| Why Singapore?
Singapore is of strategic importance
to the South China sea region because of its proximity and because it has
important financial and deep harbor facilities. Singaporte authorities
have broken an al Qaeda plot targeting the U.S. Navy presence there as the
direct result of intelligence gathered in Afghanistan. The plot included
plans to attack U.S. Navy ships, sailors and the nightspots they frequent.
The 17,000 Americans living in Singapore and other expatriates were also
among the targets.
This is the first acknowledged instance
of the operation in Afghanistan leading to the breakup of a terrorist plot
in another country. U.S. officials say they believe that some of those arrested,
as well as additional suspects, had access to large amounts of stored explosives;
bomb-making information; photographs of key sites used by the United States;
and fake travel documents. Authorities in Singapore said they arrested 15
suspected terrorists in December. On January 6, 13 of those suspects were
ordered detained for two years under the country's Internal Security
Act.
Authorities said all 13 belong to
Jemaah Islamiya, a clandestine organization that has cells in Singapore,
Malaysia and Indonesia. Eight of them had gone to al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan
for training that included use of AK-47s and mortars and study of military
tactics, they said, and the group's leader in Singapore, Ibrahim Maidin,
underwent military training in Afghanistan in 1993.
Maidin, 51, managed a condominium
and taught religion classes, where he recruited J.I. members, who maintained
tight operational security, using code words and code names in their
communications, investigators said in a statement released Friday.
Details of the arrests had been
closely held. Now that the Singapore government has begun releasing details,
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other military officials are expected
to acknowledge the matter officially.
Sources indicate the situation remains
sensitive: U.S. officials say the ring was broken up because of intelligence
the U.S. military gained inside Afghanistan while searching al-Qaeda hideouts.
Singapore says it had a handle on the problem from the beginning -- without
U.S. assistance.
Authorities said three cells were
involved in planning attacks: One was to target a shuttle bus service used
by U.S. personnel in Singapore, and Singapore official said a videotape made
by its leader, Mohamed Khalim bin Jaffar, was found in the rubble of an al-Qaeda
leader's house in Afghanistan.
For unknown reasons, the plan was not carried out.
Under a second plan, U.S. Navy vessels
northeast of Singapore between Changi and Pulau Tekong may have been targeted
for bombing. Khalim's possessions included a map that showed observation
posts in Singapore and Johor and a "kill zone" in the channel between Changi
and Pulau Tekong. Authorities
said he had a list of more than 200 U.S. companies in Singapore, two tampered
Singapore passports, 15 forged Malaysian and Philippines immigration stamps,
night-vision binoculars and papers describing how to make bombs.
The second cell obtained photographs
in April 2000 of Paya Lebar Air Base and the U.S. planes there as a potential
target. The pictures were found among bin Jaffar's possessions.
The group also carried out surveillance
of the U.S. Embassy, the Australian High Commission, the Israeli Embassy
and commercial buildings housing U.S. companies in conjunction with a group
from outside Singapore, two members of which told the cell they had stockpiled
four tons of ammonium nitrate in Malaysia and needed 17 more.
Mohamed Elias, a 29-year-old manager,
tried to make the purchase but was arrested by Singapore authorities before
he could do so. Authorities said a third cell formed after last September's
terror attacks in the United States.
|
Why Malaysia?
Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore
are launching coordinated patrols to improve security in the Malacca Strait,
one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The waterway is already notorious
for piracy and there is increasing concern it could become a target for
terrorists.
The Malacca Strait is a narrow,
800-km long strip of water running between Indonesia and Malaysia and Singapore.
It's a crucial transport route for more than 50,000 ships a year, carrying
about one quarter of the world's overall trade. But, the Malacca Strait is
also one of the world's most dangerous waterways, where modern-day pirates
routinely lie in wait to attack passing ships.
The International Maritime Bureau
logged more than two pirate attacks a month in the Malacca Strait last year.
Security experts describe most of the attacks as "maritime muggings." They
say the pirates use inflatable speed boats to attack relatively small ships,
holding their crews at gunpoint and quickly stealing cash or valuables before
racing away. But the pirates, most of whom are believed to be working out
of small inlets in Indonesia, are becoming more sophisticated and beginning
to target larger ships.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore
have now launched a program to improve security through coordinated maritime
patrols, whereby boats from all three navies will patrol the area. Marty
Natalegawa, spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry in Jakarta, explained
the importance of the initiative. "This idea of having a year-long coordinated
patrol is indicative of a regional response to an obvious challenge in the
Straits of Malacca," he says. "In the sense that the littoral countries as
required under the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea responding accordingly
rather than inviting extra-regional powers to actually physically deploy
their forces in our waters."
The initiative comes amid increasing
concerns about a potentially bigger threat -- namely fears that terrorists
could attack ships as they pass through the Malacca Strait.
Earlier this year, the United States
suggested that U.S. forces might be deployed to patrol the narrow waterway.
While Singapore appeared receptive to the idea, both Indonesia and Malaysia
adamantly opposed it. If it is the presence of the U.S. Navy that they
object to, airborne patrol using the V-22 and the MRMF might be an acceptable
alternative to these nations.
Washington is worried that
al-Qaeda-linked terrorists might target ships passing through the Malacca
Strait. Any such attack could severely disrupt shipments of oil from the
Middle East to East Asia, and shipments of Asian manufactured goods to Europe
and Africa. There are also fears that terrorists could use ships as a huge
floating bomb to attack a port.
  
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