Darren Goodsir, Kuta – Investigators hunting the Bali bombers have unearthed credible links between the Kuta explosions, the closure last month of the Australian embassy in East Timor in a terrorist alert and the arrest of Jemaah Islamiah followers in Singapore in August over an alleged plot to attack key western targets.
It is believed an analysis of intelligence compiled by the Australian Federal Police shows similarities in all incidents, including the nature of the threats and the type of attacks being contemplated.
The AFP has focused sharply on statements given in recent months by group members, some of whom are now in prison in Singapore and the Philippines, that point to the purchase last year of up to seven tonnes of TNT and 17 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, by supporters of the radical Islamic organisation.
The accounts, first publicised by Singapore authorities last month, also alluded to the desire by the group to plant seven of the "fertiliser" bombs in trucks for the blowing up of targets that included the Australian and British high commissions in Singapore.
Latest bomb data analysis shows the devices that exploded in Bali on October 12 used the same basic ingredients.
In the Dili incident, all non-essential embassy staff were evacuated after intelligence operatives received a specific threat of a terrorist incident.
Sources close to the joint Indonesian-AFP inquiry say there are elements of the East Timor plot that bear the hallmarks of events leading up to the Bali bombings.
It has also emerged that Austrac, the agency responsible for tracing money laundering and suspect financial transactions, is monitoring cash movements that could cast light on who is responsible for the attacks, and how they were financed.
In Denpasar yesterday, Indonesian police said they had taken 10 men of Pakistani origin in for questioning, after detaining them for interviews last week. They also revealed that the identikit pictures of the three "possible suspects" – which have yet to be released publicly because the images are not sufficiently precise – are being shown to Australian witnesses to the attack on Paddy's and the Sari Club.
A computer-generated three-dimensional map of the blast site, not yet completed, is also set to be shown to witnesses who have given the most cogent accounts of what took place in the moments before the explosions.
Once that and other essential forensic material are finalised, the AFP is expected to make a presentation, in Bali and Australia, to the surviving blast victims.
It has also emerged that the AFP is fast-tracking the development of a dedicated counter-terrorism unit.
The AFP's Bali commander, assistant commissioner Graham Ashton, said: "We have trained pyschologists up from Canberra. They are working every day with our people at the mortuary and the crime scene.
"They are seeing horrific things. But then this is what they have trained for for years ... so, in a way, in that professional sense, they are very positive about what they are doing. Morale is quite high."
The core forensic team is expected to return to Australia within six weeks, but a large investigative unit will remain in Bali until Christmas – with a scaling back of resources unlikely before the new year.
Meanwhile, Australian officials are hopeful there will be a further repatriation of bodies within 48 hours. Only two have so far been returned to their families.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade briefings continue to be held daily with the few families who are staying in Bali until the bodies of relatives are positively identified and released.