Indonesia Terror Attacks Funded from Yemen?
Jakarta bombers tied to Mid-East militants, The Age
TIES between Middle Eastern extremists and the terrorist cell that launched suicide bombing attacks on two hotels in Jakarta are emerging after the arrest of an alleged financier of the plot who lived in Saudi Arabia… Noordin, South-East Asia’s most wanted man, remains at large, with police in Bekasi, outside Jakarta, saying they have begun inspecting women wearing burqas, believed to be a favourite disguise of his.
Financial links between Noordin’s cell and Middle East militants, including al-Qaeda, are being closely investigated by Indonesian police, according to counter-terrorism sources….As well as the reported arrests, there is another apparent Arab connection to Noordin’s cell.
Saifuddin Jaelani, an Islamic cleric who allegedly recruited at least one of the suicide bombers for the hotel attacks, spent four years in Yemen as a student.
Raising further suspicions about his activities in the country, where al-Qaeda has had a significant presence for more than a decade, Saifuddin did not register as a student while he was living there.
According to the Jakarta Post, he received several large payments from Yemen in the lead-up to the bombings.
The information could not be verified, but Indonesia’s Centre for Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis has detected 68 financial transactions possibly linked to terrorism between 2004 and 2009.
