Terrorists Threaten Indonesia Through Twitter

Someone claiming to represent an Islamic group in Indonesia is using Twitter to spread bomb threats in Indonesia. This began on Monday, and has continued up until today. The Twitter account @alhamazah was threatening to bomb the JW Marriott Hotel on August 17, 2011, which coincided with the celebration of Indonesian independence day. This hotel was twice a target of bombings in the past.

Here’s the translated tweet : Spread this! We will bomb JW MArriott Jakarta on August 17, 2011 for the third time!

Threats were also sent to some media and ministers’ Twitter accounts, including tvOneNews and the Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Tifatul Sembiring.

In addition, the user also listed the following locations as possible bombing targets:

• The United States Embassy, Parliament Building
• The Ritz-Carlton Hotel
• Indonesia’s International Airport
• Headquarters of the Indonesian police
• The Presidential Palace

But about an hour ago, Al-Hamazah tweeted that he will postpone the bombing plan. Instead he threatened three cities in Indonesia as his targets.

The terrorist’s Twitter account reads ‘Islam Group on Indonesian,’ so ostensibly it’s a radical Muslim group. The purpose of the threat is unclear, but it is indeed disturbing to Indonesia’s government and citizens.

Police are cooperating with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to trace the owner of the Twitter account. The meta data shows that the Tweets were sent via a BlackBerry handset, which helps narrow the investigation somewhat. “We’ll see who the owner (of the Twitter account is), and where he is. Of course we will not announce (the suspect), we will keep the information in our files. We’ll see,” said Tifatul Sembiring.

His department will also ask Twitter to delete the terrorist account if it becomes increasingly dangerous. Sembiring said that the owner of this account will be charged a penalty of 12 years in prison.

The Indonesian government itself has often become targets of threats and terror through the Internet and via mobile technology. Earlier this month, the president of Indonesia himself was also a target of slander news. Of course these recent terror threats are far more serious, and hopefully they turn out to be nothing more than that — just threats.