JAKARTA, Indonesia, July 17, 2009
Obama Condemns Jakarta Bombings
8 Killed, 50 Wounded Including 8 Americans
-
Play CBS Video Video Jakarta Terrorist Bombings CBS security consultant Juan Zarate talks to Bob Orr about breaking details from the terrorist attacks at two hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia.
-
-
A foreigner injured in the hotel bombings is brought to a hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 17, 2009. (AP Photo)
-
An armed police officer stands guard outside the Ritz-Carlton hotel after an explosion went off in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
-
Police officers inspect the damage after an explosion went off at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, July 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
-
An armed police officer stands guard outside the Ritz-Carlton hotel after an explosion went off in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
-
-
Fast Facts Indonesia Learn about the people, economy and history.
-
Photo Essay Jakarta Hotel Blast Bombs exploded at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in the Indonesian capital.
President Barack Obama condemned the "outrageous attacks" on two hotels in the Indonesian capital on Friday, and U.S. officials said at least eight Americans were among those wounded in the suicide bombings.
None of the eight suffered life-threatening injuries, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. All had been treated, and two were taken to Singapore for additional medical care.
"I strongly condemn the attacks that occurred this morning in Jakarta, and extend my deepest condolences to all of the victims and their loved ones," said Mr. Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.
A U.S. official said Mr. Obama planned to call Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Suicide bombers posing as guests attacked American luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital and set off a pair of blasts Friday that killed at least eight people and wounded more than 50, authorities said.
The bombings, which came two minutes apart, ended a four-year lull in terror attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation. At least eight Americans were among the wounded.
The blasts at the highrise J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, located side-by-side in an upscale business district in Jakarta, blew out windows and scattered debris and glass across the street, kicking up a thick plume of smoke. An Associated Press reporter saw bodies being carried away in police trucks.
The attackers evaded hotel security, smuggling explosives into the Marriott and assembling the bombs in a room on the 18th floor, where an undetonated device was found after the explosions. The bombers had stayed at the hotel for two days and set off the blasts in restaurants at both hotels.
"They had been using the room as their 'command post' since July 15, and today they were supposed to check out," police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said.
Alex Asmasubrata, who was jogging nearby, said he walked into the Marriott before emergency services arrived and "there were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach," he said. "It was terrible."
There were conflicting casualty counts - some reports indicating nine deaths, while others said the total was eight.
The attack occurred as the Marriott was hosting a regular meeting of top foreign executives at major companies in Indonesia organized by the consultancy firm CastleAsia, said the group, which is headed by an American.
An Australian think tank, the Strategic Policy Institute, had warned the Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah might launch new attacks just a day before Friday's deadly strike.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks.
Two of those wounded at the Ritz-Carlton were employees of Phoenix-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc., said Bill Collier, a company spokesman. CBS News has learned that one of the employees is American, the other is Indonesian. Collier declined to release their names, citing company policy, but said their injuries were not life-threatening.
Freeport operates the world's largest gold mine in Indonesia's restive eastern Papua province. Several attacks have occurred in the past week on the road from the firm's sprawling Grasberg mining complex to the mountain mining town of Timika, leaving at least 15 people killed or wounded.
Authorities initially blamed the ambushes on Papuan separatists, but official statements now refer to "an armed group" of professional marksmen.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna said the likely perpetrators were from Jemaah Islamiyah.
"The only group with the intention and capability to mount attacks upon Western targets is Jemaah Islamiyah. I have no doubt Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible for this attack," he said.
There was a crackdown in recent years by anti-terrorist officials in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million, but Gunaratna said the group was "still a very capable terrorist organization."
Police have detained most of the key figures in the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah and rounded up hundreds of other sympathizers and lesser figures.
Authorities did not immediately name a suspect, but suspicion fell on the Jemaah Islamiyah or its allies. The al Qaeda-linked network is blamed for past attacks in Indonesia, including a 2003 bombing at the Marriott in which 12 people died and the 2002 bombings of two Bali nightclubs, which killed 202 people.
(CBS)
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the attack was carried out by a "terrorist group" and vowed to arrest the perpetrators. He also suggested a possible link to last week's national presidential election.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the bombings as "senseless" in a statement issued from the Czech Republic, as she traveled on to India.
Mr. Obama and Clinton pledged U.S. support for the Indonesian government. They said attacks underscored the need to remain steadfast in the fight against violent extremism.
"We will continue to partner with Indonesia to eliminate the threat from these violent extremists, and we will be unwavering in supporting a future of security and opportunity for the Indonesian people," Mr. Obama said.
Clinton said the attacks "reflect the viciousness of violent extremists, and remind us that the threat of terrorism remains very real."
The European Union condemned the blasts.
The Manchester United football team canceled a visit to Indonesia in the wake of the attacks. The team had been scheduled to stay at the Ritz- Carlton on Saturday and Sunday.
Security is tight at five-star hotels in Indonesia. Guests typically walk through metal detectors and vehicles are inspected, but many visitors say searches are often cursory.
