19 Sep 2002 20:19:19 WIB
TEMPO
Interactive, Jakarta:Former State Intelligence Coordinating Board
(BAKIN) chief A.C. Manulang has said that Kuwaiti citizen Omar Al-Faruq,
a terrorist suspect who was arrested in Bogor, West Java, on June 5,
2002 and handed over to the US three days later, is a CIA-recruited
agent.
Al Faruq was assigned to infiltrate Islamic radical groups and recruit local agents within these groups.
When
Al Faruq finished his assignments, the CIA created a scenario that he
had been arrested, Manulang told Tempo News Room in Jakarta on Thursday
afternoon (19/9).
Manulang made this analysis based on the
pattern used by Al Faruq, that of having Kuwait citizenship but holding
a Pakistani passport, entering Indonesia as a refugee and marrying an
Indonesian woman.
This kind of operation is aimed at
starting conflicts in Indonesia and creating the image that Indonesia is
a land of terrorists.
After the CIA obtained complete
data on this matter, they then made Al-Faruq disappear. Its common in
intelligence world, said Manulang.
Manulang said he
considered several matters in the arrest of Al Faruq last July to be
odd, such as the denial of National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar over
the police involvement in Al Faruqs arrest, and the lack of official
documents in Al Faruq handing over to the US.
In the
handing over of a detainee to other country, there should be an
announcement or deportation document. Al Faruq's case indicated a lack
of coordination between the Indonesian police and intelligence agencies,
said Manulang.
As for Al Faruq's testimony in Time
magazine that he had masterminded the plan to murder Indonesian
President Megawati and several bombings in Indonesia, Manulang
considered this as an attempt to making Islamic groups the scapegoats
for all terrorism incidents.
Anti-Islam intelligence
agencies committed the bombings in Indonesia. They have been trained for
this and they are very organized, said Manulang.
Therefore,
he added, it was useless to arrest the bombers. We must arrest the
mastermind of the bombings in Indonesia, stated Manulang.
According to Manulang, its possible that Al Faruq recruited radical people from Islamic groups for his plan.
In regards to the murder attempt on Megawati, Manulang did not consider this as a serious matter.
Megawati does not need to be worried. She's not the real target in this matter, said Manulang.
Manulang requested the government immediately verify the CIA report on Al Faruq.
Such
a report could only be a dummy or false intelligence information that
is aimed at misleading the public, stated Manulang. (Sapto
Pradityo-Tempo News Room)
@tempointeractive.com
