SINGAPORE
GOVERNMENT Thirteen of the 15 persons arrested by the ISD in Dec 2001 for terrorism-related activities have been served with Orders of Detention for two years under Section 8(1)(a) of the Internal Security Act on 6 Jan 2002 . They are: Haji
Ibrahim b Haji Maidin, 51, condominium manager; The other two persons have been released on Restriction Orders on 6 Jan 2002. Eight of those detained are confirmed at this point, to have gone to Afghanistan for training in Al-Qaeda training camps. Preparations locally for their Afghanistan stint included religious and physical training which were conducted in Negri Sembilan, Malaysia. Covert arrangements for their entry into Afghanistan from Pakistan were made by their leader in Malaysia, Hambali @ Nurjaman @ Riduan Isamuddin, a Malaysian permanent resident of Indonesian nationality. These arrangements included false documentation to show that they had been accepted by a local religious school in Pakistan for religious studies. This provided the cover to account to their families and employers for their absence from Singapore for periods between three to six months. The men travelled by road to Kuala Lumpur for flights to Karachi, Pakistan. On arrival in Pakistan, they were moved to a safehouse within the country where they waited to be transported overland in batches with other trainees from the region onwards into Afghanistan via several places including Peshawar and Quetta. Training in the Al-Qaeda camps included use of AK47s and mortars, and study of military tactics. One of the Singaporeans had gone to Afghanistan for training on three separate occasions between 1991 and 2000. Among the documents recovered from IT forensic investigation of Khalim Jaffar's encrypted diskette, was a letter nominating Mohd Ellias and Mohd Nazir for special training in one of three areas, viz ambush/assassination, sniper or "field engineering", ie bomb construction. All the 13 men detained are members of the clandestine organisation, "Jemaah Islamiyah" (JI or Islamic group). The JI organisation in Singapore is part of a larger JI network with cells in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Singapore network reports to a Malaysia-based leadership structure called a regional "shura" (or consultative council). This is essentially headed by Hambali, following the arrest and detention of Mohd Iqbal A Rahman @ Abu Jibril by Malaysian authorities in Jun 2001. Hambali is presently at large and is wanted for arrest by the Indonesian and Malaysian police. The JI organisation in Singapore is headed by a leader (with the title "Qoaid wakalah") and is organised into various functional cells or "fiahs". These included cells for fund raising, religious work, security and operations. Ibrahim Maidin was the leader of the JI in Singapore and Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana was a leading figure in the JI's regional "shura". The rest of those detained were mostly members of the security or of one of the three operations cells identified in ISD investigation so far. The operations "fiahs" are the cells assigned for terrorist support or terrorism-related activities. JI's terrorism-linked activities began long before the 11 Sep 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. The leader of the JI, Ibrahim Maidin, had gone to Afghanistan for military training in 1993. The surveillance activities of the first JI cell in support of terrorist targeting began as early as 1997. Investigations have not surfaced any links between the Singaporean JI members detained and other registered local Muslim organisations. They had been recruited into the JI when they were part of Ibrahim Maidin's religious classes, and were not known to be active members of any particular mosque. The group appeared to have generally kept away from mainstream organisations and their activities. They maintained tight operational secrecy, using code-names and code-words for communication. All but one of those arrested were HDB dwellers. All had studied in national schools in Singapore. Six had completed full-time National Service in the SAF and were reservists. The group appeared to be dominated by foreign elements and subscribed to these elements' extremist ideology and its anti-American, anti-West agenda.
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore |
