Finally, the much sort after No 2 Man in J.I. was reported to be arrested in Thailand, and held in a secret location for interogation by the Thais, FBI and CIA.
Without any doubt, Singapore's ISD will lend a helping hand, and it will not be surprising if Malaysia's ISD is also called in to assist.
This arrest was announced by US President George Bush on Thursday in the USA, before it hit the headlines in this Friday's morning news in Asia.
From CNN Website:
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/08/14/hambali.capture/index.htmlWASHINGTON (CNN) -- The man accused of being the mastermind behind last year's Bali nightclub bombings, last week's explosion at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and possibly the September 11, 2001, attacks has been captured in Thailand, according to senior U.S. officials.
Investigators said that Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, was arrested two days ago in the central temple town of Ayutthaya, and was handed over to the CIA.
Investigators believe Hambali was plotting to stage an attack during the upcoming Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, scheduled to be held in Thailand in October.
Hambali is the acting chief of Jemaah Islamiyah, a group that is basically a franchise of al Qaeda in Southeast Asia. He has served as a link between the groups, and was the only non-Arab to sit on al Qaeda's leadership council.
According to CNN's Maria Ressa, Hambali was sought by at least a half-dozen countries in the region for his suspected involvement in several bombings in various countries.
His capture could possibly prevent some future attacks -- sources told CNN al Qaeda had asked Hambali to recruit more suicide hijackers, and that an al Qaeda leader in Pakistan gave him a large sum of money earlier this year to carry out a major attack.
A senior administration official did not give a time or location for the possible future attack.
Administration officials called it a significant capture, and said they would interrogate him to cull information on future attacks.
U.S. President George W. Bush called Hambali "one of the world's most lethal terrorists" and said his capture was a significant victory in the war on terrorism.
"He is no longer a problem to those of us who love freedom," Bush told Marines at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in California.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard welcomed the capture Friday, describing it as a "huge breakthrough".
"This man is a very big fish. He's the main link between Al Qaeda and JI. He was almost certainly the ultimate mastermind of the Bali attack," Howard told Australian media.
"So to those relatives of the 88 Australians who died in that outrage almost a year ago, this is I hope some further measure of justice," he said.
"I congratulate the Americans and I'm sure that psychologically this capture will inflict a very heavy blow on the worldwide terrorist network."
Hambali has been blamed for the simultaneous bombings in 2000 in Malaysia and the Philippines, and with other terror attacks in the region.
A senior administration official said al Qaeda asked Hambali to recruit hijackers for other attacks after September 11, and he received large amounts of money for that mission.
Intelligence officials say Hambali may have helped plan the September 11 attacks by hijacked commercial airliners that killed nearly 3,000 people.
He was videotaped in January 2000 meeting with two of the hijackers in Malaysia -- Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.
The 36-year-old Afghan war veteran was part of a terrorist cell broken up by Philippine police in 1995. Three of its members are serving life sentences in U.S. prisons for a plot to bomb American planes in Asia.
They had begun recruiting pilots for suicide missions, to crash commercial planes into buildings like the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Intelligence officials in the Philippines say they believe that the 1995 plan was the blueprint for September 11.
Al Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, along with Hambali, evaded arrest in 1995 and moved further up al Qaeda's corporate ladder. Mohammed -- who was arrested in April -- became one of Osama bin Laden's trusted lieutenants, U.S. officials say. (Evidence found in his arrest, Mohammed's life)
There has been no comment from Indonesia on Hambali's capture.
Australia on Thursday warned that fresh terror attacks could be possible in Indonesia this Sunday, to coincide with the republic's national day.
Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he feared a possible terror strike in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on August 17 targeting Westerners at "soft" targets such as shopping centers or international hotels. (Sunday warning)
The warning came one day after Australia's top spy chief said a "catastrophic" terrorist attack involving weapons of mass destruction was only a matter of time. ('Catastrophic' attack)
This article also featured on the website of the Straits Times on this Friday morning:
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/latest/story/0,4390,204882,00.html?