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The Bali Confessions

As the accused bombers prepare for trial, and possibly the death penalty, Four Corners retraces the mission that killed at least 190 people, including 88 Australians, and shook Australia's sense of security.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR, REPORTER: The men accused of the Bali bombing are about to go on trial. The penalty they face is death. But for these smiling, waving soon-to-be martyrs, death is a price they're proud to pay.

MICK KEELTY, COMMISSIONER, AFP: There's no remorse, or appears to be no remorse. In terms of their body language and in terms of what they've been saying, it's as if the mission has been accomplished.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The accused men have admitted willingly to their crimes, re-enacting them with defiance for the Indonesian police.

Are they proud of what they've done?


SALLY NEIGHBOUR: What did they say about that?

GENERAL I MADE MANGKU PASTIKA: They have done their job as a Muslim.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Their confessions, obtained by Four Corners, are a chilling insight into their view of what they've done.

TRANSLATION OF CONFESSION: I thought that the aftermath of the bombing was horrifying. My efforts, which had been so small, had caused the deaths of so many people. But if those killed were not Muslims, but Americans and their allies, then I was grateful.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Tonight, the confessions of the accused Bali bombers reveal their trail, from the very first planning meetings...

TRANSLATION OF POLICEMAN: This is where the bombing was planned. Hernianto, Imam Samudra, Ali Imron, Amrozi. In this room, they held a meeting to plan the Bali bombing.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Can you tell us what happened?

TRANSLATION OF POLICEMAN: There was a meeting.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: the making and detonation of the bomb...

TRANSLATION OF POLICEMAN: Chlorate, black powder and TNT.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: ..and reveal why they wanted Australians to die. The trail that ends in Bali began in Singapore 12 months before, when an operative chosen by Osama bin Laden flew in to help escalate the Islamic holy war in South-East Asia. The operative was Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, a Canadian born in Kuwait and trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

DR ROHAN GUNARATNA, AUTHOR, 'INSIDE AL QAEDA': Mohammed Mansour Jabarah was dispatched by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the head of the military committee of al-Qaeda, who is also the mastermind of the 9/11 operation. And Mohammed Mansour Jabarah was specifically designated for this operation at the request of Osama bin Laden, who Mohammed Mansour Jabarah met five times in Afghanistan.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Intelligence reports based on his later arrest and interrogation say Jabarah was part of a "strategy of shifting the base "for bin Laden's terrorist operations to South-East Asia".

MAN ON VIDEOTAPE: US military personnel will be drop the place. And you will walk towards them at the station.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Jabarah's first task was to plan a series of truck bomb attacks in Singapore against Western embassies, including the Australian High Commission.

MAN ON VIDEOTAPE: There's the entrance of a temple with many vehicles parked there. So you will not be, uh...suspicious if you have a motorcycle or a bicycle there.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Jabarah's controller was the Indonesian known as Hambali, the al-Qaeda-trained chief of operations for the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah or JI.

WONG KAN SENG, HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER, SINGAPORE: Hambali, from the letters we have, he actually introduced members of the Jemaah Islamiah to the al-Qaeda, to people in Afghanistan for training purposes and for all kinds of assistance.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Hambali was already wanted over bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines in December 2000 in which 40 people had died.

MAN ON VIDEOTAPE: You notice that some of the boxes that are placed on the motorcycles, these are the same type of boxes which we intend to use.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The Singapore plot was Hambali's most ambitious to date. But after months of preparations, it was foiled when the authorities busted the local JI cell.

WONG KAN SENG: The first group was arrested on 8 or 9 December. And, uh...following that, before the Christmas period, the remaining groups were arrested. And altogether, 15 were arrested.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Some of the key planners got away, fleeing across the causeway from Singapore to Johor in southern Malaysia, where they quickly regrouped. Four days after the arrests, they held a meeting here, led by Hambali. According to the account of one of those present, Hambali was furious at the arrests and bent on hitting back. Hambali then fled north across the border from Malaysia into Thailand where he met up again with Jabarah to plan their revenge.

PROFESSOR ZACHARY ABUZA, SIMMONS COLLEGE, USA: I did a lot of interviewing in the summer of 2002 in the...around Solo and...and Jogja and have met with JI members. And they were very clearly upset about the arrests. And when I asked them about Hambali and his attitudes, they...they said to me that it was...Hambali was very angry at the arrests, about his fellow Muslims being prosecuted and...and arrested.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Jabarah too was later arrested over the Singapore plot. He told his interrogators that Hambali planned to retaliate with "bombings in bars, cafes or nightclubs frequented by westerners".

