NEIGHBORS

Our lovely neighbors in Indonesia have decided to expel one of the top experts on Southeast Asian Islamofascists.

The world's largest Islamic nation has had enough of Sidney Jones, who helped uncover a network of Indonesian-based terrorists connected to al-Qaeda
An American researcher whose work helped expose a network of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in Indonesia has been ordered out of the country for violating her work permit, an immigration official said yesterday.
However, terrorism expert Sidney Jones claimed that Indonesia's intelligence agency was behind the expulsion order because it considered reports published by her group, International Crisis Group (ICG), to be "subversive."

Jones was very active in exposing Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and other Islamic jihadi groups in Indonesia long before the Indonesian government would admit to their existence. In a report dated August 2002 – two months before the Bali bombing - the ICG reported on a network of Al-Qaeda linked militants that was “centered around a religious boarding school (pesantren or pondok) near Solo, Central Java” and urged the government to “be alert to the possibility of individuals making common cause with international criminals.”

It was a prescient warning, those later arrested for the Bali bombing were linked to the Solo school and its 'spiritual leader' Abu Bakar Ba’asyir.

The Indonesian government seemed to be getting serious about rooting out the jihadis after the Bali bombing – but later drifted back to its old ways.

The running mate of probable oil-for-food plan beneficiary Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, Islamic leader Hasyim Muzadi, says the expulsion shouldn't indicate that Indonesia is against the war on terror.**

Perhaps it's isn't – but it isn't helping much.

(** At least I think that's what he said, he used a triple negative - “We must not be branded as no longer be against terrorism just because of a person like Sydney Jones.”)

ICG country reports on Indonesia are here.