Raymond Bonner, Jakarta – "Beware of US Propaganda." That front-page headline in one of the leading newspapers here this morning spoke to far more than just the article below it.
In the newspaper account, various leaders heaped scorn on reports that a man named Omar al-Faruq had confessed to the CIA that he was an operative for Al Qaeda in Indonesia and that working with a local militant organization, he had carried out attacks against Christians, tried to kill the country's president twice and plotted to blow up the American Embassy.
Across Indonesian society there is a strong sense that this is all a fabrication. People see it as part of a CIA plot to paint Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, as a hotbed of terrorists to keep pressure on President Megawati Sukarnoputri to march to the dictates of President Bush in his campaign against terrorism.
Considering the CIA's history here in the 1950's and 60's, the fears are not totally irrational, American officials acknowledge. In that era, the agency spread disinformation, planted photos of President Sukarno in compromising positions and aided and abetted coup plotters.
But American officials are surprised, perplexed and worried about the public reaction to Mr. Faruq's statements. In the view of the United States, as well as important neighbors of Indonesia like Australia and Singapore, this country has a serious terrorism problem, which it has been reluctant to confront and which Mr. Faruq only confirmed.
In an effort to counter the crescendo of skepticism, the United States ambassador, Ralph Boyce, has decided that he must take the American case to the doubting Indonesian public. On Tuesday he will meet with representatives of several Muslim organizations.
Reflecting Washington's anxiety about the issue, Mr. Bush quietly dispatched Karen Brooks last week to talk to President Megawati.
Ms. Brooks is not only the senior White House aide on Indonesia. She was also a Fulbright scholar here, speaks fluent Indonesian and has a deep and strong personal relationship with the Indonesian president.
Her mission was to impress on Ms. Megawati the seriousness of the problem, but even more important, it was to give some courage to the Indonesian leader, who faces the prospect of widespread demonstrations by Muslims if she cracks down too hard, an official said.
Ms. Brooks slipped in and out of town without the knowledge of reporters, which is as both sides wanted it.
Nationalism and pride are strong here. At the same time, not since the days of Sukarno, the current president's father, has the country played a role on the world stage, or even regionally, commensurate with its size – it has the fourth-largest population in the world – and strategic location. The political attacks have already begun.
"The US controls Indonesia," the president's politically active sister, Rachmawati Sukarnoputri, a constant critic, told a local newspaper, Suara Merdeka, which devoted an entire article to heaping doubt on the CIA document.
The storm broke here when Time magazine arrived on newsstands last week with its cover story, "Confessions of an Al Qaeda Terrorist." It was based on the CIA's summary of the interrogation of Mr. Faruq.
The summary says Mr. Faruq told his CIA interrogators that as Al Qaeda's representative, he had made an alliance with Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant Indonesian Islamic group, and that its leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, had provided money, supplies and men for several terrorist acts.
Mr. Bashir steadfastly denies a role in any terrorist activities, though expressing admiration for Osama bin Laden, who he says is not a terrorist.
Dissenting from the unassailable assumption of Indonesians that the CIA summary was leaked in Washington by the agency, several diplomats here suggest quietly that it was leaked by a senior Indonesian official, who is one of the few in the government contending that the country has a terrorism problem and must act.
The first newspaper to carry the story here was Koran Tempo, one of the largest-circulation and most respected newspapers, with this headline: "CIA: Al Qaeda Tried Twice to Assassinate Megawati." In other words, the paper was pinning the allegation on the CIA, not on Mr. Faruq. It reflected some of the raw emotions here, Indonesians say.
The country's Muslims have not come to grips with the fact that Mr. Faruq, or someone like him, could be among them, said an Indonesian businesswoman who is a prominent intellectual. "They're in denial," she said.
This is a secular country, and an overwhelming number of Muslims are moderates. The highly observant Muslims are a tiny minority, the militants even fewer.
Yet no major Muslim leader has been willing to speak out, the businesswoman noted, to accept that what Mr. Faruq is reported to have said is true and that the country has a problem.
Solahuddin Wahid, a leader of the country's largest moderate organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, accused Washington of "propaganda tricks." "What has been leaked by the CIA is described by many as a mere American scenario to corner Indonesia into nodding to whatever the US is planning to do," he said. It is an insult to all Muslims, he added.