Since September 2001, the United States has been concerned with
radical Islamist groups in Southeast Asia, particularly those in
the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore that
are known to have ties to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Southeast
Asia is a base for past, current, and possibly future Al Qaeda
operations. For nearly fifteen years, Al Qaeda has penetrated the
region by establishing local cells, training Southeast Asians in
its camps in Afghanistan, and by financing and cooperating with
indigenous radical Islamist groups. Indonesia and the southern
Philippines have been particularly vulnerable to penetration by
anti-American Islamic terrorist groups. Members of one indigenous
network, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), with extensive ties to Al Qaeda,
are known to have helped two of the September 11 2001 hijackers and
have confessed to plotting and carrying out attacks against Western
targets. These include the deadliest terrorist attack since
September 2001: the 12 October 2002 bombing in Bali, Indonesia,
that killed approximately 200 people, mostly Westerners. On 9
September 2004, a suicide bombing attack thought to be the work of
JI struck the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 and
wounding around 200. In October 2005, three suicide bombers
exploded bombs within minutes of one another in Bali, killing more
than 20 people. These attacks suggest that JI remains capable of
carrying out relatively large-scale plots against Western targets,
despite the arrest or death of hundreds of JI members, including
most of its known leadership. To combat the threat, the Bush
Administration has pressed countries in the region to arrest
suspected terrorist individuals and organisations, deployed over
1,000 troops to the southern Philippines to advise the Philippine
military in their fight against the violent Abu Sayyaf Group,
launched a Regional Maritime Security Initiative to enhance
security in the Straits of Malacca, increased intelligence sharing
operations, restarted military-military relations with Indonesia
(including restoring International Military Education and Training
[IMET]), and provided or requested from Congress over $1 billion in
aid to Indonesia and the Philippines. The responses of countries in
the region to both the threat and to the U.S. reaction generally
have varied with the intensity of their concerns about the threat
to their own stability and domestic politics. In general,
Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines were quick to crack down
on militant groups and share intelligence with the United States
and Australia, whereas Indonesia began to do so only after attacks
or arrests revealed the severity of the threat to their citizens.
That said, many governments view increased American pressure and
military presence in their region with ambivalence because of the
political sensitivity of the issue with both mainstream Islamic and
secular nationalist groups. Indonesia and Malaysia are majority
Muslim states while the Philippines and Thailand have sizeable, and
historically alienated and separatist-minded, Muslim minorities.
General
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