"If they (the terrorists) were to separate explosives and metals they could get through the detectors because the wands the hotels use do not detect explosives," said Jakarta-based security consultant Ken Conboy.
The Marriott was hit first, followed by the blast at the Ritz-Carlton.
Security Minister Widodo Adi Sucipto told reporters the explosions happened at 7:45 a.m. and 7:47 a.m. and that "high explosives were used." He said eight people were killed and 50 wounded.
"All of a sudden there was a huge explosion," Lydia Ruddy, who lives and works across the street from the Ritz, recounted to Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez. "As I walked up toward the hotel it was eerily calm. There were people starting to come out of the buildings, smoke was pouring out of the windows."
Security video footage shown on a local TV station captured the moment of the explosion in one of the hotels. The brief, grainy images show a man in a cap walking across the lobby toward the restaurant with other hotel guests and then smoke filling the air.
"There was a big explosion followed by a shock wave," said Ahmad Rochadi, a security guard at the Marriott who was checking cars in the basement. "I rushed upstairs and saw smoke billowing from the lobby."
Anti-terrorist forces with automatic weapons rushed to the site, and authorities blocked access to the hotels in a district also home to foreign embassies.
It has been nearly four years since a major terrorist attack in Indonesia - a triple suicide bombing at restaurants at the resort island of Bali that killed 20 people.
The security minister and police said a New Zealander was among those killed, and that 17 other foreigners were among the wounded, including Americans and citizens of Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea and Britain.
The dead New Zealander was identified by his employer as Timothy David Mackay, 62, who worked for cement products manufacturer PT Holcim Indonesia. He was reportedly attending a business meeting at the Marriott.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More From World
Add a Comment See all 31 Comments
- I see some poor bitter lonely neocons posting.
Best to let the poor bitter neocons squeal all they want in name of free speech while the rest of us get down to making the rules and governing the country. Man, I'm so glad I'm not a neocon! LOL! - Reply to this comment
- Better to condemn this thing in another country than the oil companies and Wall street raping America right Mr. President?
I just read where there was a rally on Wall Street because oil prices are up 3.00 TODAY in spite of a "HUGE SURPLUS" (their words not mine ) and a big decrease in demand.
I think I will start calling Obama, "GW Obama" since he also seems to be in bed with Wall Street and the Oil companies too just like Bush.
Not one word so far and not one investigation by the DOJ regarding manipulation of oil and gas prices on Wall Street.
Our economy is getting worse and anyone with a lick of sense knows it was gasoline prices that started it and it is gasoline prices that is holding back any recovery and all Obama is worried about (like Bush ) is problems in other countries and their "rights" and "democracy" (just like Bush).
I am really disappointed, but not surprised.
"Change" - Not.
No wonder Obama's approval is dropping, it is just more of the same. - Reply to this comment
- by brianbwb-2009 July 17, 2009 10:36 AM EDT
While I agree we could do without the neos, I am not one to advocate murdering, and suggest anyone who does be reported to the police. Good thing these posts allow cowards to hide their identity.
___________________________________________
Set an example for us, brianbwb-2009.
Post your full name and address here. - Reply to this comment
- What is the right way to deal with Muslim terrorist in southern Philippines, southern Thailand, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Semolina, Ethiopia, Iraq, Palestine, Russia, Afghanistan, China, and the 30 countries elsewhere where Muslim terrorist are killing? If they can?t kill Jews, or Hindus, or Brits, or Americans, or the government forces of the counties they live in, then they will just kill each other, like the Sunni woman who suicide bombed and killed 40 Shiite pilgrims, now a bomb in Indonesia kills more.
Jihadi terrorist violence goes by many names, but it is all terrorism and murder by any name. They call themselves Hamas or Islamic Jihad, or Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Palestine , Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM); in Pakistan, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) in Bangladesh, Taliban-HEI-Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Hezbollah in Lebanon, there are many more, they have different names in different places in the world, but you must understand that Jihadi terrorists recognize no honor, no agreements, only murder. - Reply to this comment
- Dear Supreme Leader of North Korea. What are you waiting for? Now is the time. I am telling you if you mass 3 million troops on the DMZ, Obama will blink. He will call for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Then, you can march into Seoul without a shot being fired.
- Reply to this comment
-
- Well, it isn't happening, which pretty much demonstrate from which orifice you pull your ideas from.
- With each outrageous attack, Islam turns the world's hatred on itself.
Islam is committing suicide. - Reply to this comment
- And we have those within America who wish to disable the CIA, NSA and the FBI. Who is sicker, the rabid dog or the ones who welcomes the rabid dog into their home.
- Reply to this comment
-
- No one I have seen wants to dismantle these government departments, as far as I know we simply want to make them accountable to those of us whose money they take.
If you have a problem with that, it's your problem alone. I don't see you posting such drivel when you read about the kkk, or aryan nations, btw...
- No one I have seen wants to dismantle these government departments, as far as I know we simply want to make them accountable to those of us whose money they take.