GENERAL I MADE MANGKU PASTIKA: Yes, he said that... that they decided change from the hard target to the soft target because it can make a greater impact to the public, especially to America. And they decided also that the operation must go on.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The operation which would lead to South-East Asia's worst terrorist attack would be mounted from a most unlikely place, this tiny village in central Java, Indonesia. Tenggulun is the home town of the three now-infamous brothers charged over Bali. It was here that the plot unravelled with the arrest of the first brother Amrozi in his family home where he lived with his mother and ailing father.

TRANSLATION OF AMROZI'S MOTHER: It was about this time, after the midday prayer, about 1:00 in the afternoon. These people rushed in. I asked, "What's going on?" He said, "It's a raid. I'm looking for photos of Amrozi and his passport." He just kept shouting at me. Then lots of people came in. They put a picture of me on the TV.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Amrozi and his brothers Muklas and Ali Imron grew up in a strict Islamic family. Their extreme anti-Western views were not unusual, according to their older brother Chozin.

TRANSLATION OF CHOZIN, BROTHER OF MUKLAS AND AMROZI: Muklas and Amrozi are just normal people. When they're with me, they just act normally. There's nothing in their behaviour that's at all strange, as far as I can see.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The brothers ran a small but fanatical religious school in the village. The goings-on at the school were a source of hostility and suspicion to some in their community, including Maskun, the village leader.

TRANSLATION OF MASKUN, VILLAGE LEADER: Long before the bombing, about five years ago, I was already very suspicious because the people at that school weren't like people at other Islamic schools. Their education included military training, rifle drills and war games. I wondered where all this would lead but my accusations and suspicions over the past 10 years were apparently not heeded.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The school teaches its young students that Westerners are infidels who deny the law of God, in the words of its headmaster Zakaria.

TRANSLATION OF ZAKARIA, HEADMASTER OF AL ISLAM SCHOOL: Indonesian culture protects women's honour, but with the arrival of the infidels, women become more open, freer - free life, free sex, free, free. That's what I mean from a religious viewpoint. But according to people who have no religion, it's alright and people who do that are wrong.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: So do you believe those people in Bali deserved to die because of their lifestyle?

TRANSLATION OF ZAKARIA: They were infidels who had never received any information about Islam.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: According to the school's founder Chozin, the killing of infidels can be viewed as not terrorism, but holy war.

TRANSLATION OF CHOZIN: I don't understand what terrorism is. I personally don't understand.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Well, the killing of innocent people for political reasons.

TRANSLATION OF CHOZIN: That's their interpretation. I can't judge whether they're right or wrong. The ones who know that are the ones that carried it out.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The leader of the brothers was the oldest of the three who goes by the alias Muklas. A veteran of the Afghan holy war where he'd met Osama bin Laden, Muklas was head of the Islamic Military Academy of JI. Muklas ran a much larger and more militant religious school in the Malaysian state of Johor. This school, now abandoned, doubled as a training camp for JI recruits. The neighbours, who are also Muslims, were unnerved by the school's hard line.

TRANSLATION OF NEIGHBOUR: You could call them fanatics. It wasn't simple Islam. I don't like that sort of thing.

WONG KAN SENG: Well, they decided to have military training or operational training, I believe, in 1998, because they want to carry out some of these terrorist activities. And the groups of Jemaah Islamiah members which we have in Singapore, as well as those in Malaysia, have been to the school for training. It is not a camp with fence around it. It's just a school or a building or a compound where the people gather. And the training is conducted in the jungles and in other places which are remote and which would not be discovered by the general public.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: And what sort of military training went on as far as you know?

WONG KAN SENG: Well, they learn how to do reconnaissance, for example, they learn how to avoid detection, for example, and they learn how to shoot, how to fire weapons, how to make bombs.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The school Muklas ran became a major meeting place for JI leaders and operatives, among them Hambali. In 2001, Muklas joined the leadership himself, when he was chosen to replace Hambali as chief of operations for JI - a fact he revealed in his confession.

TRANSLATION OF MUKLAS'S CONFESSION: I was told I had been appointed to replace Hambali, because he was wanted by the Indonesian Government. As Hambali's replacement, my job was to plan how the jihad struggle could go on.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: In February last year, a crucial meeting was held in Bangkok. It was a gathering of top JI leaders, called by Hambali, to discuss the new strategy of hitting soft targets like nightclubs and bars.

