuccessful.
The attacks appeared to be the work of highly capable bomb makers, security experts said. Antiterrorist officials
said the investigations were turning toward Noordin Mohammad Top, a Malaysian member of Jemaah Islamiyah, a local
affiliate of al Qeada that is blamed for all the major bombings in Indonesia but that is largely in tatters due
to a score of arrests in recent years. Mr. Noordin, considered a master bomb-maker, remains on the run; police
earlier this week raided a house in Central Java in a search for Mr. Noordin and discovered bomb-making material,
senior antiterrorism officials said.
Nick Duder, a Jakarta-based adviser for Hill & Associates, a firm that
has drawn up plans for both hotels on upgrading their security, said they were among the better-protected buildings
in Jakarta but that it is very difficult to stop a well-planned attack, as Friday's bombings appeared to be. "For
a very determined attacker with plenty of planning and preparation it's almost impossible to defend against an
attack like this," Mr. Duder said.
The attack also caused tensions among Jakarta's political elite, with Mr. Yudhoyono using his speech Friday to
claim that intelligence officials were aware of plans to block his reelection through violent means, although he
gave no specific details.
"It is known that there is a plan to conduct violence and general actions against the law in connection with
the election result," Mr. Yudhoyono said in the speech. He did not elaborate but added that some unnamed parties
hope to destabilize Indonesia in a similar way to Iran, where protesters in recent weeks took to the streets to
condemn election results there.
Mr. Yudhoyono has promised a harder line against Indonesia's pervasive corruption in a second term, a role that
he said in a recent interview has won him many enemies.
Former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, Mr. Yudhoyono's closest rival in
last week's election, denied there was a plan to violently protest the outcome. Ms. Megawati has said she will
contest the results because of alleged irregularities with the voter roll, but said she had not heard of any plans
for violent opposition. She criticized Mr. Yudhoyono for using the political attacks to distract from his government's
security failings. "Nobody, including the government, should politicize the bombings," she said.
Her running mate, Prabowo Subianto, a former military general, said the losing parties in last week's elections
would never "express their disappointment with violence."
—Yayu Yuniar and I Made Sentana contributed to this article.
Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com
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