Posted on 12/08/2002 7:34:00 AM PST by knighthawk
JEMAAH Islamiah's foiled plot to destroy foreign embassies in Singapore, including the Australian high commission, would have used suicide bombers at the controls of deadly truck bombs, a US interrogation of a key JI figure has revealed.
The plot, uncovered by Singaporean authorities last December before it was fully planned, originally was intended for missions in Manila, not Singapore.
The revelations, obtained by The Australian through key summaries of the US interrogation of Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, demonstrate the new depth of JI members' commitment to the jihad cause.
Jabarah is a Kuwaiti-born Canadian brought into the region by JI operations chief Hambali last year, after Osama bin Laden was impressed by the recruit's excellent performance in terrorist training programs, impeccable English and valid Western passport.
The spectre of suicide bombers first came to public light when Indonesian investigators raised suspicions that Iqbal, the suspected bomber of Paddy's bar in Bali in October, had died in the blast.
Iqbal would be the first known southeast Asian suicide bomber. Militants in the region have never before resorted to Palestinian-style suicide missions.
Jabarah indicated the Singapore and Manila plans would have recruited suicide bombers from outside the Asian region. But the revelation suggests Iqbal is not a one-off, and that terrorists in southeast Asia are evolving into a deadly breed prepared to die for their cause.
The interrogation of Jabarah revealed JI operatives had originally targeted the US and Israeli embassies in Manila, not Singapore. They changed their minds after they decided there were not enough Israelis working at the mission in Manila to make an attack there worthwhile, and that the US embassy was too well guarded.
Jabarah also revealed the co-ordinator of the suicide mission was Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the head of al-Qaeda's military division - indicating a far greater hands-on role by al-Qaeda in the regional plans than previously thought.
Khalid, recently discovered to be Pakistani, featured in numerous al-Qa'ida plots in The Philippines in the mid-1990s, and is thought to be one of the key organisers of the September 11 attacks.
The decision to abandon the Manila embassy targets explains why the US embassy in Manila has not closed in the wake of terror threats specific to Manila. Even as the missions of Australia and Canada have closed over the past 10 days due to a terror threat, the US embassy has remained open.
Late last month, Malaysian authorities arrested four unnamed members of JI - three Malaysians and one Singaporean. Police said they were members of a suicide bomb back-up team for another planned attack by JI in Singapore.
Their description as back-up bombers - and not those who would drive the truck bombs - suggests other JI suicide squads in southeast Asia have so far evaded capture.
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