Witness says Bush asked for secret extradition of Indonesian cleric

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/January/theworld_January300.xml§ion=theworld

JAKARTA - An Indonesian court on Thursday was told that US President George W. Bush’s special envoy demanded that terrorist suspect Abu Bakar Bashir be secretly handed over to Washington authorities.


Testifying at a court hearing for Bashir, 46-year-old Frederick Burks, an American who quit as a translator at the US State Department two months ago, said that the request for the cleric’s extradition was made about two years ago when Bush sent a special envoy to Jakarta to meet with the outgoing president Megawati Sukarnoputri.

He said the request was made during a meeting in September 2002 at the residence of former President Megawati.

In addition to the former Indonesian president, then US Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph Boyce, an official from the National Security Council and president Bush’s special envoy were at the meeting, said Burks, who was at the meeting working as an interpreter.

“Bush’s special envoy explained to Megawati that Bashir is truly an evil man and must be arrested and rendered to the US authorities,” Burks told the court.

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[rooboy]

1. I'm still waiting to see evidence that links Bashir...

to any of this. He dislikes western culture, but I haven't seen anything that links him directly to terrorism at all. A lot of the evidence against him is testimony by people who are giving evidence via video link and can't be cross examined. Smells real bad.