Uncovered: Al Qaeda Linked Terrorist Plot to Assassinate U.S. President Obama

The investigation into the hotel bombings in Jakarta last month also turned up strong evidence of an Al Qaeda linked plot to assassinate president Obama when he visits Indonesia this coming November.

During the probe to find out whether the hotel bombings were funded by terrorist sources outside the country, they found two of the four suspects were already prepped and trained as snipers for the attack on Obama. They had planned to attack Obama’s motorcade using Russian made MK-III sniper rifles, the same guns used by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

From the article at The Jakarta Globe:

“The alleged snipers were from a group called the Indonesian Islamic State, which has a training camp in the restive southern Philippines and also has received support from a group headed by Malaysian-born militant Noordin Mohammad Top, Chressbon said.

Top, who formed a violent wing of the Jemaah Islamiah militant network, is believed to be the mastermind behind July’s hotel attacks which killed nine people and wounded 53.

Since the hotel bombings, police have arrested at least five people and three others have been killed during raids, while police said a plot to attack Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had been thwarted.

Possible Al Qaeda Link

A possible Al Qaeda connection to the hotel attacks and other plots was also being investigated, Chressbon said, after two men believed to be from Yemen had stayed at the Marriott at the same time as an Indonesian called Syaifudin Zuhri bin Djaelani Irsyad, or SJ, who is believed to have recruited the suicide bombers.”