Al-Qaeda transferring base to Southeast Asia

Al-Qaeda plots and operations appear to be part of a larger plan to move the terrorist group’s base of operations from Afghanistan to Southeast Asia, Cable News Network (CNN) reported last night.

After the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia may now have "the largest concentration" of al-Qaeda operatives, who are planning to launch attacks against US interests in the region, according to the exclusive CNN report by Maria Ressa, which cited a regional intelligence document obtained by the US news network.

Another report in Time Asia News said an al-Qaeda operative — who was described as al-Qaeda’s senior representative in Southeast Asia — had confessed to American investigators that al-Qaeda was planning car or truck bomb attacks against the US Embassy in Manila and in neighboring countries.

According to a top-secret CIA document and regional intelligence reports obtained by Time, detained terrorist suspect Omar al-Faruq said two senior al-Qaeda officials, Abu Zubaydah and Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, had ordered him to "plan large-scale attacks against US interests in Indonesia, Malaysia, [the] Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Cambodia."

"In particular," the CIA document said, "(al-) Faruq prepared a plan to conduct simultaneous car/truck bomb attacks against US embassies in the region to take place on or near" the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

If he was arrested, al-Faruq said backup operatives were in place to "assume responsibilities to carry out the operation as planned." And if the attacks were successful, Time said, such a coordinated assault could produce thousands of casualties.

It is a threat that is still in effect, according to CNN.

Last week, al-Faruq’s information threw US officials into such a scare that Washington raised a terror alert to its second highest level, from a "significant risk" of attacks or code "Yellow" to a "high danger" or code "Orange." It is the highest alert level imposed since the system was established in March.

Over a dozen US embassies were closed as a precaution last week, while the mission in Manila remained open but was put under tight police security.

Yesterday, the US embassy in Jakarta was reopened to the public but the outpost in Hanoi remained closed.

Intelligence reports obtained by Time also detailed the broad reach of al-Qaeda and its affiliates, its efforts to establish a base of operations outside Afghanistan, and recruit "disparate militant groups" into its cause.

"They are bulking up," according to a US administration official interviewed by Time. "We don’t have our arms around them yet."

Time said the documents also showed the "speed and determination with which US intelligence agents and their foreign counterparts are working to untangle al-Qaeda’s web of terror before it strikes again."

"Al-Faruq’s confession serves as a reminder that even after losing its base in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda is actively forging and reconstituting ties with violent extremists around the world who are receptive to [al-Qaeda mastermind Osama] bin Laden’s cause," Time reported.

According to Time, the documents revealed that al-Qaeda — with al-Faruq acting as the point man — received "financial and operational" assistance from Jemaah Islamiah, an affiliate group operating in at least five countries: Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

Jemaah Islamiah members interviewed by Time, said al-Qaeda operatives continue to meet with radical groups in the region and that Jemaah Islamiah boasts that it has 20 suicide bombers "waiting and ready to carry out attacks if instructed."

Twenty-one members of the group were arrested yesterday in Singapore after they were suspected of carrying out attacks against US interests there, wire reports said.

Al-Faruq planned to attack US Navy vessels docked in Surabaya, Indonesia, with suicide bombers in late May. But he had to scrap the plan after failing to find enough operatives.

One regional intelligence report revealed, Time said, that al-Faruq’s cellular phone number was found in the handset of Indonesian businessman Agus Dwikarna and Zubaydah.

Dwikarna was sentenced in July to 17 years in prison by a Pasay City court for illegal possession of explosives.

Authorities say he was involved in the 2000 Rizal Day bombings, in which scores of people were killed or wounded in a series of bomb attacks across Metro Manila, including one across the US embassy.

Time said the CIA also traced a number dialed by another alleged Jemaah Islamiah member Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi to al-Faruq. Al-Ghozi was sentenced in April by a General Santos City court to 12 years in prison also for illegal possession of explosives. Intelligence officials say al-Ghozi was also involved in the Rizal Day bombings.

Meanwhile, according to intelligence reports obtained by CNN, al-Faruq used a fake passport to enter the Philippines in the 1990s.

He visited the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front at their Camp Abubakar main base in Mindanao and established an al-Qaeda training camp there, CNN said. Camp Abubakar fell to government troops in an offensive in 2000.

After visiting the Philippines, CNN reported, al-Faruq then went to Indonesia and met with another suspected al-Qaeda leader, Indonesian Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, who is operating freely in Indonesia. Jakarta had earlier refused to arrest him, citing lack of evidence.

According to the Time exclusive report, al-Faruq admitted that he had been involved in a string of terror plots over three years, including a failed assassination attempt on Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri.