Jakarta’s ‘Five-Star’ Hotel Terrorist Bombings

With over 17,508 islands, Indonesia is known around the globe as the largest archipelago in the world. With a population of over 240.2 million people, it also currently ranks as the 4th most populated nation on earth and has sadly been no stranger to global terrorism.

From the horrific 2002 Bali nightclub bombings (which killed over 201 people) to a 2003 bombing at the JW Marriott Hotel (which killed over 12 people and was one of the two sites of the most recent July 2009 terrorist attack); Indonesia has had to face the challenge of being one of the most vibrant multi-ethnic (and multi-religious) democracies in the world today.

At around 7:45am local time on Friday July 17, 2009, near-simultaneous explosions tore through both the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in downtown Jakarta during the morning breakfast hour, killing at least nine (9) people and injuring over fifty people, according to an Indonesian presidential spokesman.

“I looked out my window and I saw a huge cloud of brownish smoke go up,” said Greg Woolstencroft in a live telephone interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper right outside the Ritz-Carlton Jakarta; where he had once lived for an entire year.

“I grabbed my iPhone to go downstairs … and then the second bomb went off at the Ritz-Carlton, so I then ran around to the Ritz-Carlton and I was able to find that there had been a massive bomb that went off in this … restaurant area and the explosion had blown out both sides of the hotel.

“I found inside the body of what appears to be a suicide bomber, it looked like someone who had been a suicide bomber or someone who had been very, very close to the explosion…”

This is where Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) probably comes into the picture.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG), Jemaah Islamiyah is a Southeast Asian terrorist organization based in Indonesia which has remained active and dangerous with the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and other acts of terrorism; despite the mid-August 2003 arrest of Riduan Isamuddin (better known by his nom de guerre, Hambali), one of its top operatives who was once dubbed the ‘Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia’ and was one of 14 key terrorists held in CIA secret prisons (or ‘black sites’) before being moved to Guantanamo Bay in late 2006.

The most interesting debate of this 2009 Jakarta ‘Five-Star’ Hotel Attack at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott may revolve around the modus operandi of these attacks and how they differ from both the 2003 Marriott bombings (at the same exact hotel) and the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings.

According to media reports, the August 2003 Marriott bombings in Jakarta occurred when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car to the taxi rank in front of the hotel, detonating it just outside the lobby. The blast tore through the hotel entrance, blowing out walls and shattering windows, severely damaging five floors of the American-owned hotel.

Furthermore, explosives and methods used in the August 2003 deadly blast were similar to those used in the Bali bombings, which had occurred in October 2002.

Former CNN producer John Towriss said that the Jakarta Marriott has beefed up security since the August 2003 attacks, making it impossible for people to drive up to the hotel entrance in cars. Both hotels had set up metal detectors and thick concrete barriers to prevent car bombers from driving up to the front lobbies.

However, it is quite clear that the terrorists may have slightly altered their criminal modus operandi to achieve their sinister operational ends in this most recent terrorist attack.

“I just don’t know how someone could get in there with a bomb, given the level of security and screening that people have to go through,” said the aforementioned eyewitness Greg Woolstencroft, who currently lives across the street from the hotels and who had again lived inside the Ritz-Carlton for over a year.

Like former CNN producer John Towriss, he also highlighted the impeccable security at both hotels, with armed guards and metal detector screening centers to search people, bags and vehicles before they could even enter the hotels.

So, if a person could not drive a car bomb to the front entrance of the two hotels (because of cement barricades and/or armed checkpoints) AND a person could not walk into the hotel with a bomb in a backpack (since it would presumably be found at the front entrance metal detector screening center); the only rational (and chilling) conclusion was that this was (at least partially) aided by an ‘inside job’ with hotel employees (or checked-in guests) of one (or both) of the hotels. Based on all media reports coming out of Jakarta, Indonesian police forces would be wise to investigate and interview people within these two hotels to see if any criminal leads come to fruition.

As someone who has stayed in four and five-star hotels in the Muslim world and beyond, I have seen firsthand the security measures in place which include cement barricades preventing cars from driving to front entrances and metal detector screening centers at the front door entrances of these hotels.

Because we should be reminded that this is not the first time that we have seen high-caliber Western hotels being targeted within the Muslim world and beyond. In addition to the September 2008 Islamabad Marriott bombing in Pakistan (which killed over 54 people) and the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks at the Taj and Oberoi hotels in India (which killed over 173 people), it is quite clear that high-caliber Western hotels around the world are prime targets for acts of terrorism. Because high-profile Westerners and expatriates frequent these four and five-star hotels, these terrorists seem to relish having ‘Western’ targets in their own backyards.

Either way, the tragedy of these most recent Jakarta bombings at the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels has already transpired. As the 240 million wonderful people of Indonesia mourn this terrorist attack on their soil this evening; we want the people of Jakarta to know that the rest of the world mourns alongside with you.