Washington ... seize on Jakarta bombing to further justify “war on terror"

[Aidoneus]

hmmpf.. subject header shortened slightly to properly fit.

Washington and Canberra seize on Jakarta bombing to further justify “war on terror”
By Peter Symonds
7 August 2003

At least 14 people are dead and almost 150 injured after the blast from a large car bomb ripped through the ground floor of the luxury JB Marriott Hotel and surrounding buildings in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta at lunchtime on Tuesday. Those killed include two taxi drivers, hotel employees and a Dutch businessman. Not all of the bodies, some of which were severely burnt, have been identified.

Foreign politicians, businessmen and diplomats frequently use the 33- storey hotel, part of a US-owned chain. Much of its lobby was destroyed in the explosion, which also damaged the nearby Sailendra Restaurant and adjacent Plaza Mutiari buildings that house several foreign embassies. The bomb left a crater two metres in diameter, pierced through to the parking lot in the basement of the hotel, blew out windows and incinerated cars parked in the area.

At this stage it is not clear who was responsible. But this brutal murder of innocent people is a profoundly reactionary act, which will be seized upon by Jakarta to bolster its repressive apparatus and by Washington and its allies as a pretext for the “global war on terrorism”.

Within 24 hours, the Indonesian government announced plans to step up security measures throughout the country. Their anti-democratic character was indicated by top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who declared on Tuesday that people should be prepared to accept drastic new limits on their civil rights. “The government will impose these restrictions as we are determined to prevent the deaths of more victims,” he said. “Their lives are worth more than the price of human rights.”

--snip--

So far, investigators have identified the van involved but have not yet traced its owner. It also appears that the bomb was a mixture of low and high explosives, including the military explosive RDX, and was detonated by mobile phone. At a press conference yesterday, Indonesia’s chief of detectives Erwin Mappaseng noted the superficial similarities to the Bali bombings but added that it was too early to conclude that a definite link existed.

If the culprit was JI, there are a number of unanswered questions. How were the bombers able to obtain military explosives such as RDX? Where did they get the finances for such a major attack? How were they able to evade Indonesia’s extensive military intelligence network? The Asian editor of the Washington Strategic Affairs journal, Kerry Collison, remarked: “Now this car bombing, although it does have the fingerprints or hallmarks of what happened in Bali, it really smacks of military involvement because you can’t move that amount of TNT explosives around Jakarta.”

--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/aug2003/indo-a07.shtml

a humble question:--who benefits?

[RC]

1. Who benefits?

The headline lists them.

[bemildred]

2. I'm sure they will.

The presence of RDX is cute, isn't it? Wasn't there some of that
military grade stuff used in the Bali job too? :puke: