A senior police official in Indonesia says Al Qaida is behind all of the suicide bomb attacks in Indonesia.

The mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, personally arranged for a courier to deliver money to leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah to help fund attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim country from 2002-2005, said Col. Petrus Reinhard Golose of Indonesia’s counterterrorism task force.

Golose said several members of Jemaah Islamiyah met directly with bin Laden in Afghanistan and signed agreements with him before launching the attacks, but he did not elaborate.

It was not immediately clear from which country the funds originated, but he said the money passed through Thailand and Malaysia before reaching Indonesia.

“Thirty thousand U.S. dollars was sent for the first Bali bombing,” Golose said, adding that “tens of thousands of dollars” was sent for the 2003 bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

Some of the leftover cash was used for the 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, he said. He said he was uncertain how much al-Qaida money was used for the latest attack on Bali, targeting three crowded restaurants. (source)

We have posted upon this transfer of funds from Al Qaida to Jemaah Islamiya before to carry out suicide attacks.  Even so, color me skeptical that Al Qaida has funded all of the suicide bombing attacks in Indonesia.

It is certainly a popular suggestion in Indonesia to deflect blame away from their inner radical Islamic group, al Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiya, and it could also work in the favor of investigators and government officials in the world’s most populus Muslim nation to say the horrendous deeds of terror were sown in distant lands by the world’s most recognized terrorist organization.  I just don’t believe it.

It makes perfect sense that some of the bombings were at least supported by Al Qaida, including the bombing of the Australian embassy in which one captured terrorist claims Al Qaida funded the bombing.  The perceived goals from the attacks would be right in line with what Al Qaida seeks, but those are not very different from the goals of Jemaah Islamiya.  Both seek to create Islamic states under Sharia, but Jemaah Islamiya has taken the more political road to their goal while Al Qaida promotes those responsible for the brutal killings of thousands.  This is not to say Jemaah Islamiya is not a dangerous organization; they are and they were the ones who carried out the supposed Al Qaida funded attacks.