Whether the Marriott hotel was informed it was on the list or not was not confirmed

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, August 13 (IslamOnline.net) - The Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) alleged terror network has placed U.S. interests, including oil and other firms based in Jakarta and other cities of the archipelago, on its list of targets for future attacks, an informed sources in the capital Jakarta told IslamOnline.net on Wednesday, August 13.

The source, close to a huge American multinational company in Jakarta, said oil companies and trading firms with U.S. ownership are the target in what police and Australia’s secret service say will be a major attack in Indonesia.

He added that Halliburton, the former company of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, was the prime company on the list of targets found during a raid in Samarang, a city close to the school of jailed JI leader Abu Bakar Basyir.

ExxonMobil, Unocal, Marriott and the well known shopping complex the “Pondok Indah Mall”, located in the south east of Jakarta, also featured on the list.

The mall is frequented by western citizens living and working in Jakarta and is only a few miles away from the Halliburton offices.

Caltex, another U.S. company is involved in oil explorations in the oil and gas rich Riau Islands, was also on the list, asserted the source who works for a U.S. accountancy firm in Jakarta.

He added that there were probably a dozen names of companies with head offices in Jakarta, Riau and even Aceh and Sumatra on the list that is still in the possession of Jakarta police.

According to the source, Halliburton, ExxonMobile, Unocal, Caltex and Premier Oil, Hard Rock Café and some major complexes mostly frequented by foreigners were on the list.

Approached by IOL correspondent, police refused to comment on the purported list fearing a public backlash if it was revealed that the JW Marriott Hotels, an American chain of hotels in Indonesia was indeed on the list of targets found a month ago.

The Marriott was bombed by a suspected suicide bomber whom the police now say was a JI member and a graduate from Basyir’s Ngukri Islamic school.

The bomber is also said to belong to a new but obscure group, the Laskar Khos (Arabic for Special Force) which is said to be behind the list found by the Police.

Police also found in the list the names of several members of President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s the Party Democratic Indonesia for Struggle (PDIP).

The source said the Australian secret service had news of the list that was probably given to them.

Whether the Marriott hotel was informed it was on the list or not was not disclosed to IOL.

However, the Australian broadcasting company ABC on August 11 reported that a number of U.S. companies were targeted by the JI for another bombing spree and that there was a meeting organized by the police to inform the targeted companies of the list.

It is clear, if the meeting ever took place, that there were no reinforcement of security around and within the buildings of the establishments involved if JW Marriott was on the list.

The television network did not say where it received the information or whether it knew of an existing list of companies targeted by the JI, the Laskar Khos or any other organization working against U,S, and western interests in Indonesia.

The ABC report said there were suggestions Indonesian authorities had very specific information about possible JI targets in Jakarta – targets which include U.S. oil interests.

It added that it has already been confirmed that police intercepted an incriminating e-mail from the suspected Marriott Hotel suicide bomber about six weeks before he carried out the attack.

The ABC further said that a spokesman for American oil giants Unocal and ExxonMobil in Jakarta has confirmed they received warnings from police, before last week's explosion.

In public, down the streets of Jakarta in coffee stalls and cyber café’s people talks about how much police and the government should have done to prevent the attacks on the JW Marriott.

The presence of Australian intelligence officers and investigators is also the talk of the town, with people showing discontent over their activities.

“Why are they in Jakarta? The local police can do a better job I believe, and why Australians? If this has nothing to do with Australia then why is these intelligence officers from Australia here?” A question asked by most of the people interviewed by IOL.

Locals say they know police have uncovered much of the local bombers plans in last month's raids on a suspected JI stronghold in central Java.

Samarang is now the focus of police, which believe that most of the “terrorist” brains coming from there.

Australia wanted to launch air strikes against what it calls “terrorist and al-Qaeda” positions in Samarang.

Some of the Bali bombing suspects were arrested near or within Samarang and police are currently tightening the noose on religious schools in this area.

It was also reported that the suspected terrorist who killed himself and at least 11 others at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel was part of a 15-member team of suicide bombers preparing to attack more targets.