Threats of Terror Attacks Run on Indonesian TV
By PETER GELLING
International Herald Tribune
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Nov. 17 - A masked man who officials here say is a leading militant threatened Western nations with more terrorist attacks in a video broadcast Thursday on Indonesian television.
"America, Australia, England and Italy are all our enemies," he said in the video. "Know that as long as you all continue to colonize the land of Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslims, then you too will feel our intimidation and terror."
Indonesian officials said they believed the man in the video was Noordin Top, one of Southeast Asia's most wanted terrorists. He is linked to the bombings in Bali in 2002, in Jakarta at a hotel in 2003 and at the Australian Embassy in 2004, and in Bali again last month.
Antiterrorism police officers in Indonesia found the video last week during raids on several terrorist hide-outs.
The video also included final statements from the three suicide bombers who killed 19 people last month in the attack in Bali.
One of the men said he would be in heaven when the video was broadcast. Another sent a message of hope to his family and to his wife. The last bomber offered an explanation for the attacks, saying, "Terror is a warning to infidels" and to "people who make Islam their enemy."
It was the first time suicide bombers in Indonesia have left recorded messages, a tactic they appear to have learned from suicide bombers in the Middle East, counterterrorism experts said Thursday.
One of Mr. Top's closest colleagues, Azhari Husin, was killed in the raids last week.
Since his death, antiterrorism forces in Indonesia have focused on tracking down Mr. Top.
Mr. Azhari and Mr. Top prepared the explosives used in the 2002 bombing in Bali, where 202 people were killed, officials said.
The militant in the video on Thursday also issued warnings to the prime minister of Australia, John Howard, and to that country's foreign minister, Alexander Downer. "We especially remind Australia that you, Downer and Howard, are killing Australia, leading it into darkness and misfortune and mujahedeen terror," he said.
Source: New York Times Online.
Just cowards that live under their masks.....