TIM MORRIS, DIRECTOR COUNTER TERRORISM, AFP: It certainly was a strategy meeting to decide what JI would do in the future in the region, and, uh...perhaps looking at future targets and how they might attack those targets.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Along with Muklas and Hambali, the meeting was attended by another four JI leaders, all of them Malaysians linked with the school in Johor, and all of them on the run. Chief among them was Dr Azahari Husin - said to be the top bomb expert of JI. Dr Azahari is an engineer who studied in Britain and taught at the University of Technology in Johor.

DR ROHAN GUNARATNA: Dr Azahari is a very important technical expert of Jemaah Islamiah. He has a PhD from Reading University in statistics and he is one of the experts in making, uh...very important component of explosive devices and other material that has been used by JI in the past to conduct terrorist attacks.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Dr Azahari's role was revealed when the police found a series of JI documents, including the bomb-making manual used in Bali.

GENERAL I MADE MANGKU PASTIKA: When we read the documents of how to make bombs, how to make poisons and everything, the language they use half in Malaysian and half in Bahasa Indonesia, and that we believe that that manual, that book, was created by Dr Azahari.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The others at the Bangkok meeting were Noor Din Top, an administrator of JI, Zulkepli Marzuki, a financier and aide to Hambali, and Wan Min Wan Mat, described as JI's treasurer. It was at this meeting that Muklas was given the task of implementing the next attack.

GENERAL I MADE MANGKU PASTIKA: Yes, at that place the assignment come to Muklas instead of Hambali. So, Muklas was the JI leader who in charge, actually, of the Bali bombing.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The money for the bombing, a total of US$30,500, was provided by Hambali and paid in three instalments by Wan Min to Muklas between March and September last year. Muklas said the first instalment was paid at a bus terminal in southern Thailand in March. The next two payments would be made by intermediaries in Muklas's home village of Tenggulun in Indonesia. In April, Muklas returned to Tenggulun, where he set about planning the attack. He met his brother Amrozi at their family home. It was here, he says, they decided to target Bali. The idea came from another JI veteran, Samudra, who'd been recruited as field commander for the bombing.

TRANSLATION OF SAMUDRA'S CONFESSION: We talked about our obligations as Muslims toward fellow Muslims who are being oppressed and slaughtered by the American terrorists and their allies - England, France, Australia, and so on.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Samudra was an engineer and computer expert who'd attended Muklas's school in Johor and gone on to run his own military training camp. He was a key suspect in the 2000 church bombings. In his confession, Samudra lists 13 reasons for choosing Bali. Two of the first three mention Australia.

TRANSLATION OF SAMUDRA'S CONFESSION: One - to oppose the barbarity of the US army of the Cross and its allies - England, Australia, and so on. Two - to take revenge for the 200,000 men, women, and children and babies who died without sin when thousands of tonnes of bombs were dropped in Afghanistan. Three, Australia had taken part in efforts to separate East Timor from Indonesia, which was an international conspiracy by followers of the Cross.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Australia had first been picked out as a target by Osama bin Laden the year before when he attacked Australia's role in East Timor.

TRANSLATION OF OSAMA BIN LADEN: The crusader Australian forces were on Indonesian shores and they landed on East Timor, which is part of the Islamic world.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Regional police and intelligence reports show that JI had Australia well in its sights. Last June, Indonesian police reported "their recent finding on the existence of Mantiqe IV" - the JI regional cell "which covers Irian Jaya and Australia." A new Indonesian police report says Muklas has identified Mantiqe IV's leader as Abdul Rahim - an Indonesian-born Australian, who lived in Sydney then Perth. Rahim's home in Perth was raided by ASIO and the Federal Police in October. By then he was back in Indonesia. To Muklas and his cohorts, JI's interest in Australia made Bali an obvious target.

TRANSLATION OF MUKLAS'S CONFESSION: We planned the explosion in Bali because there are many places in Bali that are visited by tourists from these countries, such as the United States, England, France, Australia, Israel, and other countries who behave despotically towards Muslims.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: As preparations began, the key planning for the bombing shifted to the city of Solo in central Java. Solo is the home of Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of JI. Bashir's Islamic school is where Muklas and many other young extremists first learned to wage jihad against the west.

TRANSLATION OF SERMON: Between you and us there will forever be a ravine of hate and we will be enemies until you follow Allah's law.

MAN: The police will break up the house and raid it... this house and this only, like, factory.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The Indonesian police say Solo is the headquarters of JI. This former safe house was where the bomb manual was found.

