CIA uncovers details of Apec terrorist plot

By SCOTT MacLEOD

The United States claims to have precise details of a plot to attack hotels, aircraft and a tourist area during a gathering of world leaders, including Prime Minister Helen Clark, in Thailand next month.

Thailand says the plot included plans to blow up three embassies and bomb the most popular area of Bangkok for western backpackers - a place where dozens of New Zealanders reside at any one time.

The plot is thought to have been foiled when Hambali, a suspected terrorist, was arrested in the ancient Thai city of Ayutthaya on August 11.

The New York Times yesterday reported that Hambali had since told CIA agents of plans to attack the US-owned hotels Bangkok Marriott and The Conrad.

The attack was meant to disrupt the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit from October 20, which Helen Clark is to attend with US president George W. Bush and 19 other leaders.

A spokesman for Helen Clark, Mike Munro, refused to say yesterday which hotel she would stay in. He said security was expected to be tight.

News agency AFP quoted an unnamed Thai security official as saying Hambali also planned to bomb the US, Israeli and Japanese embassies. His terrorists would fire missiles at commercial airliners and bomb Khao San Rd, a steamy part of Bangkok favoured by young backpackers.

The attacks were not necessarily meant to take place during the summit.

Hambali is suspected of having plotted or financed terror attacks on Jakarta's Marriott Hotel in August and last October's Bali bombing, which killed three New Zealanders.

There has been a major boost in security at the two Bangkok hotels, but concerns remain about the city's international airport. Aircraft swoop low over sprawling suburbs to land at the airport, making them easy prey for terrorists with shoulder-launched rockets.

The al Qaeda terrorist group is thought to have Stinger missiles which the US gave to Afghan rebels in the 1980s.

Hambali, an Indonesian, is thought to be a leader in the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group and to have links with al Qaeda, which carried out the September 11 terror attacks.

The Times quoted an unnamed ambassador as saying Hambali's capture "significantly" reduced the risk of terror attacks in Southeast Asia.

The US is thought to be holding him at an air base in Bagram, Afghanistan.