Suspected Islamic militants arrested in Singapore were plotting attacks on US servicemen, the Singapore Government said on Friday. One plan was to blow up a shuttle bus carrying US personnel between a naval base and a local underground station, a government statement said.
The plan was apparently developed and ready for activation Another plan was to bomb US naval vessels off Singapore, the statement said.
Fifteen suspects were arrested last month, but two have since been released. Details of the plans - including a surveillance video of one of the targets - were discovered at the time of the arrests, the home affairs ministry said.
"The plan was apparently developed and ready for activation," the statement said. It said eight of the men had received weapons training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
The 13 men are being held under the country's controversial internal security act, which allows for detention without trial. The government has said the suspected militants belonged to a group called Jemaah Islamiah, which it said was part of a larger network with cells in Malaysia and Indonesia.
According to a report in Friday's Washington Post newspaper, US and Indonesian officials believe hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters trained at a camp in Indonesia last year, and fear sleeper cells could soon be activated there. Authorities in Indonesia acknowledged last month that there were ties between al-Qaeda and local Islamic groups on the island of Sulawesi. However officials have publicly denied the existence of militant training camps.
But according to unnamed officials quoted in the Washington Post report, there was a camp on the island last year, hidden in thick jungle near the port city of Poso.
Officials: Plot foiled against U.S. Navy in Singapore
January 11, 2002 Posted: 9:43 AM EST (1443 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An al-Qaeda plot targeting the U.S. Navy in Singapore has been foiled as the direct result of intelligence gathered in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday.
The plot, these sources say, included plans to attack U.S. Navy ships, U.S. Navy personnel and popular nightspots frequented by sailors. The 17,000 Americans living in Singapore and other non-Singapore residents also were among the targets.
This is the first acknowledged instance of the operation in Afghanistan leading to the breakup of a terrorist plot in another country.
The U.S. says the ring was broken up specifically because of intelligence the U.S. military gained inside Afghanistan while searching al-Qaeda hideouts. Singapore says it had a handle on the problem from the beginning -- without U.S. assistance.
U.S. officials tell CNN it is believed that some of those arrested, as well as additional suspects, had access to large amounts of stored explosives, bomb making information, photographs of key sites used by the U.S., and false travel documents.
American warships have continued to make port calls in Singapore over the last several weeks with extra security measures. U.S. Navy sources say they are confident that the government of Singapore has taken steps to control security at the port and key areas frequented by U.S. sailors.
Such security is in contrast to circumstances surrounding the bombing of the USS Cole while it was in port in Yemen. After the attack on the Cole, the Pentagon ended port calls, concluding the Yemeni government was not in control of security, officials say.
The arrests in Singapore began last month with the apprehension of more than a dozen suspected terrorists, but details were closely held. The Singapore government released details about the arrests on Friday.
13 SUSPECTED TERRORISTS TO BE DETAINED 2 YEARS
By Chua Lee Hoong
THREE terrorists cells made up of ordinary Singaporeans living in Housing Board flats and with jobs such as drivers and technicians had been plotting for years to attack targets in the Republic, in places including Changi and Yishun.
They took direction from and communicated with foreigners, some of whom they knew only by code-names.
And their attack plans, in various stages of certainty and progress, centred around American and pro-American interests in Singapore.
The detainees
Haji Ibrahim bin Haji Maidin, 51, condominium manager;
Mohamad Anuar bin Margono, 31, driver;
Mohamed Khalim bin Jaffar, 39, printer
Jaafar bin Mistooki, 40, despatch driver;
Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana, 39, businessman;
Fathi Abu Bakar Bafana, 36, businessman;
Mohamed Ellias s/o Mohamed Khan, 29, manager
Mohamed Nazir bin Mohmmed Uthman, 27, ship traffic assistant;
Adnan bin Musa, 36, technician;
Halim bin Hussain, 41, supervisor;
Hashim bin Abas, 40, service engineer;
Andrew Gerard, alias Ali Ridhaa bin Abdullah, 34, technician;
Othman bin Mohamed, 42, supervisor
These were among the fresh revelations the Government made on Friday, six days after it first announced the arrests of 15 people by the Internal Security Department for involvement in terrorism-related acts.
It said on Friday that 13 of the 15, all except one of them Singaporean citizens, had been issued two-year detention orders under the Internal Security Act.
They were members of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a clandestine network which also has cells in Malaysia and Indonesia.
The three cells in Singapore were named Fiah Ayub, Fiah Musa and Fiah Ismail.
Aged between 27 and 51, the 13 detained comprised six Malays, four Indians, and one each of Javanese, Boyanese and Malayalee descent, and were hitherto unknown figures in the Muslim community.
The remaining two, both Singaporeans, were released on Sunday after it was confirmed that they were not part of JI. They were served with restriction orders barring them from further contact with any terrorist organisation.
One of the JI cells attempted to procure 17 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a chemical often used in truck bombs and the same that was used in the 1995 Oklahoma bombing in the United States.
This was under the direction of two foreigners, one calling himself 'Sammy' and believed to be linked to al-Qaeda, the other calling himself 'Mike' and believed to be a trainer and bomb-maker with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines.
The attempt was foiled when the Internal Security Department arrested the man doing the procuring, Mohd Ellias.
Another JI cell undertook video surveillance of the Yishun MRT station, part of a plan to attack a shuttle bus service used to ferry US personnel from Sembawang Wharf to Yishun MRT station.
The videotape and some handwritten debriefing notes in Arabic were later found in the rubble of an al-Qaeda leader's house in Afghanistan.
Apparently also targeted for attack were US naval vessels in the waters between Changi and Pulau Tekong.
'The group appeared to be dominated by foreign elements and subscribed to these elements' extremist ideology and its anti-American, anti-West agenda,' the Government said.
It also noted that their activities began long before the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
The surveillance activities of the first JI cell in support of terrorist targeting began as early as 1997, led by a 39-year-old printer, Khalim bin Jaffar.
Of the eight confirmed to have gone to Afghanistan for training in al-Qaeda camps, one went as early as 1991.
The JI's local leader, an Indian Muslim condominium manager and part-time ustaz or religious teacher, Ibrahim Maidin, went in 1993.
The courses they took in Afghanistan included the use of AK-47s and mortars, and the study of military tactics.
The Government said the 13, none of whom had ever attended madrasahs or Islamic religious schools, were recruited into the JI when they were part of Ibrahim Maidin's religious classes. They were not known to be active members of any particular mosque or local Muslim organisation.
'They maintained tight operational secrecy, using code-names and code-words for communication,' said the Government.
Investigations are still continuing.