MAN: And the police went...raided this house. They found document in the second floor and then found some manual books for war, poison, you know, things like that.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Police now say five of the Bali suspects name Bashir as having known of and endorsed the plan to bomb Bali. After the Bangkok meeting, the bomb-master Dr Azahari travelled to Solo. He met up here with Muklas. It was after this that Muklas's brother Amrozi received an SMS text message on his mobile phone.

GENERAL I MADE MANGKU PASTIKA: It's about on July 2002. Before the first meeting, yeah.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: That Amrozi got this SMS from Samudra. And what was the message?

GENERAL I MADE MANGKU PASTIKA: Yes, the message said that they will have an operation and they should meet in Solo.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: They met in Solo in mid-August in a secret room of this house. It was the first and last time the core group for the bombing would assemble in one place.

TRANSLATION OF POLICEMAN: Hernianto, Imam Samudra, Ali Imron, Amrozi. In this room, they held a meeting to plan the Bali bombing. Can you tell us what happened? There was a meeting.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: It was here that the key tasks were divided up among the group, which included two crucial new players. One of them, Idris, was put in charge of logistics like transport, accommodation and phones. The other, Dul Matin, an electronics expert and student of Dr Azahari, was given the job of building the bomb. From now on, the core cell would meet only in groups of three or four, often while driving around in Amrozi's car. Once they met outside this petrol station to discuss their plans, including the purchase of the chemicals described in the bomb manual.

TRANSLATION OF AMROZI'S CONFESSION: I was given the job of finding the chemicals - chlorate, aluminium powder and sulfur - and of buying a car, any type of car but, if possible, try to get a car with Bali number plates.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: After meeting to discuss the bombing, the group would go to the mosque to pray. Samudra ran the operation from this house he rented in Solo. For 3 months the neighbours watched him come and go.

TRANSLATION OF NEIGHBOUR: Sometimes he'd go out in the afternoon and not come home until the following morning. He'd get home at 5:30 in the morning and go straight inside and then he wouldn't come out. I'd ask the kids where he'd been and why he'd stayed out all night. "I don't know, Aunty," they'd say.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: From here, Samudra recruited a separate cell, of five young foot soldiers, prepared to die for the cause.

TRANSLATION OF NEIGHBOUR: There were five people staying here. They were here for about a week. They said they were uni students but I don't know.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Samudra's meetings with the young men recruited as potential suicide bombers were later re-enacted for the cameras of the Indonesian police. Samudra told how this cell of would-be martyrs was kept separate from the core cell working on the bombing.

TRANSLATION OF SAMUDRA'S CONFESSION: I asked them, "Brothers, are you or are you not capable of going on a jihad on behalf of Muslims, even if it means a suicide bombing?" I noted that they shouldn't do it if they felt pressured, or to be seen as courageous, or to be popular, or for any other bad reasons. They should do it only for Allah.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: In late September, the chlorate and other chemicals bought by Amrozi were packed up in cigarette boxes and taken in batches to the main bus depot in Surabaya. From there, they were sent off in four separate loads to Denpasar, Bali. The young suicide bombers were also sent by bus. Samudra would follow them shortly after, the first of the main group to head to Bali. Amrozi and the others stayed behind to await further orders.

TRANSLATION OF AMROZI'S CONFESSION: On the afternoon of 3 October 2002 I received an SMS from Samudra, which said that the chemicals had arrived in Bali. He also asked me to send "Whitey", meaning the L300 car, as quickly as possible to "the place" - meaning Bali. So I got ready to leave.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Amrozi and the others then assembled at the bus station and set off on the drive to Bali. Amrozi says he and Idris travelled in a Suzuki, while his brother Ali Imron drove the Mitsubishi L300 that Amrozi had bought to be the bomb car. He was accompanied by the bomb maker, Dul Matin. On 5 October, they arrived in Bali. They checked into the Hotel Harum in Denpasar. Here, the core cell held a final meeting, led by Samudra, then dispersed.

So which part of the guesthouse did the terrorists use?

MAN: The third floor.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The third floor. And when did they come here and how much space did they rent?

MAN: Uh, 30 September and one rooms. Yeah, one room. They rent for one rooms.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: And how long were they here for?

MAN: For...only for one month.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: So they were here for a whole month?

MAN: For a whole month.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: And who actually rented the place?

MAN: Jhoni Hendrawan.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: That is the alias used by the man known as Idris?

