Indonesia bomb plot highlights rise of intolerance: analysts | AFP via The Daily Star Lebanon

By Sam Reev

JAKARTA: The discovery of a bomb plot against the US embassy in Indonesia indicates that the government’s reluctance to tackle a rising tide of intolerance is emboldening Islamist groups, analysts said Monday.

Indonesia has been applauded for a terrorism crackdown launched a decade ago after bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, and there have been no successful attacks against Western targets since suicide blasts on Jakarta hotels in 2009.

However, anti-terror police at the weekend arrested 11 members of an Islamic group allegedly targeting the US embassy, a consulate in East Java, and a Jakarta building that houses the offices of US mining giant Freeport-McMoran.

FULL ARTICLE (The Daily Star Lebanon)

Photo: nSeika/Flickr

10 Years After Bali Bombings, Local Militants Still Pose Threat | The New York Times

By Sara Schonhart

The Crisis Group says many of these new groups are small and ad hoc, and while they still seek inspiration and material support from large jihadist organizations, they act independently. Rather than the major bombing campaigns of years past, they conduct “individual jihad” against local targets.

“The threat we’ve seen recently is manageable and is being managed, but it’s hard to extinguish,” said Jim Della-Giacoma, the Crisis Group’s Southeast Asia project director. “There are still individuals with such radical ideas that they want to use violence, and still groups out there thinking of Western targets.”

There have been more than a dozen terrorist plots since 2010, according to a recent Crisis Group report. In March the counterterrorism police killed five men on Bali who analysts say had been radicalized in prison. Security officials say the men were planning a series of robberies to finance a future attack on the island. The police have stepped up security in recent days after receiving intelligence of a possible attack during commemorations of the 2002 Bali bombings on Friday.

FULL ARTICLE (The New York Times)

Photo: Casual Chin/Flickr

Indonesia Arrests 10 Suspected Militants | The Wall Street Journal 

By James Hookway 

JAKARTA—An Indonesian antiterrorist squad arrested 10 suspected Islamist militants and seized a stash of improvised bombs, police said Sunday, as worries grow over home-grown militants’ plans to strike local security forces and government officials.

The detentions underscore the way Indonesian militants have veered away from targeting Western tourists and embassies in recent years. Security analysts say they instead are now plotting lower-profile attacks on the country’s security forces and politicians, whom they accuse of preventing the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the world’s most-populated Muslim-majority nation.

FULL ARTICLE (The Wall Street Journal)

Photo: Luther Bailey/Flickr 

Indonesian Police’s Pot of Gold in Papua | Jakarta Globe 

By John McBeth 

It is time for the critics to forget about the Indonesian military’s businesses for a moment and look at the money-making ventures of the national police that assumed responsibility for Indonesia’s internal security over a decade ago.

During that time, the police have taken over many of the privileges and patronage systems which formerly earned the military some of its off-budget income but without earning any of the public trust the military still retains to a large degree.

FULL ARTICLE (Jakarta Globe)

Photo: MATEUS_27:24&25/Flickr

Incompetent terrorists test Indonesia’s luck | ABC News

By George Roberts

In the past two weeks, the efforts of some of the would-be bombers have literally blown up in their faces, with two terrorist bomb labs exploding.

Police have also made a number of raids on weapons stores.

This week, Muhammed Thorik handed himself into police after a few days on the run, deciding he missed his family too much.

FULL ARTICLE (ABC News)

Photo: multimediaimpre/Flickr

By Rushda Majeed

Civil unrest had earned Solo the dubious title of sumbu pendek — the city with a “short fuse.” In 1998 — as the effects of the Asian financial crisis deepened — crowds protesting rising oil prices, food shortages, and unemployment destroyed or damaged 330 businesses and 900 vehicles, most belonging to the ethnic Chinese minority. In 1999, violence flared again when supporters of the losing presidential candidate burned down Solo’s City Hall. An International Crisis Group report also traced roots of the militant Islamic organization Jemaah Islamiyah — a Southeast Asian group with links to al Qaeda — to Solo.

FULL ARTICLE (Foreign Policy)

Photo: Tian Yake/Flickr

Blast rocks Jakarta terrorist workshop | Australian Broadcasting Corporation

By George Roberts

An explosion at what police have dubbed a terrorist workshop has injured three people near the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Indonesian police have arrested five people in connection with the explosion, and it is understood the three injured are among the suspects.

FULL ARTICLE (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Photo: Men convicted of the 2002 Bali Bombings

Credit: publik16/Flickr

Uniting against rising extremist terrorism | The Jakarta Post

By Sumanto Al Qurtuby

After deadly attacks in Aceh, Medan (North Sumatra) and Cirebon (West Java), the terrorists recently targeted Surakarta, or Solo, in Central Java.

These latest attacks are indeed a worrying sign of rising Islamist terrorist activity not only on the main island of Java but also in other parts of the archipelago. 

It is significant to note that Indonesian terrorist groups, as the International Crisis Group (ICG) has reported, have built their institutional and personal networks not only in towns around Java but also in Maluku, Sulawesi and Sumatra.

Photo: 2002 Bali Bombing Memorial 

Credit: Jan van Schijndel/Flickr