Posted on 09/16/2002 10:17:43 AM PDT by 7thson
American interrogators finally got to Omar al-Faruq, who detailed plans to launch a new terror spree in Southeast Asia. A TIME exclusive.
For someone interested in quietly leading a terrorist's life, the rainy Indonesian hamlet of Cijeruk is a nice place to settle down. Nestled among lush, green paddies and swaying banana trees, an hour's drive outside the chaotic capital city of Jakarta, Cijeruk consists of a single two-lane road lined by a row of well-kept cottages. It's a good spot to hide from the authorities, if you have reason to be on the run — which may be how Omar al-Faruq, a 31-year-old drifter from Kuwait, ended up living there, in a concrete house that belonged to the family of his Indonesian wife Mira Agustina, 24. After moving to Cijeruk last year, al-Faruq tried to fit in with locals, getting by with functional Indonesian-language skills and an ID card that said he was from the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon. His wife says he read and taught the Koran and stayed close to home — until one day in June, when he vanished. "He called at noon that Wednesday to say he was going to the mosque," says Mira. "I never heard from him again."
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
{snip}— Acting as an al-Qaeda operative, al-Faruq, the CIA report says, was "the mastermind behind all the Christmas 2000 bombings in Indonesia" — a wave of attacks on Christian churches — which killed 18 and injured more than 100.{snip}
My my....Allah must really be proud.
I think the version of Allah they use does not have a poker.
A pitchfork, horns, a barbed tail, and clovem hooves, more likely!
In Singapore they were already nabbed. Thailand is not the kind of place a bunch of Arabs could easily purchase explosives surreptitiously. In Vietnam they'd be lucky to cross the street without generating a police report. In Cambodia they'd be instantly robbed and killed in the course of buying their armaments (Hun Sen would not welcome their presence, and even the KR remnants wouldn't willingly sell explosives to Arabs in Cambodia). In Taiwan they also would be more than a little noticable.
These guys are completely delusional to think their activities would go unnoticed in SE Asian countries. They'd stand out like sore thumbs, and there's little chance of an Arab living "anonymously" in SE Asia (the crackpot notion that they could do so in Vietnam is particularly hilarious).
Indonesia is the one remaining problem, since there is no law there whatsoever, and they practice the Religion Of Peace (tm).
Honestly, don't worry about it.
Example: as much as I dislike the Vietnamese government, they would identify and shoot these suckers down in one millisecond. There is not going to be an attack on the U.S. Embassy Saigon. The idea is laughable and testament only to Islamist hubris (which will ultimately get them all killed, captured, or spilling their guts under the influence of Valium).
And the Cambodians would simply eat their livers for lunch. Islamists visiting Phnom Penh will immediately find themselves on the radar screens of several different governments. Yet despite being 95 percent Buddhist, Cambodia is also a warrior society and eating Islamist livers would be "the Khmer way" of doing justice.
They cannot hide in or infiltrate SE Asia. $500 US cash would eliminate them one by one, effectively, immediately, and anonymously.
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