A web site allegedly set up by a leading Asian terrorist gives specific instructions on how to kill foreigners in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. The Internet has become a common tool of terror groups in Southeast Asia.
The web site called Anshar El Muslimin gives detailed instructions on how to kill people at several locations frequented by foreigners in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
Diagrams show how to shoot people in their cars, how to throw grenades at drivers stuck in traffic, intersections where traffic tends to back up.
The Indonesian police said the site was set up by Abdul Aziz, one of three men named as suspects this week in last month's suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali. The police said he confessed to designing the Web site, but said he did so at the request of Noordin Mohamed Top, an alleged leader of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah and one of Indonesia's most wanted men.
Jemaah Islamiyah is thought to be behind two bombings in Jakarta in recent years that killed a total of more than 20 people. One was at the J.W. Marriott Hotel and the other was outside the Australian embassy.
The Web site came to public attention one day after a chilling video message was broadcast on Indonesian television, showing a hooded and armed man threatening violence against Western nations and officials. Police believe the man in the video is Noordin Mohamed Top.
Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, believes Top could well be behind the Web site. He says Top uses the Internet extensively, and that Web sites have become a common tool of terror groups in Southeast Asia like Jemaah Islamiyah.
"There are a few hundred Web sites by jihad organizations in Southeast Asia," said Rohan Gunaratna. "The use of Web sites has been going on for some time. Certainly, JI has a number of experts in the use of Internet."
Mr. Gunaratna says the majority of these sites originate in Indonesia.
He says Asian governments have not yet addressed the issue of terrorist Web sites. He said they should be made illegal, and the people operating them should be prosecuted.
