Terrorist Attack on Australian Embassy in Jakarta

At least seven are dead and more than a hundred are injured when an apparent carbomb went off just outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. Recent intelligence pointed towards an attack on a Western embassy and despite a heightened security alert, this attack still managed to be carried out.

Says Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer,

Australian Prime Minister John Howard reports that all Embassy staff are accounted for and it remains unclear as to who the fatalities are. The BBC further reports that:

They've managed to strike again.

Edited because i kept making mistakes.


[Edited on Sep 09, 2004 by Max16Characters]

Crap...can a moderator please move this thread to the correct CE board. It seems i made a mistake.

Edited because humor has no place in this thread, mis-categorized or not.

Sorry.

[Edited on Sep 09, 2004 by treesofmystery]

Oh, Jesus.

Know people there? I know your work has carried you to Indonesia before. If so, i hope they're all right.

Just read that the Aussies are worried that it's related to their upcoming elections. Shades of Madrid. . .

From the looks of things, the dipshits only managed to blow up innocent Indonesian bystanders, so unless someone I know was happening by its unlikely. I was right down the street last fall though. Beyond the obvious tragedy, this is going to be very, very bad for us, the Indonesians, and all of our relationships in the pacific rim, though.

More than likely its related to the presidential runoff in Indonesia. (NB: Indonesia had its first direct presidential election ever, just recently. Under their constitution, in the event of a plurality the top two candidates run off against each other)

Why would this particular bombing have any worse ramifications than any other? Because it's an embassy or political timing or ramifications on our allies?

Its an attack of a sovereign nation, and the timing. Elections in both countries (and the US) stagnation in the Indonesian economy, major power struggles within the parties, major power struggles between the central government and the regional authorities throughout Indonesia. Things are very much in flux over there. Something like this could destabilize the whole country which is the largest and most westernized Islamic country in the world with massive trade ties to the west.

I dont know that it affects our election at all, as neither of our two options will ever look appealing. So it comes down to a devil you know, devil you dont know choice. Ahh well, It's sad that innocent bystanders are killed in an assualt on our embassy, an act against us, not them.

This whole thing is awful.

Well, the Tampa/children overboard thing last time (during the last campaign) just months after 9/11 worked in Howard's favour.

I don't know if this will be his Tampa for this campaign or not. I was getting the sense that attention had turned to domestic matters, and this might change that.

I can't say right now who it'd benefit. On principle, this tends to favour conservatives and clearly Howard has milked this kind of thing before.

Then again, Howard hauled Mick Keelty over the coals some time back (I've posted on the newswire about this in the past here about the claim that our involvement in Iraq increased our risk of exposure to terrorist attacks. Keelty is now one of the people heading to Indonesia in the wake of this attack.

I'm not sure the voting public will see the irony.

[Edited on Sep 09, 2004 by TheFuckOffKid]

That's what I am worrying about as well. Tampa part deux, anyone?