An overview of the Abu Bakar Bashir trial follies, which we have covered here from the beginning. From the Toronto Star, with thanks to Witness:
In this nation, too, official and populist indifference greeted early American warnings of homegrown terrorism. That didn't change until after the bombings in Bali (2002) and two in Jakarta (at the Marriott Hotel in 2003 and the Australian embassy in 2004).Shocked mainstream Muslim groups condemned the violence. The government arrested dozens belonging to an Al Qaeda-related terror network. Several were sentenced to long jail terms and three to death.
The verdicts were widely welcomed.
But the most high-profile, terrorism-related case has floundered - twice - in the courts.
Abu Bakar Bashir, a cleric, was recently cleared of seven charges and convicted only on one. He was sentenced to 30 months, of which he has already served 10.
America and Australia were outraged. So were many Indonesians - for the exact opposite belief that he was being scapegoated, having been cleared of similar charges two years ago.
The case shows the political and cultural clash at the heart of George W. Bush's war on terror.
Bashir embodies what the West abhors but many Muslims instinctively like: a soft-spoken kaffiyeh-wearing bearded Islamic cleric who berates America but praises Osama bin Laden, not for terrorism but for voicing Muslim grievances.
Bashir was once a marginal figure. Now he's a martyr. Even moderate Muslim leaders speak up for him.
And human rights activists note that while Bush has ignored the rule of law in dealing with terrorism suspects, Indonesia has let the law take its course - and is getting attacked for it by the Bush administration.
For decades, Bashir had campaigned in obscurity for Islamic rule. That was "treason" under the authoritarian secular rule of Gen. Suharto.
Jailed in 1978, Bashir was sentenced in 1982 to nine years, later reduced on appeal to four.
He moved to Malaysia.
There he was said to have established Jemaah Islamiyah and worked with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines and Laskar Jihad in Indonesia, which recruited hundreds from his former religious school.
He returned home in 1998 at the dawn of democracy here. In 2002 he was
charged in connection with the Bali bombing and also several attacks on Christian churches.But the prosecution's witnesses did not materialize. Only one linked him to terrorism.
Other evidence came from an Arab arrested here but whisked off to a secret location by the Central Intelligence Agency, which refused to provide access to him, let alone have him return as a witness.
In September 2003, a panel of five judges found Bashir not guilty, except on the recycled charge of treason and on a minor immigration infraction. It sentenced him to four years.
He appealed. The supreme court cut his term to 18 months. No sooner was he released last year than he was jailed, under what was widely seen as American pressure.
Tom Ridge, then U.S. secretary of homeland security, said Bashir had "intense and deep" involvement with terrorism and should be "brought to justice in a different way."
Jakarta obliged, charging him under its more sweeping Anti-Terrorism Act.
It was this new trial, presided over by yet another five-judge panel, that ended last month in his acquittal, including the added charge of involvement in the Marriott Hotel bombing.
He was convicted on one count of failing to prevent the Bali
bombing....
"He returned home in 1998 at the dawn of democracy here."
He returned to Indonesia when it became ripe for the plucking.
Meanwhile whilst in Malaysia, he had agreed to give carte blance to Hambali and Al Qaida for the financing and terror training of his numerous disciples, that Hambali needed as foot soldiers.
The rest is history.
Is democracy an invitation to Islamic terrorists ?
Suharto must be turning in his grave.
He would have had Bashir shot without trial.
And who can deny that this makes some sense?
ONe wonders what Paul Wolfowitz learned -- or failed to learn from his pleasing pleasers of Indonesians eager to please the American ambassador, and show-and-tell him what they wanted him to see and hear -- about Islam. Not much, I'll bet. Wonder if he had time while in Jakarta to read the works of C. Snouck Hurgronje.
Or did he learn about Islam from an Arab divorcee, Ahmad Chalabi and other Iraqis who are practically Western men in demeanor and habits of thought and in presentation of self, or from an acolyte of Bernard Lewis, or from such typical and representative Muslims, well-versed in how, in Muslim societies, Islam pervades everything, as Zalmay Khalilzad, Fouad Ajami, Mrs. Nafisi, et al.? Not to mention his sister, who lives in Israel and, therefore, no doubt is one of his most trusted advisers on the Rightness of the Two-State "Solution" -- she's been studying her Islam, and especially her Antoine Fattal and Majid Khadduri (just ask her about al-Hudaibiyya -- go ahead) for years.
Thank god we have such well-informed people at the top. You know: Tough-minded. Neocons. Not taken in by anything. That sort.
With 'allies' like this in the 'War on Terrorism', whose criminal negligence our papers should be warning as the roots of future Bin Ladens, we are left with our governments to provide some defense against the threats of maniacs like Abu B. B..
What do Western governments do about it?
Deny trade? Boycott their goods? Throw out ambassadors? Deport their guest students and scientists and business people?
Nah... just whimper like kicked puppies until a U.S. city goes WHOOMPH! ...
The only question is: NYC, DC, LA or maybe Dallas?
Then we'll be ready to get serious!
Boy, we will be royally pissed!
We'll really get pro-active! (If not radio- )
Man, will we do something!
Right... brilliant...
Like waiting for a crocodile to kill not just one but TWO of your children before you catch it, kill it, and skin it.
I hear the reptiles chuckling, from Jakarta to The Casbah.
OT
Speaking of reptiles, why were the mullahs from Iran allowed into Italy to soil the funeral of a man who was anti-tyranny to the core?
They should have been driven out of the airspace over Rome before landing, and escorted back to their self-made Tehran hellhole by Italian F-16's.
Don't worry about Indonesia all you in the USA! Australia will be the sacrificial lamb here when push comes to shove. I have a mate who served in the Malayian conflict back in the 60's, with the Australian special forces. He has seen maps that show Australia as part of one big Muslim state.
And with our Aussie Johnny Howard furthering the cause of (indiscriminate)Multiculturalism, creating free trade deals with Islamic Malaysia, giving billions of our tax dollars to both Malaysia and Indonesia (supposivedly for Tsumini releif, but the Indo's are still buying their top of the line war planes off Russia that leave our USA built ones for dead), it's only a matter of time before Australia is an Islamic State. Only this week the Muslims were calling for Sharia Law in Western Australia. The USA is quickly loosing a real ally in Australia, thanks to indiscriminate immigration and a low Aussie birth rate.
thirdtimelucky
Indonesia was rocked with another major Quake and you'd think by now God was trying to get their attention.
Islam strikes at the soft underbelly of democracy, waiting patiently until the fruit is ripe for the picking.
Would there hsve meen a Madrid bombimg under Franco, A bali bombing under sukarno, a Beslan massacre of children under Stalin? Would Mussolini have accepted the ravages of young Muslim on Italy's historic buildings?
Would Britain be under constant threat of islamic bombings under Winston Churchill?
Liberalism and human right are the oxygens that feeds Islamic expansion.
Only secular totalitirian repressive regimes have managed to contain its advances.
In the same way that democracy can only be brought about by popular revolt from THE INSIDE and not imposed on countries that are not ready to embrace it. Islam can only be reformed from the Inside.
Would one attempt to democratise the Sudan or Somalia?
And our enemies are indeed those who prevent at any cost, the reforms propose by brave Muslims
who are presented as apostates by them.