Word: abuza
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...Asia is laughing about al-Ghozi being at large. The 32-year-old is the chief bombmaker for Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the regional grouping of Islamic radicals blamed for the devastating blasts in Bali last October as well as a slew of other explosions. According to academic Zachary Abuza, author of a new book about al-Qaeda in the region: "At a time when they've been lying low and licking their wounds because a number of top JI commanders have been arrested, an escape like this is a wonderful gift for their internal propaganda...
...Perhaps even worse is the impact on regional cooperation, a critical component in the war on terror that had just begun to flower after years of institutional inertia and international distrust. "Who is going to trust intelligence or anything else with the Filipinos now?" asks Abuza. Evidence has mounted recently that JI is continuing to plan bomb attacks from Thailand to Indonesia. Now the organization's master bombmaker is back, rested and ready to roll. The region might pay in lives for the negligence of one Manila prison...
...PENT, the prime component of the explosive in would-be bomber Richard Reid's sneakers. What worries terrorism experts is the possibility that a thwarted JI might turn to lone-wolf attacks like Reid's. "I don't think JI is capable of anything big right now," says Zachary Abuza, author of a forthcoming book on al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia, "but I'm worried that we could see the beginning of a number of small attacks...
...intelligence community have long suspected: that JI and al-Qaeda have fanned out from their traditional bases, taking root in countries with lax border controls and little enthusiasm for antiterror campaigns. Terrorists "are like water flowing down a mountain, always taking the path of least resistance," says Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asia terrorism expert. A regional intelligence official told TIME the existence of cells in Cambodia and Thailand demonstrates that the war on terror is far from won. "After the crackdowns in Malaysia and Singapore, they all moved north," he says...
...Across the region, concludes author Abuza, "JI is down but not out. There are definitely some sleeper cells out there." As the Davao bombing demonstrated, the terrorists are hardly sleeping. Mayor Duterte, who almost completely eradicated street crime and drug dealing by meting out summary justice to ne'er-do-wells, says the tragedy at the airport has made him an overnight convert to U.S. President George W. Bush's belligerent approach to terrorism. Indeed, Duterte says he would be delighted to have G.I.s come in to take the terrorists on: "I was always against the Americans coming...