Bali Bomb Plotter ‘Delighted’ With Results

Confessed Bali bomb plotter Amrozi, laughing and joking as Indonesia’s top cop questioned him about his role in the Oct. 12 attack, said Wednesday that he was “delighted” with the results of the blast.

In an odd show staged for the media, reporters were invited to watch through the windows of the room as national Police Chief Dai Bachtiar conducted the interrogation. Amrozi, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, waved and smiled for the cameras.

The public interrogation apparently was designed to demonstrate to skeptical Indonesians that Amrozi has been acting under his own free will in confessing that he took part in the bombing to further the agenda of extremist Muslims. The blast killed 191 people, many of them foreign tourists.

At a news conference shortly afterward, police showed a video of Amrozi in which he apologized to his family for involving them in the plot -- but not to any of his victims or their families.

The 35-year-old auto mechanic, who authorities say once fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation, was arrested last week after police traced the ownership of the van used in the bombing and found that he was the last owner.

Amrozi has revealed many details of the bombing, including evidence that the attack was orchestrated by Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian terror network connected to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda organization.

Bachtiar told reporters that a key organizer and financier of the bombing was the shadowy terror suspect Imam Samudra, who has been wanted since early 2001 for his role in a series of deadly church bombings across Indonesia.

Samudra, who also goes by the names Azis, Dicky and Hudama, is an associate of Hambali, a top Jemaah Islamiah leader and Al Qaeda operative who has been involved in terror plots in the region for nearly a decade. Police say Samudra and Hambali worked closely together on the 2000 Christmas Eve church bombings, which killed 19 people in 10 cities.

Amrozi, who has confessed to police that he helped plant the Bali bomb, was recruited two years ago by Samudra to begin making explosives for extremist Muslims fighting Christians in Indonesia’s Molucca Islands, the chief said.

Several months ago, a member of the Bali bombing plot identified only as Idris delivered the equivalent of about $5,000 to Amrozi so he could buy the minivan and chemicals used in the attack, according to the confession, Bachtiar said.

On Oct. 6, Amrozi delivered the van and chemicals to Samudra in Bali. Contrary to earlier reports, Bachtiar said Amrozi did not help make the bomb or detonators, which were triggered by cellular phones.

Amrozi returned to his home village of Tenggulun before the attack, according to his confession. The first he learned of the bombing was on the morning of Oct. 13 when he heard on the radio at 7 a.m. that the bomb had gone off, he said. Amrozi said he laughed so hard at the news that his wife asked him what was so funny.

Since his arrest, Amrozi has implicated his brother Ali Imron and led police to the Al-Islam boarding school in his village, which police investigators say was the base for members of the terror group.

Police are hunting for three of Amrozi’s brothers, Gufron, Ali Fauzi and Ali Imron, who were all associated with the school. Another brother who lives in the village, Tafsir, has been detained for questioning.

Yet another brother, Chozin, who helped found the Al-Islam school, and school director Muhammad Zakaria were detained for questioning and released for lack of evidence.

In his videotaped message, Amrozi sought to deflect blame from his family and said that the only one of his brothers involved in the plot was Ali Imron.

“I ask for my relatives who are running away or hiding from this incident to return home,” he said, “because if you are not involved in this incident, hopefully the police will prove your innocence and will not arrest or detain you.”