MAN: Next time, I know that he is Idris.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The members of the two cells stayed in rented rooms all around Denpasar. They moved constantly and kept apart, as each carried out his allocated tasks.

So it was this room here?

MAN: Yes. This room.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: The boxes of chlorate and TNT were stored here, in a room rented by Idris.

MAN: Rent for one room. And my wife ask him, and he says he works at the cargo forward expedition.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Forwarding cargo, exporting.

TRANSLATION OF LANDLADY: This is the house where Imman Samudra was staying.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Samudra stayed at this guesthouse, communicating with the others mainly by email and SMS. His choice of email provider was the US-based lovemail. The nightclub district of Kuta Beach was kept under surveillance for three weeks. Two nights before the night of the bombing, the controller Muklas was taken to view the targets - the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar.

TRANSLATION OF SAMUDRA'S CONFESSION: When we got to Jalan Legian, we sat in the car in front of the Sari Club. I saw lots of whiteys dancing, and lots of whiteys drinking there. That place - Kuta, and especially Paddy's Bar and the Sari Club - was a meeting place for US terrorists and their allies, who the whole world knows to be the monsters.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: By now Samudra had selected a willing suicide bomber from his group of five would-be martyrs. The chosen man, Iqbal, was instructed to make a will and briefed on how he would die.

TRANSLATION OF SAMUDRA'S CONFESSION: I told him to carry a backpack or rucksack filled with one kilo of TNT, and put a switch into the TNT. Only after he had entered the target area was he to press the button.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: On the afternoon of Saturday October 12, the L300 was driven to this house in Denpasar. It had been rented by Samudra, who'd paid a year's rent - 10 million rupiah - up front. The chemicals were delivered here too. It was here that the bomb was assembled.

TRANSLATION OF COLONEL ZAINURI LUBIS, INDONESIAN POLICE: They brought the chemicals that they had bought back here. When they got them here, they put them into filing cabinets - 12 in all. They put the three ingredients together and there was a connecting cable and a detonator. Dul Matin knows about that. He is the one who made the detonator, helped by Ali Imron. When everything was ready, the car came here. I don't know exactly when. They loaded them on gradually and then took the car to the scene of the crime.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Police believe the bomb was made to the exact specifications set out in Dr Azahari's manual, and that Azahari himself instructed Dul Matin on making the bomb.

TIM MORRIS: The manual provided the details of purchasing a van, of removing the back seat so the chlorates could be packed in. The detonators and detonator cord were to be placed in quite specific positions, that it would require a small booster charge of, say, TNT to actually trigger the explosion and so on.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: At 11:00 that night the bomb car was driven to Kuta and parked outside the Sari Club. Two men, one of them Iqbal, got out of the car and walked toward the two bars. At exactly 11:08:29, the phone number that would set off the mobile phone attached to the car bomb was called.

AUSTRALIAN MAN: Pretty bad s---, man!

MAN 2: That's f----d. What the hell happened?

MAN 1: This f------ big bomb blew out the Sari Club, blew out this place.

MAN 2: What was it? Do they know?

MAN 1: A big bomb.

MAN 2: It was a bomb?

MAN 1: Yes.

MAN 2: F--- me.

TIM MORRIS: The blast that occurred outside the Sari Club was of such dimension that it was picked up on Indonesian seismological testing. It was a bomb designed to create intense heat and maximum casualties. Unfortunately, the construction of the Sari Club ensured that severe casualties did happen. The besser brick walls surrounding the club and the wood-thatched construction of huts and bars in that open area ensured that the casualties were going to be massive.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: After the explosion, the bombers rejoiced. Some of them went to pray. The results of their work had been more successful than any of them had hoped.

TRANSLATION OF MUKLAS'S CONFESSION: Firstly, I was shocked, because the explosion was extremely intense, beyond expectations. I had estimated that only the Sari Club and Paddy's would be destroyed. Secondly, I felt grateful, because in my opinion the planned mission and objectives had been achieved, because there were many casualties from amongst American allies, including Australian citizens. Thirdly, I sought Allah's forgiveness because apparently there had been some Muslim casualties.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Police now believe there were two suicide bombers who died in the blasts. The body of Iqbal was found near the Sari Club. It's thought he was there to detonate the car bomb manually if the phone detonation failed. The body of the second suicide bomber was found in Paddy's Bar. He's believed to have carried the backpack full of TNT, which was set off just before the car bomb.

