Osama bin Laden invites Baasyir to Afghanistan: witness

[Tab]

An Indonesian convicted terrorist told a court hearing Thursday in Jakarta that Osama bin Laden had invited Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir to stay in Afghanistan if the cleric felt uncomfortable in Indonesia.

The message was brought by Hambali, another Indonesian militant who is now in US custody, said Muhammad Rais.

Rais, who has been sentenced to seven years in jail for role in the Marriott Hotel bombing here last August, was present at a makeshift courtroom in the Ministry of Agriculture compound here to testify in the terror trial against Ba'asyir.

In a meeting in Pakistan in 2001, Hambali told Rais to forward bin Laden's message to Ba'asyir.

Later in the year, Rais met with Ba'asyir at the cleric's Islamic boarding school in the Central Java town of Surakarta to tell him bin Laden's message, he said.

"I told Ba'asyir that Hambali got a message from Osama bin Laden offering Ba'asyir to move to Afghanistan if he no longer found it comfortable to stay in Indonesia," said Rais.
http://english.people.com.cn/200412/02/eng20041202_165923.html

[daleo]

1. Today we heard Ossama was in Iran

We aren't being...gasp...lied to, are we? Seriously, I imagine he is perfectly capable of being in several places at once, much like his lieutenant can both have a leg and not have that leg at the same time.

[Tab]

2. Not the same

Being invited there, and being there are two different things.

[daleo]

3. Yes of course

Silly me.