Portrait of a bomber: nice, but he was easily led



This was published 11 years ago

Portrait of a bomber: nice, but he was easily led

By Tom Allard in Barung and West Java

DANI DWI PERMANA was a conscientious, basketball-loving young man, a solid student from a troubled family who, nonetheless, seemed to have a lifetime of promise to fulfil.

Yet weeks after graduating from high school and aged only 18, Dani walked into a meeting of executives at the JW Marriott hotel and detonated two bombs, killing himself and murdering five others, including the Australians Craig Senger, Garth McEvoy and Nathan Verity.

Friends, neighbours and worshippers at his mosque yesterday said Dani - almost universally described as ''very nice'' - was the unlikeliest of mass murderers, albeit someone who was easily persuaded.

And, like Indonesian police, they believe that an ustad, or cleric, at the As-Surur mosque - Saifuddin Jaelani - was responsible for persuading Dani to give his life and take others for the cause of violent jihad against the US and its allies.

''He was very nice, very polite. I can only think he was completely brainwashed,'' said Aida, who lived across the road from Dani in the Telaga Kahuripan housing complex, a once-prestigious gated community about an hour's drive south of Jakarta.

''When I was pregnant and I couldn't start my motorbike, he said 'hey, let me do it'. He walked it a kilometre [to the repair shop].''

Harno, a regular at the mosque, said Dani loved basketball. ''We would always talk about sport,'' he said.

Another elderly man at the mosque, who declined to be named, said: ''If we asked him to fetch us food, he would always do it. The other teens would only help if it was a special occasion, like a neighbourhood clean-up. But Dani was always very helpful. ''Maybe because Dani was so

helpful, it made it easier for him to be manipulated. It's true, he was easily persuaded.''


The son of a security guard at the complex, Dani lived in a small house with his brother Jaka and his father. His mother lived in Kalimantan after a messy divorce. Things got worse when his father was imprisoned about a year ago for robbery. It was then that Dani seems to have fallen under the spell of Saifuddin. ''Ustad Saifuddin usually spent time with the caretakers [young devotees] at the mosque. Usually they would gather here after evening prayer,'' said Harno. ''Sometimes he would go out with them camping. But that didn't seem to be suspicious because that is what an ustad should do.''

Even so, Dani had clearly become radicalised. According to a school friend, he talked openly of waging jihad, the Islamic notion of struggle that is typically a peaceful pursuit by the devout but is twisted by terrorist groups to justify mass murder.

''I ask him what he wanted to do [after graduation]. He said he wanted to go to do jihad,'' Yulianto, the friend, told TV One.

Aida said Saifuddin had not raised widespread concern at the time, even if he was known for his anti-US rhetoric. ''We now know that [Saifuddin] was trying to brainwash many young people here. He told these youngsters that American was bad.''

Saifuddin is believed to have groomed up to 10 men from the area. According to Indonesian counter-terrorism sources, Saifuddin is suspected to be one of Noordin Mohammed Top's most trusted talent spotters. Noordin is thought to have organised the Jakarta bombings on July 17. On the weekend Indonesian police believed they had killed him in a siege but were mistaken.

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