----- Original Message -----
From: "earthman" <earthman@ihug.co.nz
To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@iexposure.com
Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2002 5:17 PM
Subject: [synchronistic] The lost
warning
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,5309365%255E20221,00.html
The lost warning
18oct02
US intelligence warned its citizens to stay away from bars like the
Sari
Club just hours before it was torn apart by a terrorist bomb.
Political
Reporter SAMANTHA MAIDEN asks why Australians weren't given a
similar
warning.
THE "Worldwide Caution Alert" posted a day before the Bali blast,
and
warning of terrorist attacks targeting westerners at clubs
and
restaurants,
is chilling in retrospect.
Based on recent audio tape of Osama bin Laden and other
intelligence
reports
of threats to US interests, it warned terrorists may turn to
`soft
targets'
including "nightclubs, bars and other places where expatriates
gather".
And there, on the US Department of State website and the website for
the
US
Embassy in Indonesia, it sat for more than 24 hours. Australians
were
oblivious to it as the hours ticked away to the horrific bomb attack
on
Saturday night.
Who among the victims would have thought to check a US government
website,
or even take the advice as relevant to Bali, a Hindu stronghold in
the
predominantly Muslim archipelago, regarded as a world away from
the
violence
found in other parts of Indonesia?
On September 9, also unknown to those Australians planning their
Bali
holidays, there had been another warning. Osama bin Laden's top envoy
in
South-East Asia, who cracked after three months of interrogation, told
the
CIA he had been ordered to plan large-scale attacks against US
interests
in
the region. A dossier based on the CIA interrogation of alleged al
Qaeda
terrorist Omar Al-Faruq, revealed a week later, warned of a "new
terror
spree in South-East Asia".
Jemaah Islamiyah's spiritual leader, Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir,
had
"authorised Al-Faruq to use JI operatives and resources" and despite
his
arrest, back-up operations were in place to "assume the
responsibilities
and
carry out operations as planned".
His confession prompted the US terror advisory system to move up
to
orange,
for the first time. Marking the September 11 anniversary with car bombs
at
embassies was the known plan, however, and the date passed
without
incident.
Omar Al-Faruq remains under guard in the Guantanamo Bay jail shared
by
alleged Adelaide al Qaeda operative David Hicks.
The US Department of State was quick to point out this week they had
"no
specific information of a planned bombing in Bali". But amid the grief,
a
question remains: Did authorities do enough to warn tourists of
the
danger?
Should Australia's Foreign Affairs department have upgraded its
own
warnings, as the US Department of State did twice in the weeks before
the
bombing?
Prime Minister John Howard, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer
and
Attorney-General Daryl Williams face mounting public concern that
official
warnings, which at the time would undoubtedly have been attacked
by
tourist
operators as scaremongering, were simply not strong enough.
DEFENCE Minister Robert Hill has revealed Australia's
intelligence
watchdog,
Inspector General Bill Blick, has a wide-ranging brief to review
all
material available before the Bali attacks.
Bali was not mentioned in the US official warnings, but Mr
Howard
confirmed
to Parliament on Wednesday that one intelligence report passed on
to
Australia had identified the holiday island, among other locations in
the
region.
Under pressure, the Government yesterday revealed the warning referred
to
the arrest of Muslim leaders. Those arrests, which a foreign
intelligence
agency warned could increase the risk of terrorist activity and unrest
in
Bali, never occurred. According to Mr Howard, "this intelligence
was
assessed by agencies and the view was formed by them that no alteration
in
the threat level - then at high - applying to Indonesia was
warranted".
Australia's Foreign Affairs website upgraded its travel bulletins
last
Friday, warning of general threats to US interests at home and
overseas.
However, Bali was not even mentioned among warnings against travel
to
traditional hot spots for danger: West Timor, Aceh and Maluku.
Tourist
services, it assured any holidaymakers who knew where to look,
were
operating as normal.
In Jakarta, the Australian Embassy on October 3 issued a warning
to
Australians to remain on alert - without mentioning Bali.
"As in the past around religious holidays, militant groups may
conduct
increased activity against nightclubs, bars, and other places
where
expatriates gather," it said. "Australians are advised to take
particular
care in this period prior to holidays and during Ramadan."
On September 26, the US had updated its travel advisory warning
Westerners
to "avoid large gatherings and locations known to cater primarily
to
Western
clientele, such as certain bars, restaurants and tourist areas."
"The judgment was made by the Department of Foreign Affairs that
the
travel
advice, given that it warned of the possibility of bombings,
particularly
in
areas frequented by tourists, that there was no need therefore to
change
the
travel advice to Australians," Mr Howard said yesterday.
Instead, Australians awoke on Saturday to warnings power plants or
nuclear
facilities could be targeted on home soil by terrorists,
following
warnings
from the US.
Attorney-General Daryl Williams announced just after 10pm on Friday
that
US
authorities had passed on concerns of a specific threat to
"energy
infrastructure".
Yesterday, the Government responded to a new threat in Indonesia,
warning
travellers to get out and upgrading South-East Asian travel warnings.