The Bali Project

Planning a trip to Bali? Read this first. A 34-page document, titled “The Bali Project,” was found on the computer of Azhari Husin, a Malaysian-born engineer educated in Australia and Britain who became a master bomb maker. He was one of the most dangerous terrorists in Southeast Asia until he was killed in a shootout with the police last November. The New York Times carries the article but linking requires registration so I have provided a summary. It is a good insight into the enemies operational procedures and could save lives under the principle of …“know your enemy.” It details plans for a suicide bombing, including even a minute-by-minute choreography of the bombers’ final hours. It was the plan for the attack last Octiber which killed 20 people when three men walked into separate restaurants and blew themselves up. Four of the twenty were Australians. Recon, Target Selection and Logistics. The bombs should be small and placed in day packs, making them harder to detect. The bombers should dress like tourists. They should not bother targeting hotels because security is too tight. Instead they should consider restaurants, discos and theaters.

“Why Bali?” Because it will have a “global impact,” he answers. “Bali is known around the world, better than Indonesia itself,” the author writes. “An attack in Bali will be covered by the international media.” Due to increased intelligence surveilence renting a workshop and moving large amounts of explosives were ruled out. The bombs would be small, in daypacks and brought in by the bombers on buses using ferries. When inspected by security agents the bombers were to get off the bus and leave their daypacks onboard. The baggage on buses was not subject to search. A few weeks before the attacks, the three men who would carry out the operation were sent to Bali to do a “survey” of possible targets for themselves. Possible targets to be surveyed included McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King and KFC restaurants, theaters, a golf course, tattoo parlors, art galleries and souvenir stalls

The men did their reconnaissance, then reported back and were then debriefed by Azhari.

Amongst other matters they decided not to use taxis as the cabbie might help with the luggage and be suspicious of their weight. They decided on motorcycle taxis, which offers no opportunity for the driver to talk to the passenger. They decided that discos and nightclubs offered potential targets because most of the patrons were foreigners, and there was “no security to speak of, easy to enter.” However these were rejected because they thought backpacks would be suspicious when the discos or nightclubs were busiest…about 9:30 pm

That led the men to consider restaurants in Kuta, one of the most popular tourist districts, as well as the seafood restaurants on the beach at Jimbaran. “Of all the places,” the document says, “this may be the easiest, God willing.”

The team explained how the tables at Jimbaran were arranged in the sand, about a yard apart with three to seven diners at each. “Almost 80 percent of the patrons are white,” they said. Others were Chinese or Japanese, they noted, using a derogatory term. The best time would be around 7:30 p.m., when the restaurants were the most crowded and a backpack would not be suspicious.

The survey team came up with four options. Mr. Azhari and Mr. Noordin, it is presumed, chose the fourth: one restaurant at Kuta Square and two restaurants at Jimbaran.

Simultaneous attacks in two locations “will have greater effect than simultaneous attacks in one location,” the document states.

If you are a business man and planning a conference in Bali as a payback to your staff for all their good work over the past years then this should make you reconsider.

There was a further reason for choosing the restaurants at Jimbaran: many of the patrons were businessmen. “The death of foreign businessmen will have a greater impact than of young people.”

Such are the random and insane ways your life can end…at a terrorist planning conference. The Weaponry The team determined that the backpacks should not be mountaineering backpacks, but student day packs, to avoid suspicion. For that reason, Mr. Azhari constructed relatively light bombs weighing 10 to 12 kilograms, or 22 to 26 pounds. He devised two elaborate detonating systems,

The first was “direct” and connected to the explosives in the backpack. The other was on “delay,” for explosives in a fanny pack worn by the bombers. The delay time was 30 seconds; the bomber would flip the switches for that one as he approached the restaurant. That way, if he were stopped by a guard and could not set off the main bomb, the fanny pack would still explode. To avoid accididental detonation en-route Azhari decided to use four switches. There was a green light, placed on the chest side of the left backpack strap so that it was visible only to the bomber, which would go on when the delay system had been an activated. A red light, similarly hidden on the right strap, would indicate that the main bomb was ready, and the bomber only had to flip the last switches. The order in which the switches were flipped did not matter.

The Attack The final movements of the suicide bombers are planned, in some cases to the second.

5:25 p.m. — Pack, check out of the boardinghouse and synchronize watches. 5:30 — Look for a motorcycle taxi to Legian Beach, in Kuta. 6:15 — Arrive near the Hard Rock Cafe and look for a place to pray. 6:35 — End evening prayers. Then the two groups split up. 7:21 — The man who is going to detonate his explosives in Kuta begins moving toward the restaurant, making sure the red and green lights are on. 7:33:04 — Arrive at the restaurant. 7:33:25 — Make sure the delay switches are all ready, and enter restaurant. Meanwhile, the other two suicide bombers reach Jimbaran Beach at 6:50, loiter at a food stall until 7:30, then synchronize their watches again, and begin walking to the outdoor tables on the beach, one 45 yards behind the other. The first man walked into the table area, and the second did the same. Then, the document concludes its choreography. 7:34 — “ALLAH-U AKBAR!!!”

“We tried to minimize the impact on Muslims,” the author explains in the final section, which was written after the attack. “Nevertheless, there were still Muslim victims killed and wounded.” The death toll was a relatively low number compared with the first Bali attack. Five of the 20 killed were foreigners: 4 Australians and a Japanese. Fifteen were Indonesians.