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By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Reporting and research assistance was provided by Drew Crosby in Madrid MADRID -- The most sweeping criminal indictment to arise thus far from the Sept. 11 attacks reflects a quiet but dramatic change in understanding by investigators here and across Europe of the terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda, and the international Islamic radical-terrorist network of which, they now agree, it is merely a part. As laid out in the indictment, the defendants' alleged activities--from arranging travel and providing introductions to procuring false documents and, especially, moving money--provide the first detailed look at one...

Australians Furious at State of Bali Bombings Site October 10, 2012 Australian relatives of the 2002 Bali bombing victims walk out of the carpark of Sari club, which was one of the bombing sites, ahead of the 10th anniversary in Kuta, on the resort island of Bali on Oct. 10, 2012. Eighty-eight Australians were among the 202 people killed in the attacks on Sari Club and Paddy's Bar at the popular tourist area of Kuta on October 12, 2002. Kuta, Bali. Friends and relatives of Australian victims of Indonesia’s Bali bombings have expressed outrage after learning that the site of...

BALI bomber Umar Patek was seeking a meeting with Osama bin Laden when he was arrested a few kilometres from the al-Qa'ida chief's hideout. The arrest in Abbottabad of Patek, the last major figure who was still at large for the 2002 Bali attacks that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, has raised a critical question: did Patek give vital information to the mission to kill bin Laden, or did his arrest by Pakistani intelligence risk upsetting the American operation? Patek was arrested on January 25, nine days after stopping in the mountain garrison town on his way to meet...

On Sept. 11, 2001, the core of al-Qaeda was concentrated in a single city: Karachi, Pakistan. At a hospital, the accused mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole was recovering from a tonsillectomy. Nearby, the alleged organizer of the 2002 bombing in Bali, Indonesia, was buying lab equipment for a biological weapons program. And in a safe house, the man who would later describe himself as the intellectual author of the Sept. 11 attacks was with other key al-Qaeda members watching the scenes from New York and Washington unfold on television.

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AN ELITE Indonesian police squad has killed a man believed to be the most wanted Islamic militant in southeast Asia, Noordin Mohammad Top, who was linked to bombings in Jakarta and on the island of Bali. Officers of Detachment 88 stormed a house amid green rice paddies in central Java yesterday morning, using robot cameras to find their target as they blasted from room to room with grenades. The man made a last stand inside the bathroom as walls shattered around him, screaming out the name, “Noordin Top”, before black-clad marksmen fired volleys of shots into the room, witnesses said....

Residents carried their own signs Wednesday evening calling for "peace not hate" in response to a northwest Gainesville church that recently posted a sign with an anti-Islamic message. At least 80 people gathered on both sides of Northwest 37th Street in front of the Dove World Outreach Center for a prayer vigil organized after the church recently erected a sign proclaiming "Islam is of the devil." Participants held up their signs and listened to words from Eve MacMaster, pastor of the Emmanuel Mennonite Church, and Saeed R. Kahn, president of the Muslim Association of North Central Florida. The group maintained...

[L]ast week, after more delays in the process, the administration called victims of the Cole, Bali and Sept. 11 attacks together again to receive an update about the work of the Detainee Review Task Force. The meeting was emotional and heart-wrenching. Each person was given the opportunity to speak about the impact the president's decisions were having on him or her and loved ones. The brave families of our heroes showed true courage in that room. Once again, they had traveled to Washington to express their frustration at seeing justice delayed. If they were truly involved, and the administration were...

Bali bombers unremorseful and insane, Australians defiant Nov 11th, 2008 | By Andrew L. Jaffee | Category: Culture, Society, & Religion, Featured, Foreign Affairs By Andrew L. Jaffee, netwmd.comAustralians have finally found some justice and hopefully, a sense of peace and closure. Three Islamists were executed by Indonesian authorities on Sunday, shortly after midnight, for the heinous, cowardly, and evil bombings of several nightclubs in Bali on October 12, 2002, an act which “killed 202 people — most of them young Australians — and injured more than 300.” Australians have held steadfast in the war against Islamo-fascism, and will...

