Yet *another* big victory for the USA in the War on Terror. Good work. Al Qaeda is being dismantled piece by piece. Thursday, August 14, 2003 The U.S. has captured Hambali, the alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombing in Indonesia, the White House announced Thursday. Hambali is also suspected of being the mastermind of the Aug. 5 bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, which killed 12 people. "His capture is another important victory in the global war on terrorism and a significant blow to the enemy," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan aboard Air Force One. The news came as an Indonesian judge announced a court will hand down a verdict for another alleged organizer of the Bali blast on Sept. 10. Imam Samudra, 33, a textiles merchant and computer expert, is charged with organizing the Oct. 12 attack, which killed 202 people. If found guilty, he faces the death penalty. Last week, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim became the first of more than 30 suspects in the case to be convicted. He was sentenced to be executed by firing squad and is now appealing his conviction. On Thursday, prosecutors urged judges at the Denpasar District Court to reject Samudra's repeated denials that he played a key role in the attack. "We ask the judge to give Imam Samudra the death sentence," prosecutor Nyoman Dila said, to which Samudra responded with shouts of "God is great." Presiding Judge I Wayan Sugawa said the court planned to announce its verdict on Sept. 10. Police say the 35 people arrested over the blasts were members of or had links with Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional terrorist network affiliated with Al Qaeda. Jemaah Islamiyah has also been blamed for the Aug. 5 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. On Thursday, the Media Indonesia newspaper said police have arrested nine people in connection with the Marriott bombing. However, national police spokesman Zainuri Lubis said he had no information on any arrests.
Just like the victims of last weeks bombing. And just like the victims of the next bombing will be. Please, several months ago the president, and several of his unquestioning backers on this board, kept telling us that Al Qaeda was on the run and that hte tide had turned. Yeah sure they are. They're on the run to blow some more people up.
As a democrat, I must admit that I am extremely disappointed. Is there a chance, even an outside chance, that his compatriots could bust into prison and free him? We can only pray that he gets off on a technicality.
Good news but I must have missed your response in the other "big victory" thread. I posted two articles there that pretty much put the lie to the 'victory' angle. Or are you kinda johnheathy that way? You know, all excited about the big victory stories but not too interested when they turn out to be invented, exaggerated or flat out lies.
This is good news for Americans abroad but even better news for Australians and Indonesians. They lost alot of people in the largest terrorist bombing since 9-11. This guy might not be Bin Laden but to the countries involved he's close. Not Bin Laden but even when we catch him there will be those in the minority, on the *far* left, complaining about the way we caught him. Or the way he will be displayed to those who don't believe it. Or complain his home was ransacked afterwards and his possessions were stolen. It will never end.
This is indeed good news. Hey bigtexxx, Are you trying to do a Dubya and imply Democrats support terrorism? Do you think only a Republican would try to capture this guy?. Or perhaps only the heroic Dubya, due to his military background, is up to the job? The FBI or CIA or other various and sundry organizations would have done this, with or without the realtively meaningless government reorganization called "Office of the Homeland Security". Of course, it is very arguable that if we weren't wasting our resources with the bogus Iraq war , we could have been more effective in hunting down these terrorist criminals and perhaps have accomplished this months ago.
I realize how significant this is in the war against terrorism, and it's good that they've captured this guy...But I've always wondered, how replaceable are these guys? I mean, is Al Qaeda now unable to replace him with someone just as capable? How does that work?
