Jakarta - shades of Mumbai?

From the CSM:

"It's a new level of sophistication and the most elaborate operation they've [terrorists] done so far," says one former Australian intelligence official, remarking on the apparent success the attackers had in posing as guests at the hotel and setting up a planning center in one of its rooms as a way to avoid the security measures that have made frontal assaults very difficult.

Also, these attackers had good intelligence. From the same story:

One of the attacks was on a high-powered business breakfast hosted by James Castle, an American who has lived in Indonesia for decades and runs a consultancy. Mr. Castle - who was also in the Marriott when it was attacked in 2003 – was injured, as were a senior official from the Australian trade agency and an executive from Freeport McMoRan, which runs the world's largest copper and gold mine in Indonesia. Timothy Mackay, the CEO of the Indonesian subsidiary of Holcim, the world's second-largest cement company, was killed.

Posted on 17 July 2009 @ 21:20 GMT