The upcoming APEC summit in Thailand is still at risk of attack despite last week's arrest of suspected terrorist mastermind Hambali, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage warned yesterday.
Hambali, a suspected close ally of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and alleged operations chief of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network, was arrested last Monday in Thailand where he was accused of planning to attack the October summit meeting.
Armitage, who has been in Australia for talks with the government focusing on the war on terrorism and North Korea, said it could not be assumed his arrest meant there was no longer a threat to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
"That would be a foolish assumption," he told the Channel Nine television network.
"We have a top planner, we do not have all the members of al-Qaeda in our possession, or JI in this case.
"I think the better assumption is that these fellows are out to do us ill and we ought to take every precaution against this."
He said he believed "a general threat" existed, not necessarily directed at the APEC meeting.
"Whether that meeting threat has been alleviated I can't say, but we know there are a certain number of terrorist plots that have been hatched and we've got to guard against them and the capture of Hambali, while very important, is not the end of terrorism in this region unfortunately."
Prime Minister John Howard, who discussed the capture of Hambali with Armitage in Canberra last week, said yesterday that he would attend the APEC summit in Thailand unless he received strong intelligence to advise him against doing so.
"I'm going to the meeting unless there's some very powerful advice to the contrary," Howard told the Ten network."
He cited the capture of Hambali, whom he described as "mastermind of Bali and the main link-man between al-Qaeda and JI," as evidence that progress was being made in the fight against Jemaah Islamiyah.
"As to whether you can say a book has been closed, let's wait and see," he said, adding that it was speculative to suggest Hambali had already done the necessary planning for an attack on the APEC summit.
Howard said the Australian security agencies were getting full cooperation from the US over Hambali.
In a speech here last Wednesday, Armitage urged Australia to play a leading international role in the fight against terrorism and called on the international community to assist Indonesia on the road to economic and political reform so that it can help rid Southeast Asia of terrorism.
"This is a time when the world community needs to help restore Indonesia's faith in herself, certainly by cooperating in counter-terrorism and law enforcement efforts," he said.
But they also needed to engage "across the board," particularly by helping Indonesia along the road to economic and political reform, and in so doing to denying the terrorists the safe haven they often sought.
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