Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Nuttiest theory ever?

CIA behind Bali attack: Bashir | NEWS.com.au

Indonesian Muslim cleric Bashir comes up with his very own theory as to what exactly blew up the Bali night club (and 202 people):

In an interview tonight on ABC television's Foreign Correspondent, Bashir claims the device that killed most people in the Bali attack was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "micro-nuclear" bomb.
"The micro-nuclear bomb that did so much damage was a CIA bomb, not Amrozi's bomb," Bashir told the ABC.

"The Bali bombing was actually masterminded by America. Well, not masterminded, but hijacked. They planned it, but their plan was hijacked by America."

Just nuts.

By the way: I just saw the Foreign Correspondent episode. This program is consistently interesting and enjoyable. Tonight's episode is typical of its eclectic mix of topics: the problems of Indonesian maid abuse in Malaysia; Star Trek fans who makes their own Star Trek shows, and then the nutty Bashir interview.

The Indonesian maid story was good. (A transcript and video of it will be up later.) Malaysia has 300,000 odd Indonesian maids. Filipino ones are protected by Filipino laws which mean that Malaysia must ensure that they are paid a basic wage and have one day off a week. Indonesia does not have such laws, and says they won't be coming soon, because there are too many maids already there, and it would cause too much trouble to force their salary up. Not only that, maids don't deserve a day off (said one Indonesia government figure.) Then there is the physical abuse many suffer.

What a life they have. And the big question is: Malaysia, what's to stop you making your own laws to improve the lot of your fellow Muslim maids?

1 comment:

Andjam said...

I was amazed at Bashir using that theory. I suspect he even believes the theory. Talk about doublethink...