Al Qaeda Suspected In Bali Blast
An amateur camaraman who captured the immediate aftermath of the Bali bombings said it best, reports National Security Correspondent David Martin.
"Guys, this is horrendous. I just don't believe what happened here tonight. Anyway, Ground Zero."
The reference to Ground Zero was more accurate than he knew. On a per capita basis, Australia lost as many of its citizens in the Bali bombings as America did on 9/11. And like 9/11, there's not much doubt who's behind it.
President Bush said Monday that officials "have to assume it's al Qaeda" that's responsible for the weekend bombing in Bali, Indonesia that killed more than 180 people.
"This is a reminder of how dangerous the world can be if these al Qaeda are free to roam," Mr. Bush said at the White House before leaving for a political trip to Michigan.
As CBS News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts reports, they're not quite there yet, but the White House is considering whether to raise the national terror alert from yellow to orange, indicating a high risk of attack.
Sources tell CBS News, despite the apparent pattern of recent bombings and shootings, there is still no specific intelligence to warrant the prolonged state of readiness a code orange would demand, but the alert level is reviewed twice each day.
President Bush did raise an alarm among partners in his coalition against terror, warning them that this is no time to let up in the fight against al Qaeda. Mr. Bush also saw no reason to back off on his push to disarm Saddam, dismissing arguments in Congress that al Qaeda is still the bigger danger and should be dealt with before Mr. Bush takes on Iraq.
FBI and Australian detectives were joining Indonesian authorities to hunt for the killers while forensic experts painstakingly tried to identify bodies. Indonesian government officials said 181 people had died, though hospital workers put the figure at 190.
Terrified tourists were fleeing the island resort of Bali following Saturday's bombing attacks. The U.S. embassy in Jakarta ordered all nonessential staff and dependents to leave Indonesia.
The attack happened on the second anniversary of the terror assault on the USS Cole which killed 17 Americans as the warship refueled in Yemen.
"We are sure al Qaeda is here," said Indonesian Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalilm, after an emergency Cabinet meeting in Jakarta. "The Bali bomb blast is related to al Qaeda with the cooperation of local terrorists."
The leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a group linked to Osama bin Laden's terror network, denied involvement and implicated the United States.
Many of the victims were tourists from Australia, where hundreds of burned, bandaged and bruised survivors arrived in Sydney on Monday to tearful reunions with family and friends. Other victims were from Britain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Ecuador and Indonesia.
Two Americans were killed, the U.S. State Department said, and three others were among more than 300 people injured. Dozens of foreigners remained unaccounted for.
The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, often the target of bomb threats, ordered all nonessential staff and dependents to leave Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. However, American businesses in Indonesia declined to follow suit, saying they did not feel the situation warranted drastic moves.
A bomb threat shut down the embassy's club for a second day. The Australian school in Jakarta closed as a precaution.
Fearing that terrorists could strike again, thousands of stunned tourists thronged Bali's airport, desperately looking for flights. Many vacationers camped overnight on beaches, shunning built-up areas in case of more attacks.
"We just want to go back to our families," said Carima Sebba, 26, from the Netherlands. "I'm scared, I won't be back for a long time."
As stocks tumbled in Jakarta by more than 9 percent Monday and the Indonesian rupiah also took a dive against the U.S. dollar, many worried about a long-term decline in tourism, one of Indonesia's top industries.
More than 5 million foreigners visited Indonesia in 2001, about 1.5 million to Bali alone. All told, they inject about $5 billion into the economy each year.
No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, the worst terrorist attack in Indonesia's history. But suspicion immediately turned to al Qaeda and an affiliated group, Jemaah Islamiyah, which is said to want a pan-Islamic state across Malaysia, Indonesia and the southern Philippines.
Jemaah Islamiyah has already been implicated in a plot at the beginning of this year to bomb foreign embassies in the region, and Australia says it is a prime suspect in the Bali attack.
"The attack bears the hallmarks of JI," said an expert on al Qaeda, Rohan Gunaratna. "Only the JI has both the intention and capability to conduct a professional terrorist attack like the Bali operation."
Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim cleric accused of leading Jemaah Islamiyah, denied involvement and blamed the blast on the United States.
"I suspect that the bombing was engineered by the United States and its allies to justify allegations that Indonesia is a base for terrorists," he said from Solo, a city in central Java, where he runs an Islamic boarding school.
Indonesian police refused to say whether Bashir would be questioned despite repeated calls by neighboring countries that he be arrested.
On Bali, there was no visible evidence of a higher security presence or stricter controls at the airport, though police officials insisted that an elite unite had been deployed. Police said they had no suspects.
Balinese officials said that only 39 positive identifications had been made, listing 15 Australians, eight Britons, five Singaporeans, six Indonesians, one German, one French citizen, one Dutch citizen, one New Zealander and one Ecuadorean.
In London, the government said at least 30 Britons had died.
Seven U.N. staffers from nearby East Timor, vacationing in Bali, were injured and two were unaccounted for, U.N. officials said.
In Washington, Mr. Bush said the Indonesia bombing, attacks on U.S. troops in Kuwait and the bombing of a French oil tanker in Yemen point to al Qaeda and the need for a global coalition to fight the terrorist group.
"We just learned a lesson this week. It's going to take a while to succeed," he said.
Still, he said, the battle against al Qaeda will not distract him from his confrontation with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, even as world leaders question whether America is spreading its troops too thin.
"We will fight, if need be, the war on terrorism on two fronts," Mr. Bush said in a hurriedly organized question-and-answer session with reporters.
The destruction in Bali started when a small homemade bomb exploded outside Paddy's Discotheque in the maze of clubs and bars on Kuta Beach, a popular haunt with young travelers. Shortly afterward, a huge blast from a bomb in a Toyota Kijang, a jeep-like vehicle, 30 yards down the street, devastated the crowded Sari Club, a surfers' hangout.
A third, smaller bomb exploded outside the U.S. consular office. No one was injured in that blast.
The United States and Indonesia's neighbors have urged Jakarta for months to pass an anti-terrorism law that has been languishing in the Parliament contending there is a strong al Qaeda presence here. Without the law, Indonesia says, security forces cannot arrest suspects without clear evidence they have committed a crime.
"This horrible incident has only made it that much more urgent that they find some way to deal with this problem," U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce said. "They (Indonesians) are in the middle of doing that."