Experts warn of new Al Qaeda blitz

by TOM RAWSTORNE, Daily Mail

Terrorism experts were laying the blame on Al Qaeda last night - and warning that the attack could be the first in a new wave of atrocities.

A few months ago, Western intelligence agencies warned authorities in Indonesia, a hotbed of Islamic extremist organisations, that Osama Bin Laden's followers had gained a foothold in the area.

However, Indonesia's president Megawati Sukarnoputri chose to ignore the warnings, even when the CIA showed her the confessions of detained terrorist suspects about a plot to kill her.

Her lack of action led security experts to dub the country a 'black hole' in counter-terrorism.

Although no one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, last night the finger was being pointed at one man - Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, a cleric who runs a relgious boarding school near Solo on the Indonesian island of Java.

Ba'asyir, the head of a militant Moslem group, has in the past denied any links with violent attacks. His Ngruki network, which he founded in 1970, aims to establish a giant Islamic republic linking Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

Andrew Tan, of Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, said: 'We should expect more attacks like the Bali bombing.

'This will be just the beginning of what we have seen so many times in Moslem countries in the Middle East.

'This should not come as a surprise. The

biggest surprise is that it has taken so long to target Western interests.'

Professor Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews, said: 'Al Qaeda has been building up its activities in South East Asia for some time.

'This is the kind of attack that people have been fearing.'

Terrorism writer Simon Reeve said the attack was designed to 'drive Westerners away from the country'.

He said: 'I think there is a high possibility that this was perpetrated by a group linked to Al Qaeda or one that would support and follow Osama Bin Laden.'

Alan Dupont, a fellow of the Strategic and Defence Study Centre at the Australia National University, said: 'There is no doubt that we all underestimated the extent to which militant organisations co- operate in South East Asia. Al Qaeda cells are popping up like mushrooms.'

In the past, Islamic extremist groups have targeted nightclubs and other venues seen as being part of a tainted Western culture.

One of those responsible, an offshoot of Ba'asyir's network known as Jemaah Islamiyah, has been blamed for a string of bombings, assassinations and other violent incidents in Asia.

The attack on the Sari club on Kuta Beach fits their pattern, although the scale and degree of planning go far beyond anything they have conducted before.

Dozens of Jemaah Islamiyah's members, many trained in Afghanistan, have already been

arrested in Malaysia and Singapore where they were plotting attacks on Australian, British and U.S. targets late last year.

Accumulating the amount of explosives used in the latest attack in Indonesia is not easy.

A few days before the blast, Ba'asyir made a fervent anti U.S-speech in Jakarta.

He called on Indonesians to make a choice between Islam and the U.S., saying: 'I defend Islam. Now it is up to the Indonesian government, police and people to also defend Islam, or to choose to defend America.'

The problem for President Sukarnoputri is that Ba'aysir enjoys significant support in what is the world's most populous Moslem country, including among members of her own government.

To their credit, the Americans could hardly have done more to highlight their concerns.

As the anniversary of September 11 dawned, troops sealed off missions in Indonesia after U.S. ambassador Ralph Boyce revealed a plot had been uncovered to ram an explosive-laden truck into the embassy in Jakarta.

Their information came from a seemingly reliable source - Omar al-Faruq, an Al Qaedatrained member of Jemaah Islamiyah.

In addition, America and Singapore have both repeatedly requested the detention of Ba'asyir but the authorities in Jakarta have refused, claiming there is no link between him and the group.

The authorities are said to have been afraid of stirring up Moslem anger on the streets.

But with anger rising over their failure to prevent the slaughter in Bali, the Indonesian authorities will have little choice but to crack down on Jemaah Islamiyah.

Last night, investigators said they believed that the explosion on a French tanker off the coast of Yemen earlier this month was the work of terrorists.

A Bulgarian crew member was killed and some 90,000 barrels of oil were released as a result of the blast and fire when the Limburg was hit by an explosion on October 6.

French investigators found traces of TNT and pieces of a small boat on the tanker on Friday.