How the Jakarta hotel bombers hoodwinked security
JAKARTA – Indonesian police have taken over responsibility for security at Jakarta’s main hotels to counter the threat of further attacks by a sophisticated network of terrorists.
Following last Friday’s fatal bombings, national police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri called the managers of 33 of Jakarta’s five-star hotels to a private meeting late on Wednesday and “read them the riot act” over their security, according to The Age in Melbourne.
Hotels are placing sniffer dogs at their entrances, deploying security on all floors and buying devices that can detect explosives.
Indonesian police said they had arrested a broom-maker in Cilacap, Central Java, who had admitted he had been trained as a suicide bomber for Islamic radicals. The man, identified only as “A”, told police he had been training since 2001.
It is clear the terrorists spent months, possibly years, studying the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, where two suicide bombers killed at least nine people and injured more than 50 others.
Hotel staff failed to notice a series of unusual acts, which security experts say should have raised suspicion.
But the sophistication of the terrorists has stunned investigators, including the bomb makers’ use of electronic components from a television in one of the Marriott’s rooms.
John McBeth, a Jakarta-based security expert and columnist for Singapore’s Straits Times, has obtained details of how the terrorists managed to detonate bombs at the hotels, which were regarded as among Jakarta’s most secure.
The suitcase of the man claiming to be “Mr Aziz” was not scrutinised or checked through an X-ray machine, unlike hand baggage. All of the Marriott’s four vapour detectors, used to look for explosives, were out of order. So were four at the adjoining Ritz-Carlton.
“Mr Aziz” paid a $US1000 deposit for room 1808, which is unusual because most guests pay by credit card. Experts say this alone should have raised suspicions.
For two days, the terrorists concealed their bomb-making efforts in room 1808 from hotel staff, hiding explosives in a bathroom air-conditioning duct.
The terrorists’ apparent ace card was being able to plant an operative inside the hotel, who provided detailed intelligence to the terrorists.
Investigators believe that man was Ibrahim, who had been a flower vendor for the Marriott, the Ritz-Carlton and the Pacific Place shopping centre for about three years.
Source: The Age
Ian Jarrett
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