http://thejakartaglobe.com/city/links-to-al-qaeda-investigated/324761
August 19, 2009 Niniek Karmini Links to Al Qaeda Investigated The National Police questioned two alleged militants on Tuesday about possible Al Qaeda links to the twin suicide bombings in Jakarta last month, which killed nine people, including the two suicide bombers. The men, who were detained on Saturday, may have worked as couriers to channel funding from abroad for the July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, said a National Police counterterrorism investigator, on condition of anonymity. The blasts, which killed six foreigners and wounded 50 other people, ended a four-year break in terrorism and revived the hunt for the country's most wanted fugitive, Noordin M Top. A police official in West Java said that Indonesian national Iwan Herdiansyah and Ali Mohammad Abdillah, a Saudi Arabian, were being interrogated after being picked up at separate locations in the province. He could not provide details. The anonymous investigator said authorities were following leads that the July blasts, believed to have been planned by a violent offshoot of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network led by Noordin, were paid with money wired through Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Malaysia. Police are interrogating the men to determine "if the money used to fund the bombings came from Al Qaeda, which provided funding for previous attacks in Indonesia," the anonymous investigator said. Iwan, the Saudi national, had been running an Internet cafe and two shops selling Islamic books and toys since returning to the country a year ago after five years in Saudi Arabia, the official said. The police can hold suspects for a week without charge under the country's antiterrorism laws. It has been unclear who financed the July strikes in Jakarta, but Al Qaeda has bankrolled attacks that killed more than 240 people, mostly foreign tourists on Bali, since 2002. Noordin, the self-proclaimed commander of Al Qaeda in Indonesia, has been blamed for every major attack since 2003, including the first JW Marriott bombing in 2003 and an attack on the Australian Embassy in 2004. National Police spokesman Nanan Sukarna declined to comment on Tuesday on the possible Al Qaeda link, saying only that police continued to look into funds used for terrorism. The government's transaction watchdog has identified 68 suspect financial transactions since 2004 that were allegedly related to terrorist activities. On Monday, another National Police source said investigators believed funds for the hotel bombings had been brought into Jakarta from the Middle East in June. He said police had failed to apprehend the courier, as he had returned to his home country shortly after the bombings. Associated Press [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