In Indonesia, thousands of sympathisers have attended the funerals of the three men executed by firing squad on Saturday for the 2002 Bali bombings. Mourners who attended the funerals of the brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas in Tenggulun in East Java paid tribute to them as martyrs. Although there were brief clashes between bystanders and police, for the most part the event passed off peacefully. The third bomber, Imam Samudra, was buried in West Java in a ceremony open only to his family.

The Indonesian Attorney-General's Office has confirmed that the three Bali bombers have been executed by firing squad for their involvement in the 2002 bombings which killed more than 202 people, including 88 Australians. A spokesman for the Attorney-General, Jasman Pandjaitan, said all three men have been declared dead. Earlier news emerged from inside the Bali bombers' prison on Nusakambangan Island in Central Java that the three men - Imam Samudra, 38, Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48 - were killed. All three were shot at the same time by three separate firing squads about 12:15am (local time), before a medical team...

Family members and Islamic fundamentalists are planning a joyous celebration for convicted Bali Bombers Amrozi and Muklas following their execution. The celebrations are to take place in the bombers home village of Tenggulun .

Expanding Afghan War Awaits New President An expanded U.S. military involvement awaits a new U.S. president in Afghanistan where the unfinished business of September 11 has flared over the past three years into a major insurgency. A raft of assessments and reviews now underway in Washington point to a fundamental rethinking of the Afghan war. But whoever is elected Tuesday will face choices on the size of the military buildup, how to strengthen the central government, how far to go in dealing with insurgent sanctuaries across the border, how to help stabilize Pakistan, and whether and how to reconcile...

Randall Lee lost his two brothers and a pregnant sister-in-law in the 2002 Bali bombings. But from the ashes of the tragedy he found his wife, Jessica O'Grady, a survivor of the horrifying blasts. This is the Geelong electrician's story and his thoughts on the impending execution of the bombers. IT IS a strange feeling -- after six long years -- knowing that the men who caused so much pain and anguish will meet justice. It won't be cause for celebration for me when the perpetrators of the Bali bombings in 2002 are executed. Sure, I will share a few...

INDONESIA has stepped up security around foreign embassies amid fears of attacks as it prepares to execute the three Islamists convicted over the Bali nightclub bombings which killed 202 people. Police have revealed they had found and defused two bombs in a Balinese Hindu migrant area on Sulawesi island on Wednesday and Thursday as tensions mount ahead of the imminent executions. "I think there is a connection between this and the execution of Amrozi and others," local police chief Suparni Parto said, referring to bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, who could be executed as early as today. National police...

BOYOLALI (Indonesia) - For the skullcapped students of the Darusy Syahadah Islamic school, there is no question that the three radical jihadis behind the 2002 bombings on Indonesia's Bali island are heroes. Sheltering from the equatorial sun on the steps of the school's mosque, the students crowd to offer their approval of bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. Authorities said this week the three bombers will face the firing squad by early November for their role in the attack, which killed 202 people. 'They're holy warriors, that's how I respond, they're holy warriors,' said Sir Muhammad Royhan Syihabuddin Ar-Rohmi, a...

Indonesia says to execute Bali bombers Reuters JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will execute the Bali bombers on death row in early November, the spokesman of the Indonesian attorney general's office said on Friday.

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

THREE Islamic militants convicted of carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings will be shot dead on their prison island early next month. The bombers will be put to death in "early November'' on Nusakambangan Island, off Central Java, where their high-security jail is located, a spokesman for Indonesia's Attorney General's office said today. He also indicated that the Attorney General did not believe there were valid grounds for any further legal appeals by Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. "Indonesia's Attorney General is stating that the legal efforts in the terrorism criminal case, on behalf of the defendant Amrozi...

THREE Islamic militants on death row over the 2002 Bali bombings have been visited by family members as their executions draw nearer. Indonesia's Attorney General is expected to announce next Friday details of the executions. In accordance with the country's laws, Indonesia does not make public the timing and location of executions, raising speculation that the statement could be to announce the bombers have been put to death. Indonesia's Constitutional Court is expected to rule on Tuesday on a side challenge by the bombers' lawyers, who have argued the country's use of firing squads to carry out executions amounts to...