Two decades after Singapore began cracking down on a pan-Southeast Asia terrorist group calling itself Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the network’s operations leader, Hambali, remains at Guantanamo Bay awaiting trial. The evidence against him shows that he took orders and money from the al-Qaeda mastermind behind 9/11 to stage terrorist attacks in the region, including the deadly Bali bombings in 2002, and was planning yet more attacks when captured in 2003. In the first of atwo-part feature, Susan Sim, who was a journalist in Jakarta during the events of September 11, 2001, takes a look at his legacy of mayhem.
Hambali was captured in Thailand in 2003. Photo: Handout/US Department of Defense
As the 19th anniversary of the 2002 Bali bombings approached earlier this year, the Indonesian accused of masterminding the attacks appeared before a United States military commission in Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held for the past 15 years.
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Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, was charged with conspiring to carry out the Bali attacks as well as a suicide bombing at the JW Marriott Hotel Jakarta in 2003 that together left 213 people dead, including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons, 11 Hong Kong residents and seven Americans.
Dubbed “the Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia” by the CIA, Hambali was captured in Thailand in 2003. Held first on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia before being sent to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006, he remains one of a handful of high-value detainees at the US military prison still considered a high-risk “threat to the US, its interests and allies”.
His “hatred for the US”, steadfast support for extremist causes and promotion of “violent jihad while leading daily prayers and lectures” were highlighted in a 2016 detainee profile, which also noted that during his time in detention he had “emerged as a mentor and teacher” to fellow detainees.
I was a journalist in Jakarta in 2000 when Hambali staged his first terrorist attacks and over the years, I have both spoken to the counterterrorism officials who hunted him and former members of his terrorist network who opposed his violent agenda and dropped out.
The Hambali story is as much about international resolve to stop him as that of his efforts to terrorise the region.
Police officers inspect the ruins of a nightclub destroyed in the Bali Bombing of October 2002. Photo: AP
‘Someone was carrying the bomb when it blew up’
General Gories Mere has never forgotten his first suicide bombing investigation. When we met on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Bali bombings, Indonesia’s top counterterrorism police officer was about to retire.
