The efforts of Islamist terrorists to exploit the Internet has been well known for years. Many of the conspiracies we have uncovered since 9/11 have either originated in chat rooms or forums, and the use of e-mail and anonymous Usenet articles for terrorist communication has become widespread. Groups like al-Qaeda maintain official websites to post statements and videos as well as commands to the faithful.

Knowing all of this, Indonesia allowed the mastermind of the first Bali bombing to have unfettered Internet access during his prison sentence, giving him the means to raise funds for another attack on the same area:

ONE of the plotters of the deadly Bali bombings in 2002 raised funds for a second attack on the island via an internet connection from his cell on death row, a senior Indonesian policeman admitted yesterday.

Imam Samudra, who has been sentenced to face a firing squad for his part in the nightclub attacks that killed 202 Indonesians and foreign tourists, advised fellow extremists on ways of raising funds for a second attack last year using a laptop with a wireless internet connection that had been smuggled into his cell.

The revelation, by Police Colonel Petrus Golose, of Indonesia’s anti-terror task force, testifies to the extraordinarily lax conditions, abetted by corruption among wardens, in some Indonesian jails.

According to Colonel Golose, Samudra communicated with a number of extremists, one of whom created a website setting out the best ways of murdering foreigners in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Two of his contacts, Mohammad Agung Prabowo, and Agung Setyadi, are in custody after being arrested last week in separate raids on the island of Java. They have not been charged.

Quite obviously, the Indonesians give little indication that they take terrorism seriously, despite having been victimized twice by bomb attacks. How else can one explain the use of a laptop computer -- with a wireless network connection -- by someone who sits on Death Row in their prisons? While the computer and the wireless interface both got smuggled to Samudra through a corrupt prison warden, one would think that the guards would have noticed the computer in Samudra's cell and asked a few questions. At the very least, someone should have heard Samudra typing on the keypad.

Instead, Samudra helped raise the funds necessary for the second attack on Bali while awaiting execution for the first. He didn't stop there, either. While awaiting execution, the Jemaah Islamiyah leader published a book on jihadi financing and credit-card fraud in pursuit of Islamist ventures. Even though he promised that the readers could generate more income in a few hours than Indonesian police earn in six months, he cautioned them to refrain from becoming too attached to the money itself. He wanted jihadis to use it to perpetrate attacks against the United States and its allies.

I'm surprised the Indonesian prison system hasn't arranged a book tour and signing stops.

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