Latest news on the Bali bombing is that a ex Indonesian airforce officer helped build the bomb.

Also, there is a story in the international press that states the explosives (confirmed as C-4) were purchased from the Indonesian Army by Muslim extremists using money supplied by a Saudi "businessman".

The Indonesian authorities have interviewed about 50 people and are holding 2, for further questioning.

The main suspects are the Jemaah Islamiyah extremists, 15 of which were arrested in Singapore some time ago, who were found with a hit list of US and Australian targets in Singapore, including the Australian embassy. Several of these men were trained by al-Quaida.

The Indonesian Defence Minister has (finally) admitted that Indonesian extremists do have operational links with al-Quaida. Something the international intelligence agencies have known for some time.

The problem the Indonesians have is that the leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah receives support from the Deputy President of Indonesia (!) And, Indonesia has the highest Muslim population outside of the Middle East, and no one wants to upset the applecart by doing anything that could be seen as anti-Muslim, which would play into the hands of the extremists.

Besides, certain senior Army officers directly support extremist Muslim groups. There is another group who have systematically assassinated Christians (over 200 in the last few years) on one of the other Indonesian islands and they regularly receive arms and money from these Indonesian Army officers.

Apart from the theory that Australians were targeted due to their support of the US anti-terrorist campaign, another theory is that we were targeted because of our intervention in East Timor, which upset quite a few Indonesian Army people who were backing the local East Timor Indonesian rebels. When we moved in all that fell apart and several senior officers were accused of aiding in the murder of innocent East Timorese.

Unfortunately, it will not surprise me if the real people responsible for this digusting act are never caught. Politicians in Indonesia walk a very narrow tight rope. Quite a few local politicians tend to just "disappear" come election time.....