MEDIC: I really need an answer on these guys 'cause they're about to go out the door and if there's no room for them they're wasting their time.

MAN: I've spent most of the day looking through the morgue trying to find people. I've identified five of my mates and one of the girls they were talking to.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: As the toll of casualties mounted in the wake of the bombing, the field commander Samudra stayed on in Bali for two days to witness the aftermath of his work.

TRANSLATION OF SAMUDRA'S CONFESSION: I felt that I feared only Allah, and that my efforts - which had been so small - had caused the deaths of so many people. But if those killed were not Muslims but Americans and their allies, then I was grateful.

POLICEMAN: So this is one of the policemen going up to Paddy's Bar where we find a lady still alive in the bathroom.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Despite their meticulous planning and timing, the bombers left clues in the wreckage. These were found one by one in the painstaking investigation that followed. The wreck of the bomb car, found on top of a nearby building, yielded a registration number which was traced back to Amrozi. When the police searched his home they found a receipt for the chemicals. Presented with the evidence, Amrozi confessed.

MICK KEELTY: The Indonesian police have done an outstanding job and it has been hugely successful. If you think back to when Amrozi was first arrested, within weeks of the bombing, and then the progressive arrests that have occurred since that time, it has been very successful, um, and I don't think that there has been such an immediate success in one of these more complex cases anywhere else in the world.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Muklas, Samudra and Amrozi will go to trial in Indonesia in the next few weeks. The crimes they're accused of carry the death penalty. But these men clearly have no fear of death.

MICK KEELTY: If you think about the motivation and the end, er, gain for some of these terrorists, I mean, by prosecuting them and giving them the death penalty might actually be serving them up exactly what they need to be martyrs.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: So what is Muklas's attitude now that he is facing trial and facing the death penalty?

DRS SUYANTO S.H., LAWYER FOR MUKLAS: "If I get the death penalty, it's OK." There are three things he always says - three reasons he feels lucky, no matter what. He's lucky every time, he said. First, he says, "If I get a short sentence, that won't be a problem. I'll be comfortable here, guarded by police, getting fed. The police will attend to my needs. If I get a long sentence I'll still be lucky, because other people will look after my family. I won't have to feed my family. If I get a death sentence, I'll get to see Allah soon, which means I'm still lucky."

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Some of the key players in Bali are still at large - among them, the organiser, Idris, and Dul Matin, who built the bomb. Even more alarming are some of the masterminds who remain on the run. The architect of the bombing, Hambali, the author of the bomb manual, Dr Azahari, and another two of the JI leaders who took part in the very first planning meeting in Bangkok. For as long as they are out there, there remains a likelihood of more attacks.

MICK KEELTY: If you look at the experience in the United Kingdom with the IRA where there was obviously gaps between certain bombings - 'periods of preparation', as the UK call it - where they sit back and plan the next target, clearly we are possibly in that position now.

GENERAL I MADE MANGKU PASTIKA: Of course we are very concerned, so that's why we have...we have to continue all this investigation even though we can solve the Bali bombing already, but we believe that these people are still going around and they will make an attempt to make another target.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: Another target?

GENERAL I MADE MANGKU PASTIKA: Yeah, yeah. So, of course we are very concerned of this.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: It's now known the bombers already had plans for another similar attack, just as devastating as the one in Bali. It's also known that there are other JI cells still in place, ready to be activated to carry out such plans.

DR ROHAN GUNARATNA It is difficult to assess, but there are at least 300 to 400 JI members who are trained, who can conduct terrorist operations, who are functioning in Indonesia at this point of time.

GENERAL I MADE MANGKU PASTIKA: For the time being, maybe they will sleep or hide, but not in the long run, so we have to fight against them.

SALLY NEIGHBOUR: So you think there are sleeper cells still out there?


SALLY NEIGHBOUR: After the bombing and before he was arrested, Samudra set up a website to explain the attack to Muslims. On behalf of what he called the International Suicide Battalion, Samudra proudly claimed credit for the bombing and issued this chilling warning to the US, Australia and others in the so-called 'army of the cross'.

TRANSLATION: "For all you Christian infidels, if you say that this killing was barbaric and cruel, and happened to innocent civilians from your countries, then you should know that you do crueller things than that. Do you think that 600,000 babies in Iraq, and half a million Afghan children and their mothers are soldiers and sinful people who should have to endure the thousands of tonnes of your bombs? As long as you regard our brothers and sisters as terrorists and torture them in your prisons, there will continue to be casualties from your countries, wherever they may be."

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