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CNN Live Today

Key Al Qaeda Operative Says Southeast Asia Hotbed of Terrorist Activity

Aired September 16, 2002 - 12:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A key Al Qaeda operative says Southeast Asia is a hotbed of terrorist activity. The man is in U.S. custody and just started talking to authorities.
CNN's Maria Ressa brings us details in this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This 31-year-old Kuwaiti waiting man sent by Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia in 1995.

Omar Al-Faruq used a fake passport to enter the Philippines, where he joined Camp Abu Bahar (ph), the sprawling complex of the MILF, the Moral Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Muslim separatist group in the Philippines.

Regional intelligence officials say Al Qaeda established a terrorist training camp there.

In the late '90s Al-Faruq slipped into Indonesia, where he began recruiting Al Qaeda terrorists. When Indonesian authorities picked him up on June 5, Omar Al-Faruq was, according to this intelligence report, Al Qaeda senior representative in Southeast Asia.

Al Faruq worked closely with this Indonesian cleric, Abu Bakar Ba'Asyir. Wanted in Malaysia and Singapore, Ba'Asyir freely in Indonesia, where he continues to campaign for an Islamic state.

The U.S. is considering Ba'Asyir and his group on its list of terrorist organizations. Ba'Asyir denies any links to Al Qaeda.

ABU BAKAR BA'ASYIR, INDONESIAN CLERIC (through translator): I morally support Osama bin Laden 100 percent. Osama is not a terrorist. Al Qaeda is not a terrorist organization.

RESSA: Intelligence officials in Southeast Asia tell CNN Ba'Asyir and Al Faruq untied at least nine homegrown militant groups in the region, stretching from Singapore and Malaysia to the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar.

The same sources say these two men, helped by at least three other Al Qaeda operatives in the region, set off simultaneous bomb attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia in December of 2000, plotted to assassinate Indonesia's president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, and planned suicide bombing attacks against U.S. and Western interest in the region, a threat still in place today, Al Faruq told the CIA. Regional intelligence official tell CNN Al Qaeda placed increasing importance on its operations pricing in Southeast Asia. In 2000, two of Al Qaeda top leaders visited Omar Al Faruq and toured Indonesia, Osama bin Laden's number two, Amin Al-Zawahiri and Al Qaeda's former military chief Mohammed Atef.

(on camera): Officials in the region tell CNN Al Qaeda was looking to southeast Asia for its future. A regional intelligence document obtained by CNN says that visit in 2000 was part of a larger plan, to move Al Qaeda's base of operation from Afghanistan to Southeast Asia.

Maria Ressa, CNN, Manila.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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