The Star Online > News Monday September 27, 2004 Seeking clues to JI-Chechen link BY WONG CHUN WAI AND LOURDES CHARLES PETALING JAYA: Former Jemaah Islamiah (JI) regional leader Nasir Abas says he has not seen any VCD on bomb making by Chechens and neither has he heard of any JI member going to Chechnya. When contacted in Jakarta, he said he also did not come across any Chechen while undergoing training in Camp Sadr in Afghanistan. However, when The Star revealed the name of a JI leader who had travelled to Chechnya, he admitted knowing the person and was aware of his terrorist activities. Nasir, who has admitted to smuggling arms and training JI members in Mindanao, southern Philippines, was jailed for 10 months in Indonesia for immigration offences. He is now assisting Indonesian authorities to track and rehabilitate JI members. With little information available on links between the JI and the Chechens, investigators have probed deeper into the discovery of VCDs and documents on how Chechen separatists make and use land mines and bombs. This comes following reports that at least three JI leaders from Indonesia who are on the run have gone to Chechnya in support of their cause to set up an Islamic state in Russia. One of them has been implicated in the Bali bombing in Indonesia in 2002 that killed at least over 200 people. The fugitive is said to have close links with former al-Qaeda regional director Hambali, who is now in an unknown location under the custody of the United States. Last week, the Singapore Straits Times reported that al-Qaeda leader Mohd Mansour Jabarah @ Sammy, who is also being held by the United States, was believed to have confessed to security officials that he was inspired by the Chechen cause. The militant, a Canadian of Arab descent, had planned to bomb Western targets in Singapore with local JI leaders. According to news reports, he had spent hours on the Internet searching for information on the Chechen cause. Mohd Mansour, who had operated in South-East Asia on the orders of Osama bin Laden, was given the job of building links and infrastructure in the region between the Chechens, al-Qaeda and JI. He was arrested in Oman in 2002 and is believed to be under custody in New York. Another name mentioned by the newspaper was Singapore JI leader Mas Selamat Kastari. He is said to have discussed with Hambali � the JI mastermind and Osama�s regional leader � on how the group could retaliate against the Singapore government, including moves to hijack a US, British or Singapore plane and crash into Changi international airport. The Singapore Straits Times reported recently that investigations showed that Mas Selamat, who is now being detained by Singaporean authorities, had contemplated hijacking a Russian Aeroflot airliner for that purpose. Mas Selamat, who was arrested in Riau, Indonesia, on Feb 3, 2003, was trained in Afghanistan and was personally chosen by Hambali to head the operations in Singapore. He also reportedly met Hambali in Bangkok in 2001 to discuss an airplane hijacking. According to the Singapore government�s White Paper � The Jemaah Islamiah Arrests and the Threat of Terrorism � the JI members had also carried out surveys on the Biggin Hill radar station, beside Changi airport. The daily reported that regional intelligence agencies were investigating whether a mystery Chechen bomber, linked to an alleged Sydney terror conspiracy, was also behind a foiled plot to detonate chemical truck bombs in Jordan earlier this year. The Sydney plot involved a plan by some radicals to bomb a major part of the Australian infrastructure, such as the national electricity grid. The report said a Frenchman implicated in the plot had disclosed in Australia that his contact was a Chechen bomb maker named Abou Salah. Malaysian intelligence officials, meanwhile, said they had been monitoring groups that had links with Chechen groups, including checking the messages and comments posted on their websites. The source said the checks include the kind of support extended to the Chechens, in particular financial backing by unwitting non-governmental organisations. _______________________________________________ No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. 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