DPM Teo: Regional terror groups are top security threat
10 September 2011
Clandestine groups still resilient and rebuilding networks
By Francis Chan, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR & Zakir Hussain
TERRORIST groups such as Jemaah Islamiah (JI) and its mutations in the region continue to be Singapore's No. 1 security concern, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean has told The Straits Times.
Ten years after the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks on America and the discovery of the JI network here and in the region, clandestine groups remain resilient.
And although the Internet is at the forefront of the ongoing fight against terror, these groups are constantly changing the way they operate.
In an interview with The Straits Times on Thursday, Mr Teo, the Coordinating Minister for National Security, said second-generation extremists were also trying to rebuild the disrupted network.
'Some of them are sons of hardcore first-generation JI members and they are trying to establish links back in Singapore,' he added.
These young men may have been groomed in Pakistan under JI's Al Ghuraba unit and indoctrinated by the same extremist ideologies their fathers subscribed to. He cited Abdul Rohim, the son of Abu Bakar Bashir, JI's jailed Indonesian spiritual leader with extensive links to known leading figures in terrorism.
Others were trying to restore ties with disrupted sources of funding, and setting up clandestine training bases in various parts of South-east Asia.
'Singapore is obviously still a prized target for terrorist groups,' said Mr Teo, who took over the National Security and Home Affairs portfolios after the May General Election.
Separately, when asked if security measures were being heightened in the light of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the Ministry of Home Affairs said security measures were calibrated regularly, guided by threat assessments.
But it confirmed that existing security measures have been enhanced, 'though there is no intelligence suggesting a specific terror threat against Singapore'.
Mr Teo stressed that he was grateful for the close cooperation Singapore has with its security partners in Indonesia and Malaysia. 'It's a common problem faced by all of us because that was the way the JI had structured itself,' he said. JI sought to establish an Islamic state in the region and overthrow existing governments through violent means.
Mr Teo recalled how last year, a Singapore map with Orchard MRT station circled was recovered from a terror suspect killed by Indonesian police in Jakarta.
In July this year, the Indonesian authorities warned of attempts to target the Singapore Embassy there.
In 2001 and 2002, the Internal Security Department (ISD) picked up 36 men and uncovered plans to attack various Singapore targets. A JI reconnaissance video of Yishun MRT station was also found in the house of a senior Al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan.
'What happened in the United States in September 2001 could have taken place here,' Mr Teo said. He added that while 9/11 focused people's minds, it was not the starting point of the terror threat, which had begun much earlier.
'Al-Qaeda, JI, have been disrupted but until the extremist, violent ideological basis for the movement is discredited, the threat will still be with us,' he said.
He identified the Internet as the new battlefield in the fight against terrorism.
And he pointed to how deviant ideologies in cyberspace have in recent years radicalised 'lone wolves' - individuals with no links to militant groups - who act alone and are harder to track, trace and discover.
He identified three factors, which he called 'the three Ms', that make self-radicalised terrorists a significant threat. They are highly motivated by radical ideologues online, learn methods of making bombs online, and have the means to use common everyday items to make devices that can have a very lethal impact.
He noted that almost every self-radicalised terrorist in the United States began by reading deviant material online.
The ISD has detected several such individuals and detained some. Among them is full-time national serviceman Muhammad Fadil Abdul Hamid, who was radicalised after listening to online lectures in English by ideologues like American Anwar Al-Awlaki and Australian Feiz Muhammad. Fadil was 20 when he was detained under the Internal Security Act last year after he contacted Awlaki to express interest in fighting in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Asked for his assessment of Singapore's anti-terrorism efforts over the past decade, Mr Teo noted the 2003 government White Paper outlining three key recommendations: police the spread of radical ideology, strengthen social cohesion and religious harmony, and enhance security measures.
Initiatives in all three areas have helped keep Singapore safe, and remain valid today, he said.
He paid tribute to Muslim leaders for taking ownership of the problem and forming the Religious Rehabilitation Group to work with the ISD to counsel detainees on their misinterpretation of religious concepts.
Muslim leaders have also debunked extremist ideology publicly, and helped guide others showing signs of extreme leanings though not detained.
All these had helped provide an antidote to the problem and avoid having fertile ground for it to grow. It was 'quite an achievement' that with the Religious Rehabilitation Group's help, two-thirds of detainees had been rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.
