Cleric Tied to U.S. Embassy Plot
— -- Indonesian Cleric Tied to U.S. Embassy Plot
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 2 — U.S. counterterrorism officials believe that ashadowy Indonesian cleric with links to al Qaeda played a leadingrole in a thwarted effort to bomb at least one American embassy inSoutheast Asia on the anniversary of Sept. 11.
Hambali, whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, is the operationschief of Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional Islamic extremist networkthat receives support from al Qaeda, according to U.S. officialswho spoke on the condition of anonymity.
U.S. officials have declined to specify the target or targets ofthe Sept. 11 anniversary operation or to detail how the plots wereaverted. Hambali's precise role in the attack has not been laid outeither, but terrorism officials suspect him of organizing otherterrorist attacks as well.
Counterterrorism officials learned critical aspects of thebombing plot from an al Qaeda operative who was captured byIndonesian authorities in June. His information led to the closureof embassies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam. Thatday, the Philippine government released a letter from U.S.Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly warning that al Qaedamembers were prepared to launch truck bomb attacks in the regionand that intelligence indicated "imminent threats to U.S.Embassies."
The prisoner, Omar al-Farouq, was turned over to U.S.authorities after his capture. He recently began talking to hisinterrogators. Al-Farouq and Hambali are believed to have beenclose associates, with al-Farouq serving as liaison between JemaahIslamiya to al Qaeda's senior leadership.
His interrogation has provided a clearer picture of JemaahIslamiyah, a group U.S. officials say has a twofold purpose: tocreate an Islamic state in Southeast Asia and to conduct acts ofterrorism against U.S. interests.
Jemaah Islamiyah resembles al Qaeda in organization and, likeal Qaeda, operates across international boundaries. The group hascells in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmarand Thailand.
This is unlike many other groups affiliated with al Qaeda, manyof which are focused on overthrowing the government of a singlecountry.
Leadership of the group is split between Hambali, who handlesoperations, and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, another Indonesian cleric whodenies links to terrorism but is believed to be the group'sspiritual leader, according to U.S., Singaporean and Malaysianofficials. The group has sent people to Osama bin Laden's Afghancamps and received money from al Qaeda.
Hambali's whereabouts are unknown. According to Singapore's HomeAffairs Ministry, Hambali also gave the orders to Jemaah Islamiyahoperatives who were arrested in December 2001 in connection withplots to bomb the U.S. Embassy in the city-state and American navaltargets.
In addition, Hambali has been linked to two Sept. 11 suicidehijackers. He is believed to have arranged the January 2000 meetingof Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi with a senior al Qaedaoperative, Tawfiq Attash Khallad, one of the masterminds of the USSCole bombing later that year. The subject of the meeting remains amystery.
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir lives openly in Indonesia, despite entreatiesfrom Malaysia, Singapore and the United States to authorities thereto arrest him. Indonesian officials say they have no evidence toarrest him, but American officials suggest the Indonesiangovernment fears a public backlash if the popular cleric isdetained.
Ba'asyir denies links to terrorism and that Jemaah Islamiyahexists, but U.S. counterterrorism officials allege he founded thegroup in 1989 and maintains knowledge of the group's operations. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, he challengedthe United States to make its case against him and warned thatjailing him would anger Muslims.
"I am not fighting against the American people but against theU.S. government," he said. "The government and the Jews arefighting against Muslims. It's part of a crusade by America toattack Islam. The United States hates me because I struggle in thename of Islam."
—The Associated Press
al Qaeda Suspect Ordered Held Without Bail Pending Trial
S E A T T L E, Oct. 2 — A federal magistrate ordered an American Muslimheld without bail on charges of trying to establish a terroristtraining camp in Oregon, saying it was the only way to ensure hisappearance at trial.
On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate John Weinberg added that thegovernment had presented persuasive evidence that James Ujaama, whogrew up in Seattle, had been helping terrorism.
