Dicky Christanto and Irawaty Wardany , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 07/18/2009 1:54 PM | Headlines
The State Intelligent Agency (BIN) has admitted its failure to detect the infiltration of terrorists allegedly behind the bomb blasts that ripped through the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels Friday in the Mega Kuningan business district, South Jakarta.
"We didn't pick up on their moves," BIN chief Syamsir Siregar said during a visit to MMC Hospital with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to check on the victims being treated there.
"You could say it was an infiltration."
He declined to say whether more attacks were imminent.
Intelligence expert Dino Chrisbon said the blasts may have been planned to take advantage of recent attempts by the police's top brass to curtail the authority of its special counterterrorism unit.
He said financial constraints had forced the police to scale back its special unit, which maintains a presence in all provinces.
Dino added there may also have been serious miscommunication between leaders of the unit, which finally drew the police's focus away from the fight against terrorism.
He said the attack was most likely orchestrated by a group affiliated to Jamaah Islamiah (JI), which was also behind the previous bombings.
"The group is still alive and its members are still campaigning for jihad all across the country," he said.
International Crisis Group director Sidney Jones told The Jakarta Post that JI-affiliated groups' involvement in the bombings was one of the most likely possibilities.
"It's still too early to tell about the motives," she said.
"However, the explosions could be related to the recent police investigation of a terrorist nest in Cilacap, Central Java."
The police's Densus 88 counterterrorism squad recently discovered bomb-making materials in the backyard of a house belonging to fugitive terror suspect Bahrudin, in Pasuruan village, Cilacap. The search also netted powdered sulphur, cables wrapped in plastic, and several books and VCDs about jihad, according to a witness.
"The investigation was related to efforts to find Noordin M. Top; the bombings could have a connection to that," Jones said.
Noordin, a Malaysian national, is a fugitive member of the JI network. He was a partner of Malaysian bomb maker Azahari Husein, who was killed in a 2006 shootout with the police in East Java.
"I don't think the election dispute had anything to do with it, because such systematic operations require months of planning," Jones added.
Legislator Andreas Pareira of the House of Representatives' Commission I on security said the bombing was a terror act with a slightry different style of execution.
"There are indications the bombers stayed for a while at each hotel, based on my conversation with the police at the scene," he said.
"They needed to take the bomb materials into the hotels piece by piece. Once they managed to get them all inside, they assembled them in their rooms." (hdt)
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