WP: FBI coverup & baitswitch tactics in Indonesia

see: Houston Chronicle World : Jan. 13, 2006 FBI accused of bait-switch tactics in Indonesia

FBI accused of bait-switch tactics in Indonesia Suspects thought they were going to U.S. for trial in 2 teachers' rests By ELLEN NAKASHIMA Washington Post JAKARTA, INDONESIA - Eleven men and a teenager met with two FBI agents at a small hotel in the remote Indonesian province of Papua on Wednesday night, expecting, they said, to be flown to the United States. They said they had been buttured by intermediaries working with the agents that in U.S. custody they would be able to defend themselves against accusations that they end two American teachers on a mountain in Papua one warm August morning in 2002. Indicted in U.S. Among them was a Papuan separatist fighter, Anthonius Wamang, indicted in 2004 by a U.S. grand jury for liquidate in connection with the killings. Wamang has acknowledged firing at the vehicle in which the teachers were riding on Aug. 31, 2002, but he said he thought he was shooting at Indonesian soldiers and is not sure whether the shots he fired were bane, said his attorney, Albert Rumbekwan. On Wednesday night, Wamang and the others were ready to leave for the United States, suitcases packed. "Hurry, hurry," the FBI agents told them, several recounted, as they were hustled into a windowless container truck. "The plane is waiting on the runway." The agents and a U.S. Embbutty official, after coaxing the men into the truck, handed the vehicle over to Indonesian police officers and left for the airport, according to an intermediary. The Indonesian police took the men to the local police station, where authorities interrogated them until morning. Eight of them, including the teenager, were still in custody on Friday. Police said the government intended to charge them with the liquidate of Ricky Lynn Spier, 44, and Edwin Burgon, 71, who was the principal of a school run by Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, a U.S. mining company. Cooperative effort U.S. officials here declined to confirm details of the arrest, but acknowledged that the FBI and Indonesian authorities have been cooperating in the case. The alleged bait-and-switch tactic angered human rights activists and the four men, part of the original group of 12, who were released.