6.

AI-Qaeda sent cash for bombers' families: Hambali

MATTHEW MOORE
The Age (9/29/03)

AI-Qaeda sent $US100,000 to Indonesia to support the families of the men arrested over the Bali
bombings, key terror suspect Hambali has reportedly told investigators.

But instead of distributing the money to families, the funds were used to finance the August 5
bombing of Jakarta's Marriott Hotel, according to a report in the Media Indonesia newspaper.
Citing a record of interview with Hambali provided to Indonesian police, the newspaper also
quoted him saying that Jemaah Islamiah, the group blamed for the Bali bombings, had received
"operational funds" from one of the most senior al-Qaeda figures, Khalid Sheik Mohammed,
before he was arrested in Pakistan in March.

As well as his disclosures pointing to close financial links between al-Qaeda and Jl, Hambali
admitted to police that Jl was the extension of al-Qaeda in South-East Asia.

Hambali, whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, was captured in Thailand on August 11 and has
been in US custody at a secret location ever since. He is alleged to be al-Qaeda's top agent in
South-East Asia, and operational commander of Jl.

The record of interview with him was given to Indonesian police by US and Thai investigators.

According to the newspaper report, Hambali told investigators that the $US100,000 ($A148,000)
was sent to Indonesia in two instalments because al-Qaeda had been "very satisfied" with the
October 12 Bali bombings, in which 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed. Hambali
said Jl enjoyed a lot of support in Indonesia and raised money from companies that sold
bananas, coconut milk and oil.

Money was also collected in mosques, although this could not be done openly because Jl was a
banned organisation. "If they collected money openly for Jl, of course they would be destroyed by
the Government," Hambali reportedly told investigators.

Hambali said he received the money for the Bali bombers' families from a man named Mohd
Fariq bin Amin, whom he had met in Karachi, Pakistan. He had then passed on the money to
Noordin Mohamed Top, a key terror suspect who is wanted over both the Bali and Marriott
attacks.

He told interrogators he became a member of al-Qaeda in October 2001 in Kandahar,

Afghanistan, where he met Salib Sheik Muhammed, alias Mukhtar, a senior al-Qaeda member.

Other al-Qaeda figures he named included Sheik Abu Ahmad AI-Kuwaiti, who he said was the
contact between himself and al-Qaeda, Amar AI-Baluchi, and Khallad