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The closure of this one charity in Cambodia was a useful but rare victory. For the most part, say regional-terrorism experts, efforts to shut off the financing of terror in Asia remain woefully incomplete. "Money is the terrorist's lifeblood," says Gunaratna. "It is the difference between big and small operations, between many people dying and just a few. Going after the financing is absolutely critical."
YOUNG GUNS
Meanwhile, JI appears to have little trouble attracting new recruits. Indonesia has yet to take action against the handful of pesantren, or Muslim boarding schools, that have been breeding grounds for future terrorists, and young Muslim men are still making their way to similar institutions in countries such as Pakistan to be imbued with jihadist fervor. A fortnight ago, a group of 17 Indonesians and Malaysians was arrested in the country on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities. "We still don't have a clear idea of the extent of the Indonesian presence in Pakistan," says Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based expert on JI. "But there are hundreds upon hundreds of students there who are potential recruits."
One of those arrested in Pakistan was Hambali's younger brother, 26-year-old Rusman (Gun Gun) Gunawan. He and the others who were detained insist they were attending school in the country merely to get a religious education. Yet in his confession, Hambali himself fingers Gunawan as one of his chief conduits to al-Qaeda. Gunawan, a student at Abu Bakr University in Karachi, acted for a year-and-a-half as a messenger between Hambali and his al-Qaeda contacts, Hambali says. "After giving some phone numbers and addresses to his brother or vice versa," says the interrogator's report, "al-Qaeda's operatives began to make direct contact with the captive's messenger and made specific operational actions/transactions, including money transfers." Though no charges have been filed against Gunawan, Western diplomats and Pakistani officials claim he may in fact have been plotting a terrorist action and not simply serving as an alleged courier. "He and the others were arrested to prevent a major disaster," says Aftab Ahmed Shaikh, an adviser to the Home Minister of Sindh province.
Likewise, the Philippines remains another potential terrorism hotbed where JI appears to have made important inroads. Hambali estimates that a "large number of members of Jemaah Islamiah Indonesia are hiding in the Philippines and supporting the MILF." The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is fighting for an independent Muslim state in Mindanao in the southern Philippines, denies it has ties to JI or al-Qaeda, but regional intelligence officials say JI operatives continue to train in MILF-protected camps. Hambali lends credence to suspicions that such ties exist between the MILF and JI: he told his interrogators that he sent about $27,000 to the MILF as recently as June.
THE NEXT BOMB
With Asia's terrorist networks still clearly in place, the threat of further attacks seems undiminished. Hambali himself concedes that JI remains formidable in Indonesia, where it has "always found strong support at the grassroots level." Even more troubling, interrogations of captured militants have led Indonesian police to conclude that JI operatives are in possession of up to 300 kilos of explosives already largely assembled as bombs and ready for quick use. "There are two bombs still out there," says police general I Made Mangku Pastika, who led the successful Bali investigation. "One of them is a vest bomb. We are worried about this. Frankly, we don't know where they are. They could be anywhere."
There is also the risk of complacency—and sheer exhaustion—setting in as the tedious but vital war on terror drags on. From border checkpoints to embassies, from airports to hotels, it can be hard to ensure that the people on the front lines continue to sustain the heightened state of alertness produced by the devastation in Bali. "People need to be reminded every three or six months" about the threat of terrorism, says Tan Guong Ching, permanent secretary at Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs, which oversees domestic security. "It is not a war in the conventional sense." A Western diplomat based in Asia echoes that sentiment: "In 2001 and last year, it felt like war. Now it's just a grind. It's going to require a sustained commitment and hard work to keep going. But it's really the only way." Words to live by. Literally.