Vic Police Chief Graham Ashton appears to have ignored crucial evidence of Hambali, Abu Bakar Bashir's network of supporters

by Ganesh Sahathevan 

These facts concerning Hambali, the Bali bombers, and Jemaah Islamiah have long been a matter of public record.,Victoria  Chief Of Police Graham Ashton was   chief Australian Federal Police investigator of the Bali bombings and ought to know these facts by heart (we do). The evidence of a strong level of passive support,at the grassroots and above is evident:

JI Training in Malaysia

The JI has been conducting training camps in Malaysia since 1990. Up to 1994, the training was focused mainly on maintaining physical fitness like jogging and trekking. From 1995, however, the training camps held in Gunung Pulai and Kulai began to also teach "military" skills (without firearms training). For instance, JI members were taught to make Molotov cocktails, learn knife-throwing skills, topography, jungle survival skills and trekking. In 1997, additional modules like guerrilla warfare, infiltration and ambush were included. Around 2000, reconnaissance and observation courses were conducted in Kota Tinggi; these classes were dubbed "urban warfare". The JI even conducted "Recall and Operation exercises" to ensure that members were operationally ready. 14 (which includes the 3 who went to Afghanistan) of the 21 arrestees participated in such training camps in Malaysia.

According to Malaysian officials, the so-called school of terror, Luqmanul Hakiem school, was established more than a decade (before 2002, that is before 1992 by Abu Bakar Bashir and Hambali.²

Malaysian authorities say Bashir, Hambali, Samudra and Mukhlas had used the Luqmanul Hakiem school in Ulu Tiram, in the southern state of Johor, since 1993.³

According to report in a Government-owned and controlled newspaper in Singapore, Abdullah Sungkar, was also among the founders of the Luqmanul Hakiem school. Mukhlas, brother of the Bali bomber Amrozi (who helped out at the school), helped set it up. Shahril Hat, an ex-engineer arrested by the Malaysian police, was the principal, while his assistant was Noor Din Mohd Top, a fugitive member of the Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM).Three other Bali bombing suspects , Idris, Imam Samudra and Dulmatin - were said to have met and studied at the same school in the early 1990s.A course instructor there was bomb-maker/trainer, Fathur Rohman Al Ghozi - now in custody in the Philippines⁴.

Nowhere in official AFP and other Australian Government reports have the above AND the their  implications and consequences for the future of Australian national  security been  discussed. It must be assumed that Ashton and others have either suppressed if not are totally ignorant of the facts and/or the issues they raise. 
That Ashton has ignored all this  must break the hearts of those whose lives have been lost or otherwise affected by both Bali bombings.It also discloses an appalling lack of skill and knowledge, evidence most recently in the matter of Zulfikar Shariif.Of course, it is also likely that Ashton is more interested in preserving his "diversity" credentials.

Endnotes

1 Home Affairs Singapore-JI White Paper,located at http://www2.mha.gov.sg/mha/detailed.jsp?artid=550&type=4&root=0&parent=0&cat=0&mode=arc.See also http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/speeches/view-html?filename=2002091903.htm

2Mark Baker,” Revealed: school that bred the Bali bombers” The Age(Melbourne) November 22,2002 .Located at http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/21/1037697807092.html

3 JASBANT SINGH, Associated Press ; Bali Suspects Used Malaysia As Base, 4 December 2002

4 Melvin Singh, “ TERRORIST SCHOOL IN JOHOR “;The New Paper - 01 Dec 2002,

located at: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,8982-1038758340,00.html