Why did the Bali Nightclub bombings occur?

[Wetzelbill]

I have a friend who says they happened for "no better reason than Australia is our friend." I know this has got to be the "shallow" reason for it, but I want to know the real reasons. I'm pretty informed on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Bin Laden-Hussein and U.S. "blowback" ramifications, yet I don't know much about Indonesia and why terrorist attacks would occur there. I know there has to be politically motivated links with the U.S., Britain, Australia and other allies, so can somebody help me out with some credibl info?

[rucky]

1. Not Up To Date, but...

http://old.smh.com.au/news/0109/25/world/world13.html

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Tense times in world's largest Islamic nation

By Lindsay Murdoch, Herald Correspondent in Jakarta

Police snipers guard buildings housing United States government agencies and businesses. Sales of T-shirts bearing the face Osama bin Laden are brisk. Mobs of Islamic radicals search hotels for Americans, threatening to expel them. And security is high at the Australian Embassy after newspapers played up Saturday's attack on a mosque in Brisbane.

Observers in the world's largest Islamic nation, Indonesia, are increasingly worried about the possibility of a violent backlash to the US military build-up in the Middle East and South Asia.

Police have failed to act against public threats to attack the US Embassy despite an appeal for action by the ambassador, Mr Robert Gelbard, and Indonesia's Defence Minister, Matori Abdul Djalil.

The Front of Islamic Defenders, which boasts 10,000 members, yesterday renewed threats to launch a jihad, or holy war, against US interests in Indonesia. It also warned it would bring down President Megawati Sukarnoputri if she backs US-led strikes in Afghanistan.

etc...

[AP]

2. To get Australia on board with the clampdown.

For some reason, Australia is incredibly important to American RW/fascist geopolitical strategy, and it has been for years. I guess, originally, it was going to be the place from which America would battle expanding communism in SE Asia. However, even though the domino theory never came to fruition, America's desire to keep Australia in the fascism camp persits.

Perhaps it's just a case of, once the CIA has set up lots of relationships (and is flowing profits to their fascist helpers, like shady banks, arms dealers, politicians and reporters), it's hard to stop feeding the beast. Maybe there's no real geopolitical advantage, but, hey, you have to keep the money flowing to your friends.

Incidentally, I wonder if Murdoch built his media empire by taking CIA money during the 70s (if the CIA is spending a billion a year on media operations, somebody must be getting rich).

[Devils Advocate NZ]

7. The US has a VERY good reason to want Australia on side.

Two words: Pine Gap.

The joint Australian-US spy base at Pine Gap is playing two crucial roles in the war - warning instantly of Iraqi missiles launches and pinpointing the location of Saddam Hussein and his key officers for attacking US missiles.
http://www.theage.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2003/03/22/1047749988791.html

Since the terrorist attacks in the US, Mr Howard and Mr Reith have stressed the importance of "our intelligence capabilities" in helping the US in the war on terrorism.

According to defence analyst Dr Des Ball, intelligence collected at Pine Gap and the Australia Defence Satellite Communications Station at Geraldton, Western Australia, could contribute to the intelligence effort to locate members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network or the Taliban military forces for attacks against them.

The signals intelligence, or sigint - including satellite telephone, microwave phone and walkie-talkie communications and some military radio transmissions - are sucked down to Pine Gap from the satellite, processed and sent on to the US National Security Agency.
http://www.ozpeace.net/pinegap/smh290901.htm

Yep, that's right. When you hear of US intercepts of cellphone traffic or detection of missile launches, Pine Gap is the source.

Australia is the US' eyes and ears on this side of the globe, and if the US lost Australia, it would be in big trouble.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

10. Q to Devils Advocate:

Am I right in thinking that Pine Gap (or the threat to close it down) was the lightning rod that got Gough Whitlam kicked out of office? (or am I thinking of the whole "Falcon & the Snowman" case??)

Thanks if you can help (or anybody else!)

[Kolesar]

3. The bombers thought the patrons were .largely Americans

That was the last take on it that I heard. They did not realize that the club was full of Australians. Sorry, I cannot recall where I heard that.

[uptohere]

8. nonsense

see the next post regarding westerners. It might just have well been France or Portugal.

[Kolesar]

11. So when is the last time Islamists bombed France or Portugal then?

I thought that what I said was a plausible explanation.

[Ergotron]

4. Terrorists only goal is to terrorize

The Bali nightclub bombing occured because the bombers sought maximum news coverage, and killing westerners (Australian are 'westerners' by cultural default) is the best way to get on TV. The belief of the islamic terrorists is that we (the West) don't have the stomach to endure continued casualties and, given sufficient dead bodies to bury, will pull out and go home. We are seeing this in Iraq everyday.

As long as westerners continue to visit Indonesia, occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, and are perceived by the Islamic world as the enemy they will feel justified in bombings.

[Yupster]

5. Because Islamo-fascists like to murder innocent civilians

In America, in Israel, in Iraq, in the Sudan, in Nigeria. They really aren't geographically or nationality - specific.

They just murder civilians. It's what they do.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Bu$hCo needed

to get Australia on board before the invasion of Iraq.

[ieoeja]

9. Secession

Islamic group on one of the islands tried seceding. Same thing in Philippines. In western and central Asia Islamic groups are trying to violently overthrow several governments. I believe there are similar efforts underway in Africa, though I am not entirely certain.

It is called the Islamic Revolutionary Movement. They believe in Islamic theocracy. Beyond that they appear content to let local religious leaders make these decisions. So Iran allows a fair amount of secularlism under their religious leaders, while the things the Taliban did to Afghan women was horrendous despite the Taliban being largely a creation of the Iranian government (yes, we created bin Laden and his freedom fighters, but Iran, not us, helped the Taliban).

What made the Taliban's actions so horrifying is that they imposed this on women not raised under these restrictions. How does one go from being a happy, carefree professional enjoying an active social life in the big city to the burqua, obedience, and complete dependancy?

[dudeness]

12. IMHO..the history behind this attack goes beyond

the war on terror..sitting on the edge of 200 million muslims, australia has been seen as the US deputy sheriff in the region for some time now..it has been highlighted since the election of john howard a conservative prime minister ,who has offended SE Asia with his subtle rejections of our place in the region..australias relentless backing of imperialism through our commitment to wars outside of our region has in many ways contributed to the Bali atrocity..our silence when hundereds of thousands were butchered in the 1960s overthrow of Sukarno..our silence on the slaughter of peasants in East Timor..