Aussie police on inside with agents from Indonesia
June 02, 2009 12:00am
ELITE counter-terrorism teams in Indonesia have foiled several planned terrorist attacks since the last successful attack in 2005.
Weapons and explosives were seized in some of the raids by Indonesia's Satgas and Special Detachment 88 units. Indonesian-based Australian Federal Police agents helped by providing intelligence, analysis and technical expertise during the successful operations.
The Herald Sun recently received briefings in Indonesia on the covert work of Satgas and Detachment 88.
It included details of foiled attacks planned by the Jemaah Islamiah and its splinter groups. Some of the raids received publicity, but others were kept secret.
The targets in most cases were not known, but intelligence suggests Western interests would probably have been included.
Smashing JI - the group responsible for a spate of terrorism attacks in Indonesia in recent years -- has been a priority for the Indonesian National Police, and it has been very successful at it.
About 500 JI operatives have been arrested since the first Bali bombings in 2002 and there hasn't been a successful JI attack in Indonesia since the second Bali bombings in October 2005.
The Australian Government has recognised the importance of the AFP working closely with the INP, and in 2004 it committed almost $37 million to establishing the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation and continues to finance its operations.
The centre stands alongside the INP's training academy and last year conducted courses in counter-terrorism, disaster victim identification, intelligence analysis and various transnational crimes for more than 1000 police officers from 12 countries.
The Australian Government also finances the joint AFP-INP-led Multi-National Operational Support Team, a Jakarta-based counter-terrorism unit.
It is staffed by police from Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. MNOST officers have access to terrorism intelligence from each of the participating countries.
It was established because terrorists move freely between countries whereas police activity generally stops at borders.
MNOST allows interested countries to have access to intelligence across borders.
While it doesn't broadcast its achievements, MNOST members have had some stunning successes in helping various police forces in the region to capture terrorists, prevent terrorist attacks and identify new JI splinter groups.
Even more secretive than MNOST is the AFP's elite Jakarta Regional Co-operation Team.
AFP agents work mainly with the INP's Satgas and Detachment 88 specialist units.
Satgas members operate almost exclusively under cover and some have spent years infiltrating and working in terrorist groups.
They, like the AFP's JRCT members, are based in secret locations known only to a handful of senior INP officers.
"You wouldn't think the Satgas members were police because of the way they dress, act and blend into society," a source in Jakarta told the Herald Sun.
"All of Satgas's work is covert and they are incredibly good at it.
"They are so well respected that the INP chiefs rely on intelligence from the Satgas field operatives to guide them in which groups and individuals should be targeted.
"Indonesians and Australians owe the Satgas team - and Special Detachment 88 - a huge debt of gratitude for the terrorism attacks they have prevented and the massive dent they have put in JI by identifying and arresting hundreds of its operatives since the first Bali bombing in 2002."
The terrorism threat to Australia would be far worse without the excellent relationship between the AFP and the INP.
That relationship was forged through personal friendships between AFP chief Mick Keelty and senior Indonesian officers Da'i Bachtiar and I Made Mangu Pastika.
Quality time
MR Keelty and General Bachtiar used quality time on a golf course in 2002 to discuss ways they could help each other, particularly in relation to terrorism.
That discussion resulted in the AFP agreeing to conduct a training course in bomb-blast analysis for Indonesian police.
It was only four months after the golf course chat that the first Bali bombings happened. The AFP bomb-blast trainers were on their way to Indonesia at the time and were quickly on the scene.
Mr Keelty and General Bachtiar, who was Indonesian police chief at the time, spoke within hours of the Bali bombings and Mr Keelty offered whatever help was needed.
He was pleased to be told that General Pastika was to head up the Bali bombing investigation.
General Pastika and Mr Keelty became firm friends after doing the AFP's management of serious crime course together in Canberra in 1993.
The relationship helped in establishing the Bali bombing probe as a joint operation between the INP and the AFP.
The INP-AFP taskforce formed then still exists and has seriously disrupted JI, which was responsible for the 2002 bombings and several terrorist attacks since then.
Most of the JI operatives for the Bali bombing were picked up within weeks. Since then INP, assisted by the Jakarta-based AFP counter-terrorism team, has arrested almost 500 JI members.
The determination shown by the INP to crack down on terrorism has drastically reduced the threat in Indonesia.
While JI leaders and Bali bombing-linked terrorists Noordin Top, Dulmatin, Umar Patek and Zulkarnaen are still on the run, they are thought to have lost support and their activities have been significantly disrupted. JI splinter groups still exist, and are still a threat to Western interests in Indonesia.
Some JI leaders, including Top, Dulmatin, Patek and Zulkarnaen, are believed to have fled to the southern Philippines where they are being sheltered in remote areas by fellow terrorists.
Capturing Bali-bombing financier Top is the INP and AFP's No. 1 priority.
The AFP, which is non-operational in all its overseas bureaus, is often invited by the INP to attend raids on suspected terrorists and people smugglers.
AFP agents were on hand to provide analysis and support when JI bomb-maker Azahari Husin died in a shootout with Indonesian police in 2005.
Azahari helped mastermind the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, which killed 225 people, and it was AFP intelligence that helped the INP track Azahari down to a JI safe house in East Java.
Handwritten notes and other documents found in Azahari's hideaway provided the INP and AFP with incredibly valuable intelligence on how JI operates and a who's who in the organisation.
The AFP has 23 agents based in Indonesia, making it easily its biggest overseas bureau.
Extraordinary access
AS a result of the trust built up by having a presence in Jakarta for 20 years, the AFP enjoys extraordinary access to the INP.
That access enables the AFP to counter threats directly affecting Australia, such as people smuggling and terrorism.
While Indonesia's vast shoreline and thousands of islands mean it is impossible to stop every refugee boat leaving - 20 have made it to Australia since September - the INP, assisted by the AFP, still stop more boats leaving than manage to arrive.
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