Ujaama was arrested July 22 in Denver. He was held as a materialwitness until Aug. 29, when a grand jury indicted him on one countof conspiracy to provide material support and resources for theal Qaeda terrorist network, and another count of using, carrying,possessing and discharging firearms during a crime.
Weinberg noted Ujaama's previous work as a community activist inSeattle. "He was a fine citizen over those years," the magistratesaid, "but people change."
Although Ujaama's mother and aunt had offered to put up theirhouses as collateral, that would not ensure Ujaama would stay inthis country to face trial, Weinberg said. The trial is set forNovember.
Prosecutors say Ujaama, 36, tried to set up a terrorist trainingcamp in Bly, Ore., in 1999. He denies the charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Hamilton argued that since Ujaamaconverted to Islam and traveled to London in 1997, he has become aclose associate of Abu Hamza al-Masri.
The government froze al-Masri's funds for his alleged membershipin the Islamic Army of Aden, the organization that claimedresponsibility for the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October2000.
Al-Masri provided Ujaama with a letter of introduction thatenabled him to attend a terrorist camp in Afghanistan, Hamiltonsaid. Prosecutors say they aren't sure when he attended.
Ujaama's lawyers argued that the government had provided noevidence he is a flight risk. Attorney Robert Mahler alsoquestioned the source of the government's allegations.
"Where does all this information come from?" he asked. "Theyhaven't provided a stitch of evidence."
Prosecutors have declined to identify their source, except as a"cooperating witness" referred to in the indictment.
—The Associated Press
WTC Wreckage Memorials Spark Mixed Feelings
J E R S E Y C I T Y, N.J., Oct. 2 — Anthony Crispino and some colleagueswere walking to work when they passed the twisted steel beams ofJersey City's World Trade Center memorial. Their conversationdarkened.
"They've got death written all over them," said Crispino, 35,an assistant vice president at Lehman Brothers. "I don't thinkthey should be in public."
Sitting nearby, Mike Maras couldn't help being distracted by thebeam.
"It's disturbing," said Maras, a 26-year-old portfolioadministrator.
People organizing Sept. 11 memorials across the country haveused wreckage from the trade center to convey the horror of theattack. But responses to the memorials vary widely.
"You never know what is going to trigger a reaction insomeone," said Renee Burawski, director of the help line forProject Phoenix, a federally funded post-Sept. 11 mental healthcounseling service. "So my feeling is you stay away from anythingthat might trigger that kind of response."
Hilary Ballon, chairwoman of the Department of Art History andArchaeology at Columbia University in New York, said beams from thetowers can be an appropriate part of the memorials.
"My sense is that these ruins can play a very powerful role inhelping people comprehend — not just the people now, but in yearsto come — what happened," she said. "When you have a ruin, whenyou have that twisted beam of steel, that's a way that makes itmuch more concrete, much more graphic."
Beams have been distributed to sites including the Mining Museumin Franklin, N.J., the Nixon Library in California, DenverInternational Airport, and the Consulate General of Portugal.
The city of New York sent whole beams or cut sections to 150locations before deciding recently not to take any more requests,said Thomas Curitore, who heads the community services unit inMayor Michael Bloomberg's office. Before the city took overdistribution, requests were handled by companies under contract torecycle the material.
The harsh imagery may be easier to deal with after emotionalwounds have had time to heal, said Bartholomew Voorsanger, whosearchitectural firm collected some 1,800 objects, from steel beamsto coffee cups, for possible use in a trade center memorial ormuseum.
"I would strongly advocate there has to be some time toseparate us from 9-11 to the time when these memorials start toemerge," he said.
That is just what memorial planners in Lake Charles, La., aredoing with two beams and a piece of granite from the Pentagon,where a son of Lake Charles, Petty Officer Kevin Yokum, was killed.
Mayor Randy Roach said the beams could help satisfy his city's"ache" to cope with Sept. 11.
"For people who are close to New York, there will be a reminderthere forever. Ground Zero will forever be enshrined. For the restof the country, there is a need to express our grief. This gives usa place to cry," he said.
"We could build something out here in concrete and granite. Wecould inscribe it, we could etch it. But it would not have the samemeaning."
