Nivell Rayda

Experts Say Online Claims For Jakarta Bombings Could Be Scam

Security and terrorism analysts warned on Thursday that a statement on a Web site claiming responsibility for the recent suicide bombings in Jakarta on behalf of Malaysian terrorist Noordin M Top could be a ploy to derail the police investigation.

The statement, which was written in both Arabic and Indonesian, named Abu Muawwidz Nur Din bin Muhammad Top as the emir, or leader, of Tandzim Al Qo’idah Indonesia, which it said was behind the July 17 suicide bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

The statement said the bombings were part of a jihad and targeted a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Marriott. The Ritz was targeted, according to the statement, because the group did not want English football team Manchester United to come to the country.

The team was scheduled to stay at the hotel during its July 18-21 visit to Jakarta as part of a preseason Asian tour.

“The statement is not typical Noordin,” said the internationally renowned terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail.

“Jemaah Islamiyah has been known to give statements after an attack when Imam Samudera was involved. Noordin may have told another person to write the statement to distract the police investigation,” he said.

Samudera was executed last November along with Ali Gufron and Amrozi for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings.

“Noordin is more known for giving prior warnings,” Ismail said. “Even so, the pattern changes from time to time.”

Ismail also noted some inconsistencies in the statement, most notably the many typos and the fact that the group gave an incorrect date. He also doubted claims that the chamber of commerce’s meeting and the football team’s visit were the reasons behind the attacks.

“If they wanted to target Manchester United, why not wait until the team arrived,” Ismail said.

Ken Conboy, who has written about JI, said “there is nothing in [the statement on the Web site] that suggests that it was indeed Noordin M Top. Whoever wrote the Web site must have the same mind-set as the terrorists.”

Based on the blog, the statement was issued just one day after the attacks. The Web site had received a total of 20,000 hits as of late Thursday.

National Police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said the police were attempting to track down the blog author, who used a free and popular platform, Blogspot.

Nanan said the police’s cybercrime unit would attempt to contact the Jakarta office of US-based Google, owner of Blogspot, to trace the account.

Internet expert Aditya Fajar said that Google’s role in determining the author of the blog would be indispensable.

“An author can choose his privacy setting, so any personal information is confidential,” he said. “At the request of the police, Google can open its database to see the author’s e-mail address, time of last access, activities linked to the Internet Protocol address and passwords.”

He said an IP address was a numerical identification that was assigned to a specific computer, which could be used to determine the last access location.

“Unless the author is using an Internet cafe or a public computer,” Aditya said. “But even then, they can at least narrow down the author’s location.”

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