The chief investigator of the Bali bombings said yesterday that Mukhlas, a leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) had been the ‘controller’ of the attack. General Made Mangku Pastika also said militant Islamist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was JI’s top leader, something some officials had said before but the widely respected Gen Made had not. ‘We believe the emir (chief) is Abu Bakar Bashir,’ he said at a seminar on terrorism for top South-east Asian police. Asked whether that meant Bashir was involved in the Bali bombings, Gen Pastika said: ‘Figure it out yourself.’ But to a query as to whether Bashir supported the bombings, he said: ‘I didn’t say Bashir supported it. I just said that Bashir is the emir of JI (Jemaah Islamiah).’ Full Story