I wonder how the people in Australia will feel about this one?
JAKARTA (Reuters) - A Bali bomber serving a life term for his role in the nightclub blasts that killed 202 people was treated by police to an outing at an up-market shopping mall in the Indonesian capital, police admitted Thursday. Ali Imron was spotted Wednesday sipping coffee at a Starbucks in the central Plaza Indonesia mall, where security has been tightened after a wave of bombings targeting Western interests in recent years. He was accompanied by Brigadier-General Gorris Mere, who is involved in the Bali investigations, and a number of armed guards, who quickly escorted Imron to a waiting car and drove away after being spotted by reporters. Police were initially unable to confirm Imron's outing, but Thursday morning, after reports appeared in newspapers, the national police spokesman said the excursion was part of an effort to investigate terror cases. "As long as it's for the investigation, anything can be done. About the location, it is merely technical. If the examiner or investigator thinks it is necessary then it would be allowed. No problem," said Inspector-General Paiman. Other police officials said Imron had been brought to Jakarta in connection with another case. Paiman declined to say how long Imron would remain in the capital. Imron was sentenced to life in jail last September for his role in the 2002 nightclub blasts. The majority of those killed were foreign tourists.So, let's see if I've got this one straight. The police in Indonesia take a convicted Islamofascist bomber out to coffee at Starbucks in an effort to play nice. The guy apparently wanted a good cup of coffee. The authorities agreed and took him to a Starbucks, which happens to be located right in the middle of a mall that would have made an excellent target for the group of nutjobs this man associated with.
"They're just gathering information, Kathy. It's no big deal," you say.
Well, in reply, I would request that you ask yourself this question: How well would it fly here
if, say, Mohammed Atta had survived 9/11 and the police took him to a
Starbucks in Midtown Manhattan in an effort to get information out of
him? Pushing aside the quest for a decent cup of joe for a moment, keep
in mind that there are any number of tall buildings in Midtown that
Al-Qaeda is just itching to take down. Also keep in mind that we
wouldn't know if prison life had cut Atta off from Al-Qaeda. Sure it's
more than likely that he'd be in solitary, but do you really want to
take the chance? If you're law enforcement, do you really want to take
a known bomber to a place where they could gather information for
potential further attacks? Is it really worth it? If that scenario
doesn't set your alarm bells ringing, you just don't get it.