US denies Indonesia access to Hambali

[Nottingham]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/21/1064082867811.html


US denies Indonesia access to Hambali
By Marian Wilkinson, Herald Correspondent in Washington
September 22, 2003

Print this article
Email to a friend



The United States has refused to allow Indonesia to interrogate the suspected terrorist leader Hambali, despite warnings that new attacks planned by him in South-East Asia may be imminent.

But Indonesia's senior security minister, Bambang Yudhoyono, visiting Washington, did achieve a compromise to allow his police and intelligence officers to submit a list of questions through US interrogators, who have been interviewing Hambali at a secret location since his capture last month in a joint operation between the CIA and Thai authorities.

Mr Yudhoyono has met the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, the Deputy Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, and the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to discuss co-operation in tackling terrorism and the Hambali case.

Hambali was allegedly al-Qaeda's chief operative in South-East Asia and at one time the operations head for Jemaah Islamiah (JI), which organised the Bali bombing.

more....

Dang its really hard to get to talk to these Terrorists Now days!
:bounce:

[Minstrel Boy]

1. Could it be Hambali knows too much?

"At the dinner, the Indonesian minister stressed the importance President Megawati Soekarnoputri placed on the Hambali case. 'Hambali is the one man who knows more than any other on the terrorist cells through Indonesia and South-East Asia,' Mr Yudhoyono said."

Given what we've seen emerge from the Philippines - suggestions that the CIA and the Philippine military have been complicit in orchestrating terror attacks - I wonder why the US doesn't want Hambali to talk.