Forty Jersey City residents were killed in the attacks. In aceremony this Sept. 11, Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunninghaminvited people to touch the beams. His spokesman said the displayallows people to feel closer to the event.
Fallon, Nev., a city of 8,300, put up a memorial in which a beamis set in a brick wall built to appear to be toppling. A plaquereads: "This piece of steel donated to the City of Fallon by thepeople of New York City serves as a reminder of the buildings fromwhich it came, those who lost their lives there, and the spirit ofheroism and patriotism exhibited by countless Americans in theaftermath of the attacks."
Mayor Ken Tedford Jr. said that for several days after thedisplay was dedicated this Sept. 11, a stream of people filed pastthe beam, many pausing to lay hands on it. Some cried, he said, butno one complained.
"I think that day was a good healing process and I think it wasone that was necessary," he said.
Five years passed before the Oklahoma City National Memorial wasunveiled, commemorating the 168 people killed in the bombing of theAlfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.
Jane Thomas, the memorial's curator, said materials from theMurrah building have been incorporated into memorials but are notusually displayed in raw form.
"Don't get me wrong, we tell a hard story, and we tell it hardand we tell it graphically," Thomas said. But for the memorialitself, she said, "We were just very keen on soothing."
—The Associated Press
Group Planning WTC Memorial Visits Flight 93 Crash Site for Inspiration
S H A N K S V I L L E, Pa., Oct. 2 — A group planning the memorial for theWorld Trade Center visited a temporary memorial set up near thesite of the crash of United Flight 93, seeking inspiration and toincorporate ideas that will link the memorials.
The terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks "united usin a way that we haven't been united for quite awhile ... I'm notstanding in Pennsylvania, I am standing on American soil," saidLee Ielpi, a retired New York City firefighter whose son,firefighter Jonathan Ielpi, died in the World Trade Center. Ielpi is a member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. — acity-state agency that has received $2 billion from Congress toredevelop and revitalize the area around the World Trade Center anddesign a memorial.
Members of the group toured the makeshift memorial, about 80miles south of Pittsburgh, on Tuesday and were scheduled to visitother memorials, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial inWashington, D.C., the civil rights memorial in Montgomery, Ala.,and the Oklahoma City National Memorial, this week.
"It is as moving, I suspect, as anything a great architect orartist could design," said Tom Johnson, standing near thetemporary memorial which is decorated with hundreds of Americanflags, dozens of hats, photographs and mementos written on plywood.
Johnson, whose son was killed in the south tower of the WorldTrade Center, said he and Ielpi cried they read a small granitemarker for the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
Johnson said the memorials at the Pentagon, Ground Zero andShanksville should complement each other because many people willmake pilgrimages to them after they are completed.
Ielpi and Johnson brought framed pieces of debris from GroundZero, which will ultimately be included in the planned memorial forFlight 93.
The flight, which was headed from Newark, N.J., to SanFrancisco, was the only one of four flights hijacked Sept. 11,2001, that did not take a life on the ground. Investigators believeit was headed toward a target in Washington when it turned eastnear Cleveland. They believe it was brought down when people onboard confronted the hijackers.
The 40 passengers and crew have been hailed as heroes in whatsome have called the first battle in America's war againstterrorism.
"We came here to share our experiences on how we should bemoving forward on our memorials and demonstrate our solidarity,"said Anita Contini, a vice president of the Lower ManhattanDevelopment Corp.
A design competition for the World Trade Center memorial isscheduled to begin early next year, Matthew Higgins, a spokesmanfor the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Organizers hope tocomplete the memorial in time for the second anniversary of theattacks.
Meanwhile, a committee to develop the Flight 93 memorial, whichwill be overseen by the National Park Service, has yet to beappointed.
The committee, made of local residents, landowners, families ofthe victims, emergency responders, local officials and historians,will have about three years to develop plans, but it's unclear whenit could be completed, said Joanne M. Hanley, superintendent of theNational Park Service in western Pennsylvania.
—The Associated Press