FBI report warned Asian bars were terrorist targets
By Marian Wilkinson in Washington and Tom Allard
January 23 2003
A secret FBI report revealing that a key member of the Jemaah Islamiah
terrorist group planned to bomb Westerners in bars and nightclubs from
Thailand to Indonesia is believed to have been passed to American allies
two months before last October's Bali attacks.
The report, obtained by the Herald, is based on the confession of a leading
JI recruit, Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, who is in custody in the United
States awaiting trial.
His confession confirms in detail a meeting held by JI's chief, Hambali, in
Thailand in January last year when he decided to hit "soft targets".
The report says Hambali's plan was to conduct small bombings in bars, cafes
or nightclubs frequented by Westerners in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore,
Philippines and Indonesia.
Hambali has been named by one of the Bali bombing suspects as the man who
conceived and planned the attack that killed nearly 200 people, including
88 Australians.
Jabarah told the FBI that al-Qaeda used specific code words in Asia,
including "White Meat" to describe the US, "Terminal" for Indonesia, and
"Market" for Malaysia.
A spokesperson for the Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, declined to
confirm or deny whether Australia received the FBI report.
An intelligence source said: "We get all the intelligence from the US and,
to my knowledge, this type of information about soft targets was coming
through, assessed properly and sent on to the relevant government
departments and agencies."
The FBI report, first detailed over the weekend by a Canadian newspaper,
The National Post, charted how Jabarah, a Kuwaiti-born Canadian citizen,
had been sent to South-East Asia by one of al-Qaeda's most senior figures,
the architect of the World Trade Centre attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad,
and worked with Hambali.
Jabarah was captured in Oman last March and deported to Canada.
His confessions, first to Canadian intelligence and then to the FBI,
provide an insight into al-Qaeda's strength in South-East Asia at the time
of the September 11 attacks.
The FBI report carries a note indicating it was distributed to other
agencies at the time it was written on August 21. By then, Jabarah had been
in US custody since May.
The report revealed that Jabarah was ordered to South-East Asia, initially
to Malaysia, to work with JI only days before the September 11 attacks.
Plans to attack Western embassies, including the Australian High Commission
in Singapore, were abandoned after the Singapore authorities began rounding
up JI operatives.
Jabarah is reportedly attempting to negotiate a plea bargain with the US
Justice Department in exchange for his confessions.
http://smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/22/1042911439199.html