There are now 17 people on Detention Orders, one on a Suspension Direction - where the detention order is suspended - and 49 on Restriction Orders which restrict their movements.
Mr Teo said that structures to strengthen bonds - like the Community Engagement Programme and Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circles - have helped drive home the importance of maintaining trust should a terror attack happen and affect race relations.
Border and security agencies have also beefed up capabilities and tested their readiness to respond to terrorist threats.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority was formed in 2003 to integrate border security functions, a new police unit was set up to patrol trains, and new screening regimes for cargo and travellers were started.
But Mr Teo said no system was 100 per cent foolproof and Singapore had to strike a careful balance between tightening security and carrying on with life as normally as possible.
'We can thwart the terrorists' plans a hundred times, but we cannot rule out the possibility that a terrorist can slip through and an attack occur,' he said.
'The Government will continue to spare no effort to work together with our people to prevent a terrorist attack.
'But the best inoculation we can give ourselves is to be prepared and to constantly work at enhancing our unity as a people and our communal harmony as a multi-ethnic society.'
FIGHTING FIT: Men from the Special Operations Task Force carrying out mock battles, including a hostage rescue mission, at the Poyan Range in western Singapore during a visit by Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen yesterday. Army chief Ravinder Singh played host to Dr Ng. The team comprises troops from the army's Special Operations Force, commandos and the navy's elite Naval Diving Unit. -- PHOTO: MINDEF
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The Straits Times
10 Sept 2011
Q & A: THREAT HAS NOT GONE AWAY
· On the 10th anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and the discovery of the JI group, what are your reflections?
Mr Teo Chee Hean: I would say that the threat has not gone away. Al-Qaeda, JI have been disrupted but until the ideological extremists, the violent ideological basis for the movement is discredited, the threat (will) still be with us. And we can see that because when you put the 3Ms together - motivation, method and means - those are available even to lone wolf killers who can acquire the motivation, learn the methods on the Net and then use fairly everyday means to create devices which can have a very lethal effect.
· What about the threat at home - is there still some concern?
Mr Teo: So far as we know, the JI network has been disrupted but we do know that there are still groupings, including second-generation groups, in the region which are attempting to reconstruct themselves. Some of them are sons of hardcore first-generation JI members and they are trying to establish links back in Singapore. So we have to continue to be vigilant.
The second aspect which we are concerned about are the lone wolf types. One of the things we worry about is these Internet sites with very fiery, persuasive speakers. They are doing this in English so it becomes much more accessible to a broader range of Singaporeans. This creates a vulnerability because many of them have no antecedents. They don't have any trace, and they are acting alone. There's no structure, no organisation which you can attack and nab... And we've already seen some of it.
One of the positives is that our Muslim community leaders, including the religious leaders, have taken ownership of the problem and they've gone out to debunk the more extreme claims and interpretations of these extreme groups.
RRG (Religious Rehabilitation Group) is a very good example. There is an active ownership of the issue from the community, which helps to provide an antidote and also means that unlike in some other places, you don't have a large fertile ground from which this can grow.
It's also very good for community bonding because all the communities in Singapore can see that the Muslim community has taken ownership of this issue and is dealing with it in a very positive and constructive way, and reaching out to other communities and each other in the process.
· Would we be able to get an update on efforts to rehabilitate detainees?
Mr Teo: It's quite an achievement that with the help of the RRG, we've actually managed to rehabilitate two-thirds of those who were detained. There are also those who we didn't detain, who the RRG has helped guide onto the right path before they got into deeper concerns.
We still have a small number who are very hardcore and hold strongly to their violent beliefs. We hope that with time they will see the error of their ways and that it becomes safe for them to be released and reintegrated back into society. Until such time, we will need to be careful with this group.
But there are others who are under detention now, who are responding well to rehabilitation and counselling.
· What would you say is the constant challenge that Singapore will face?
Mr Teo: It's an evolving threat, requires constant vigilance and it's paradoxical. The temptation to become complacent is always there, and the longer we go without actually having a successful attack, the greater the temptation. You believe it will never happen.
It's a psychological issue which we have to deal with, which is how to keep ourselves safe for as long as possible but in the process not become complacent because we've been safe for quite a long period of time. It's a balance between the two.