- A group committed to establishing an international Islamic empire and reportedly linked to Al Qaeda is stepping up its Western recruitment efforts by holding its first official conference in the U.S.
Now, it is coming out of the shadows and openly hosting a July 19 conference entitled, "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam," at a posh Hilton hotel in a suburb of CHICAGO ! - Reply to this comment
-
- So? every Sunday, thousands of "Christian" churches are preaching the fall of the entire planet (which they call armageddon) and the rise of "Christianity".
Even though personally I think both sides are fools, last time I checked America does have a concept called "freedom of speech", and another called "freedom of religion".
So your point is...?
As I thought, you really don't have any.
- So? every Sunday, thousands of "Christian" churches are preaching the fall of the entire planet (which they call armageddon) and the rise of "Christianity".
- This stuff will only end when every one of those dogs and shot and killed.
- Reply to this comment
- The "religion of peace" strikes again. Makes sense...there's nothing more peaceful than a dead person.
- Reply to this comment
- "They were disguised as guests and stayed in room 1808."
So they had money to stay in the expensive hotel, eh?
Follow the money, the deliverers might have been Indonesian, but the money was not, no Indonesian would have done that, when they could have occupied any of the ramshackle structures within a few tens of yards away, and pocketed the difference. - Reply to this comment
-
- Btw, just finished watching video from the hotel camera about 10 minutes ago.
It shows a person, possibly Indonesian, but generally of indeterminate ethnicity, of a very light complexion in a two piece blue silk suit, and a baseball cap (stuff hardly ever worn by Indonesians), dragging a roller suitcase with extendable handle (like a stewardess suitcase) behind him, goes through the lobby into a wing, out of camera range, about fifteen seconds later the explosion fills the entire camera range. Judging by the size of the suitcase, compared to the size of the explosion, I would think that high explosives, like C-4 was the likely material, a lot of bang in a small size.
Quite likely, judging from the exaggerated gait, that it was a local trying to appear to be a westerner, the suit, (probably cost about US $250 if made locally, or maybe US$400 if bought abroad, and the room on the 18th floor is about 300 per night, all in all that would appear to have been an operation that cost a few thousand dollars to set up and execute, plus the fee to the perp's family, perhaps US $2,500 to 3,000, so taking into account certain factors about Indonesian culture, perhaps US $20,000/30,000 was spent on this operation.
With the average employee salary in Indonesia, about US$60 per month, that is way above normal, and is a good place to start tracing the money, not many Indonesians have that kind of money, the rich of course do, but they would never spend it on that.
Had it been a local job, the most likely way would have been to masquerade as a delivery person, no suit needed, and no rooms necessary, and much cheaper. Slip the security guard about $5 (Id. Rp.50,000) and anyone can take anything in, and it would have been far less conspicuous.
I do believe the money trail will lead to the planners, as they left too many clues suggesting that they were not local.
- IThoughtItWasFunnyNaaaah
I am at least not so stupid as to make the assumption that you do, that it must be one particular group, knowing that it could very well be any of several, It could even be an insurance scam, a rival drug gang turf war, an internecine political squabble, as well as international meddling. all of these things happen all over the world.
Only one brain cell in your head, must be why you can only conceive of one idea.
- Btw, just finished watching video from the hotel camera about 10 minutes ago.
- "They were disguised as guests and stayed in room 1808."
So they had money to stay in the expensive hotel, eh?
Follow the money, the deliverers might have been Indonesian, but the money was not, no Indonesian would have done that, when they could have occupied any of the ramshackle structures within a few tens of yards away, and pocketed the difference. - Reply to this comment
- "A pair of powerful explosions at two luxury hotels killed nine and wounded at least 50 people in an upscale Jakarta neighborhood Friday morning, sending debris and glass flying onto the streets."
I wouldn't call it an "upscale" neighborhood, it is more like areas in Mumbai, India, tall towers of luxury apartments seemingly growing out of the squalor of makeshift, corrugated tin roof-ed houses.
The hotels are indeed upscale, but the dwellings around them are definitely not.
It is what America is becoming, the very rich among the very poor, with no middle-class buffer. - Reply to this comment
- Murderous radicals cause the entire world to hate Islam.
Islam is committing suicide. - Reply to this comment
-
- More likely covert western operatives posing as "Islamic terrorists" are causing the anti Islamic sentiment in the US and Britain.
Al Qaeda, for one example, was organized, funded, trained, armed, amd placed by the CIA during the Russia Afghanistan war.
A good third of the rest of the entire world is Islamic, so it might be wise to consider before you post, that you are not the entire world.
- More likely covert western operatives posing as "Islamic terrorists" are causing the anti Islamic sentiment in the US and Britain.
- The White House just released a statement. It says that President Obama is very concerned about the bombing in Indonesia and that he will be bearing witness tomorrow morning between 11:00am and 11:15am and the next day he will be seeing how things play out.
- Reply to this comment
