Indonesian President Accuses Western Intel Of Being Behind Bali Bombings

Free Market News | October 17 2005

An extraordinary documentary produced by Australian public television, "Inside Indonesia's War on Terrorism," will be rebroadcast again on Monday, October 17 at 1PM.

In the program which first aired on October 12, the blind, former President of Indonesia – reportedly more trusted than any other official in the country - told SBS-TV Date-Line, Australia’s state-run public TV, that the horrendous Bali bombing, which killed more than 200 in Indonesia, was planned and carried out by Indonesian police or military personnel at the behest of Western powers.

The transcript has already reportedly been removed from the archives of the SBS, Australia's Special Broadcasting Services, but certain alternative Internet sites, apparently anticipating this, claim to have downloaded the transcript and have reproduced it in its entirety. One of them is GlobalResearch.ca, and the excerpt that follows is taking from its site. It features Abdurrahman Wahid, the former Indonesian president who has achieved an almost iconic status in that ordinarily peaceful but impoverished country.

----------------------------
Begin transcript cite
----------------------------

Today is the third anniversary of the first Bali attack that saw 202 people killed, including 88 Australians. Abdurrahman Wahid now has questions about that attack as well. While some regard him as an eccentric, he is the former president and is often described as the conscience of the nation, revered by tens of millions of moderate Muslims. As such, he's one of only a few people publicly prepared to canvass the unthinkable - that Indonesian authorities may have had a hand in the Bali atrocity. He believes that the plan for the second, massive at the Sari Club, which caused the majority of casualties, was hatched way above the head of uneducated villagers like Amrozi.

ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Amrozi was involved in the lighter bomb. That's a problem always. Even though I agree that he should be given a stiff punishment, but it doesn't mean that he is involved. No, no, no.

REPORTER: So you believe that the Bali bombers had no idea that there was a second bomb?

ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Yeah, precisely.

REPORTER: And who would you suggest planted the second bomb?

ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Well, it looks like the police.

REPORTER: The police?

ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Or the armed forces, I don't know.

Wahid's speculation is chilling and again there's no evidence to support it. But there's no doubt that he's a barometer of how many Indonesians view the whole terror campaign.

----------------------------
End transcript cite
----------------------------

The news about the program's upcoming second broadcast was carried early Sunday morning eastern standard time by Rense.com, the powerful, alternative Internet news site denounced by the State Dept., along with some others, as unreliable and symptomatic of Net disinformation.

But the State Dept. will have to work hard to explain what may become the most momentous J’accuse since France’s Dreyfus Affair.

Rense.Com described the program as follows, “In this documentary, which is described as the world's most explosive expose of International Intelligence Agencies ops and cover-ups, the former president of Indonesia (who Australians describe as the only honest high-level Indonesian politician), disclosed that the Indonesian police or military are behind the Bali bombings. Also in this program, Indonesian journalists and researchers state, unequivocally, that 'Moslem terrorists organizations' DO NOT EXIST as portrayed by the government - that they are created and coordinated to act by military-connected provocateurs. … They further claim that the Indonesian military is totally corrupt and that Generals and politicians are pocketing vast hordes of money they receive to 'fight terrorism' - 'terrorism' which, in fact, they are creating themselves."

The Australian (Australian.news.com) carried an analysis of the program from which the following is excerpted:

“The program … claims a key figure behind the formation of terror group Jemaah Islamiah was an Indonesian spy. Former terrorist Umar Abduh, who is now a researcher and writer, told Dateline Indonesian authorities had a hand in many terror groups. 'There is not a single Islamic group either in the movement or the political groups that is not controlled by (Indonesian) intelligence,' he said. Abduh has written a book on Teungku Fauzi Hasbi, a key figure in Jemaah Islamiah (JI) who had close contact with JI operations chief Hambali and lived next door to Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. He says Hasbi was a secret agent for Indonesia's military intelligence while at the same time a key player in creating JI. Security analyst John Mempi told SBS that Hasbi, who was also known as Abu Jihad, had played a key role in JI in its early years. … Another terrorism expert, George Aditjondro, said a bombing in May this year that killed 23 people in the Christian village of Tentena, in central Sulawesi, had been organised by senior military and police officers. 'This is a strategy of depopulating an area and when an area has been depopulated both becoming refugees or becoming paramilitary fighters then that is the time when they can invest their money in major resource exploitation there,' he said."