Indonesian hotel rocked by explosion

www.cnn.com...
"Breaking News" on CNN tv...downtown Jakarta.
Confirmed deaths. They're calling it a "bomb blast" on CNN. The hotel looks to be in bad shape. With all the smoke, I can't tell how much of it is left.
This is after several days of "increased terror threats" in Indonesia.
CNN reporter on the scene is saying there is fear that more explosions will occur.

They've already said "terrorists" and "al Qaeda" via a correspondant on the scene.

Damn thing woke me out of a half-sleep. Hopefully it's just overblown.
Keep an eye on this, though.

-B.

Given as ten fatalities on Ass. Pr. No other speculation/details.

Indonesia is a hotbed of terrorism. It is a lovely country, though. If a lot of people did not hate me because I was born in America, I would consider moving there.

Indonesia is the largest Islamic state in the world. It has a solid miltary backbone.

It is nearest non-English speaking neighbour to Australia. In Oz, the last election was fought on racist/xenophobic grounds regarding the treatment of boat people and illegal entrants seeking refugee status. Such things were brought to the fore as maps of north Queensland showing a proposed 'Islamic state'.

The Bali bombing last year killed over 200. The actual perpetrators have been brought before the courts. It is uncertain to this day whether primarily American or Australian tourists were targeted, but Australia took the brunt in lives lost as it is one of the most popular holiday spots for free and easy 20-something yuppies.

In Australia, anyone with suspected connection with the 'organization' responsible (including people who may have attended one 'rally' or public presentation by a certain Indonesian religious leader) are being subjected to close scrutiny and sometimes home invasion by Australian 'intelligence' officials.

Australia wouldn't last five minutes in an Indonesian invasion, and would look to the US for support.

But my take is Indonesia has no plans at all to view Australia as an enemy, not even over East Timor, and the public perception of risk is created in a vain attempt to show the Howard government is doing something worthwhile on national security and immigration, which if you look at the history, it never has.

Details, details......

Indonesia Hotel Bomb Toll 14
06/08/2003 08:29 AM

A huge car bomb has ripped through one of the top hotels in Indonesia's capital, killing 14 people and wounding 150.

The Jakarta governor said a suicide bomber was probably responsible for the blast at the JW Marriott Hotel - the second major terror attack to shake the world's most populous Muslim nation in a year.

The bomb ripped through the lobby and set fire to dozens of cars and taxis out front. Many windows in the 33-storey hotel were blown out.

"It was panic. Mad panic," said Stephen Mellor, a foreign resident who was parking his car less than 100 metres (yards) from the hotel at the time of the blast.

"The police and paramedics did what they could, but they seemed overwhelmed. People were almost hijacking cars in desperation and piling the injured in them to take to hospital."

The blast was timed as workers poured out of offices for lunch and mosques called the faithful to prayer, and came just two days before a court delivers the first verdict in the trials of Muslim militants accused over last October's Bali bombings.

Diners were eating lunch in restaurants and cafes in the hotel and in a nearby office tower when the blast blew out windows and showered people with shards of glass.

Wreckage from the charred lobby was strewn over a wide area.

Australian tourist Simon Leuning had just arrived in Jakarta and was relaxing in his hotel room when the explosion occurred.

Windows Blown In

"The window blew in, blew me across the room," he told Reuters Television. "I got out of there as fast as I could."

The Indonesian Red Cross said 14 people died and 150 were wounded.

"Thirteen bodies have been evacuated to hospitals while the last one, a human head without body, was just found by a Red Cross team on the fifth floor of the hotel," a senior Red Cross official said.

National Police Chief General Da'i Bachtiar said the car bomb blew up near the lobby, not the basement as earlier reports suggested. He said the blast was similar to the Bali bombings.

Tuesday's attack coincided with high-profile trials of suspected Islamic militants on bomb-related charges - including that of Abu Bakar Bashir, an influential cleric.

He is accused of leading the Southeast Asian Jemaah Islamiah militant Muslim network blamed for a series of attacks on Western targets, including October's Bali bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists partying in nightclubs.

Check out what whispers in the Dark wrote yesterday:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I think its a diversion from the real objective.......

regards
seekerof

Something about attacking America directly with hijacked planes again, seekerof? The airports on on high alert now. My question is how do you raise your alert status when everyone already is supposed to be looking for a potential problem? Maybe advise the airport people to lay off of the crack for the next couple of weeks?

I think that the bomb in Jakarta was a test. A lot of people are calling for something to happen tomorrow in the US (8/6/03), perhaps we'll see some suicide bombers. Look at this reported reaction:



This graphic description is probably exactly the type of behavior that the attack was intended to elicit. Imagine this reaction on a greater scale. We'll have to see how tomorrow turns out. Hopefully all of us will be able to report that we are okay.

Hopefully no one is withholding information that could save someone's life....

Exactly MKULTRA,
I had recently read an article today that stated that since the US is under heightened 'terror' alert, that if such an occurance happened here, that the choas and hysteria caused would be seriously magnified.......

regards
seekerof

Another attack on U.S. soil will only serve to harden the American people in their resolve to wipe these arseholes off of the planet.

Probably true....but what it would also serve to do is allow for other possible moves by the "unseen" elitist few.....
This is probably bigger than we really know.....
There are unseen forces in this world that have an agenda that leads to things not truly conceived of by many of us.....


regards
seekerof

[Edited on 5-8-2003 by Seekerof]

The agenda that is "concieved" by the elite few but not "percieved" by the masses,the masses have way more important thing to worry about,like what color undies that girl walking by may be wearing,where's the beer?, and of course football......