“We will consider all white people the enemy.” Such is the targeting mission behind at least one jihadist group to ensure they hit “foreign tourists from America and its allies,” which include Australia , New Zealand , and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries. The New York Times summarizes a 34-page document purportedly taken from the computer of Jemaah Islamiya (JI) cell leader and master bomb-maker Azahari Husin secured after his death in a shootout with Indonesian security forces in November 2005. The document entitled “The Bali Project” is a fascinating glimpse into the Concept of Operations for the October 2005 Bali attack . Yet, this peek into the plot of Azahari and co-conspirator Mohammad Noordin Top (who remains at large) highlights how far this cell has drifted from the traditional JI platform to topple Indonesia and neighboring Muslim-majority secular governments in Malaysia , Singapore , and Muslim-majority islands of the Philippines to create a southeast Asia caliphate.
Many analysts suggested that this and other JI attacks (such as Bali 2002 , 2003 Jakarta Marriot Hotel , and 2004 Australian Embassy ), were focused against the tourist economy of Bali or perhaps even the Indonesian government, but this document reestablishes that the most recent JI attack was homegrown and designed to lash out against the West. NATO is specifically targeted by name in the “Bali Project” document because as an institution NATO has been involved in operations in Afghanistan and, although the organization has not formally deployed forces in Iraq, member states are deeply involved in that conflict. Ironically, the revelations from the intelligence uncovered from Azahari’s computer indicate his cell is operating closer to the al-Qaeda mission of global jihad that the regional caliphate agenda articulated by Sheik Abu Bakar Bashir recently released from jail for immigration violations stemming from terrorist investigations . For some time, the WAR Report has been tracking and discussing how both Azahari and Noordin have been drifting away from the core JI ideology (see for example the December 22, 2004 WAR Report and September 7, 2005 WAR Report).
The Azahari/Noordin cell appears to have much in common with the wholly autonomous cells that struck commuter trains in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 . All these groups chose to vent their anger toward the West by targeting vulnerable civilian populations locally, yet they were not motivated to express their ideologies or attack rationales via statements or other propaganda. The deed alone, in these cases, became the message. Nonetheless, certainly JI—and specifically the Azahari/Noordin cell—received training at al-Qaeda camps and received direction from Himbali, a senior strategic leader in both organizations until his August 2003 capture in Thailand . Therefore, the Azahari/Noordin cell more accurately reflects an intermediate step along the evolutionary tree of jihadist groups emerging from the seeds of al-Qaeda. Indonesian authorities suspected as much in January 2006 when they circulated reports that Azahari/Noordin had created a new faction of JI called Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad .
Importantly, Indonesian authorities considered Noordin both a key plotter and a successful recruiter; he should be able to maintain the operational tempo that he established with Azahari back in the Fall of 2002 of at least one significant strategic attack against the West on Indonesian soil each year. Thus, Western interests and even individuals with links to other Azahari target populations from Japan , the Philippines, South Korea , and Thailand should be on heightened alert from August through October 2006.