News started to come in about 14 hours ago about a car bomb exploding at the gates of the australian embassy in jakarta, indonesia.

the more news that becomes available the more serious the situation appears to be

between 8 & 11 locals have been killed, and 160 seriously injured ... most reports have confirmed that Australian staff got out unharmed

the car bomb was reported to contain 50 kilograms of explosives (110 pounds)

currently it is being reported that Jemaah Islamiah are responsible who are linked with al qaeda (who isn't?!)

Our australian federal election for our new prime minister is 3 or 4 weeks away ...

Here's a news link - latest headlines are linked on this main page
http://www.news.com.au/

http://www.news.com.au/common/imaged...,378182,00.jpg

Damn, that looks like Oklahoma City....

:blink:

Just heard the Ambassador saying that not even 1 member of the embassy staff took up an offer to be sent home.. and they want to be back open in days. That's what I call fighting terror head-on, refusing to be terrorised :okthumb:

http://www.news.com.au/common/imaged...,378091,00.jpg

The blast was so strong that windows were blown out of alot of surrounding buildings. Even the greek embassy, a building close to the australian, suffered extensive damage, with 3 staff being injured on the 12th floor.

Indonesian police say the bomb was bigger than the one used in the August 2003 attack on Jakarta's JW Marriott hotel.

One of the victims was a guy on a motorcycle just riding past at the wrong time ...

.
..
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Fucking Terrorists

God damn senseless violence


A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Australian girl was critically injured in yesterday's Australian Embassy attack in Jakarta.

Elizabeth Manuela Bambina Musu was going to the embassy with her Indonesian mother Maria when the blast occurred at 10.15am (1315 AEST) yesterday.

Her mother was one of the nine people killed in the blast. A further 180 people were injured.

Elizabeth's injuries were so bad it was initially thought she was dead, ABC radio said.

But once it was realised she was still alive, she was given emergency treatment on the scene.

She is now in a coma at a local hospital.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in Jakarta overnight that Elizabeth and her mother were going to the embassy to pick up a new Australian passport when the blast occurred.

"Her condition is critical but stable," Mr Downer said.

"She became an Australian citizen on September 1 and I understand was going to the Australian Embassy to collect her first passport."

"She is the only Australian to have been significantly injured and her situation, as I said, is critical."

The child's Australian father, believed to be from NSW, was flying to Jakarta from Australia.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0...55E1702,00.html

opti, FUCKIN OATH!

:wnw:

from the sounds of it there's been aussies evacuating in droves who are holidaying etc but the embassy staff are standing firm and refusing to be pushed out in fear. they are probably used to this by now, sadly.

Apparently, the gate/wall that they used around the embassy was largely responsible for the fact that the Australians didn't cop it so bad. Kudos to whoever designed that thingy, if that's the case. Hopefully the fact that the people who were killed were all locals will have a negative effect on the support that Jemaah Islamiah receives in Indonesia.

I think it's only a matter of time before they make an attack on Australian soil, unfortunately.

choda, I agree ... any day/week/month we can expect something, a bomb at a school, bridges, trains etc.

This might have done John Howard a big favor as far as keeping his job, or maybe not. Anything Mark Latham says about it will work against him IMO ... this is where our politics differs heavily from American politics - it would be considered bad taste to use this directly as a political point. Latham can talk all he likes, but Howard is out there doing it because its his job.

I'm not looking forward to 3 weeks of election commercials that's for sure :rolleyes:

Muslims!

"It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims," Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of the widely watched satellite television station Al Arabiya said in one of the most striking of these commentaries"

Two bloody things that start with the letter M… Menstruation and Muslims

"It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims," Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of the widely watched satellite television station Al Arabiya said in one of the most striking of these commentaries" [/b][/quote]


They just need to be cuddled and held. Once we understand them we can all live in peace.

Kind of hard to cuddle with someone who is trying to kill you

today is the 3rd year anniversarry of the 9/11 i dunno where all of these chaos would stop...

They just need to be cuddled and held. Once we understand them we can all live in peace.[/b][/quote]
Alienating all muslims isn't the way to go either imho. If we were smart we would act more like the Russians.... and use our home grown Muslim community leaders in the media frontline as our allies.

Westerners should stop claiming some sort of religous superiority in a "battle" against terrorism... which is what it is.... Claiming over and again there is a battle against Muslims will do nothing but create one... when that is NOT what exists now.

When it comes to one of our Allied countries like Indonesia, that has about 50/50 Christians and Muslims, Western insistance that "muslims" are the problem alone makes it near impossible for a true anti-terrorism political party to maintain power there.. the current regime is bad enough... but what will happen there at the next Indonesian elections is likely to shape the future of Western countries more than the next US election if a hardline Muslim dominated government is elected.