...rs earlier, most notably in a declaration faxed early in 1998 to an Arabic-language newspaper in London. Few Americans had noticed it. The fax had bee... ...8 Al Qaeda helped Jemaah Islamiya (JI), a nas- cent organization headed by Indonesian Islamists with cells scattered across Malaysia, Singapore, Indon... ...n” of Islamic lands. Specifically singling out U.S. forces for attack, the language resembled that which would appear in Bin Ladin’s public fatwa in A... ...s links to extremists in South and Southeast Asia, including the Malaysian-Indonesian JI and several Pakistani groups engaged in the Kashmir conflict.... ...r exposure. 87 On February 23, 1998, Bin Ladin issued his public fatwa.The language had been in negotiation for some time, as part of the merger under... ...Afghanistan.A week later, it appeared in Al Quds al Arabi, the same Arabic-language newspaper in London that had first published Bin Ladin’s February ... ...d Malaysia, where he met with Jemaah Islamiah’s Hambali. Ham- bali was an Indonesian veteran of the Afghan war looking to expand the jihad into South... ...ody Omar Hassan Ahmed President of Sudan, 1989– al Bashir Abu Bakar Bashir Indonesian; spiritual leader and founder of Jemaah Islamiya, al Qaeda–affil... ... Hajer al Iraqi see Mamdouh Mahmud Salim Riduan Isamuddin (a.k.a. Hambali) Indonesian; operational leader of Jemaah Islamiya; currently in U.S. custod...