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SENIOR MINISTER: U.S. Allows Indonesia to Question al-Qaeda Suspect
Tuesday, October 1, 2002
The Jakarta Post

Omar al-Faruq had admitted:

* to planning to kill Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri
* that he was the brains behind the Christmas 2000 bombings of churches in nine Indonesian cities
* he planned to bomb US embassies in Jakarta and elsewhere in the region
* links with Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant organisation
* links with Agus Dwikarna, an Indonesian Muslim activist



JAKARTA -- JP
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said here on Monday that Jakarta has obtained approval from the United States for a joint questioning of an alleged senior al-Qaeda operative arrested in Indonesia but now detained in Afghanistan.

"Politically, we would like to say that Indonesia's interest in the questioning of Omar al-Faruq is very crucial and the US government has agreed with this request," Yudhoyono told reporters as quoted by AFP.

Yudhoyono gave no details of the composition of the interrogation team or their itinerary. However, he asserted that questioning al-Faruq would "help us in making sure whether al-Faruq's statement (to US officials) was true, half-true or even modified."

Time magazine reported in its issue dated Sept. 23 that al-Faruq, 31, had admitted to being al-Qaeda's senior representative in the region.
(More: TheJakartaPost.com News Source)
2002 © The Jakarta Post.

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