JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A top Indonesian terrorist suspect captured in the Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was later killed insists he was unaware of the al-Qaida leader’s presence there, according to the video of his interrogation obtained by The Associated Press.
Alleged bomb maker Umar Patek also describes his frustration in re-establishing militant ties in his quest to go to Afghanistan. He had to make his own arrangements to fly to Pakistan and then waited there for months before a years-old militant contact finally got back to him.
His remarks, if true, would further bolster evidence that Southeast Asia’s Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist movement, responsible for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, is now largely cut off from its long-standing al-Qaida sponsorship.
