Riduan Isamuddin, a.k.a. Riduan Isamudin, Riduan Isomuddin, and Riduan Isomudin, is better known by the nom de guerre Hambali; he is now in detention at Guantanamo. He has been described as “the Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia,” was the military leader of the Indonesian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and was the main link between the organization and al Qaeda until his capture.

It has been frequently reported that, “Hambali was a close friend of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who planned Operation Bojinka and the September 11 terrorist attacks. Hambali envisioned creating a Muslim state, in the form of an Islamic superpower (a theocracy) across Southeast Asia, with himself as its leader (Caliph). His ambition was to rule Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, and parts of the Philippines, Myanmar, and Thailand.”

All that leads to this interesting report from the Asia News, dateline March 10, 2009: