American terror expert again expelled from Indonesia

The war on terror Indonesian style.

Indonesia expelled a leading American expert on Southeast Asian terrorist networks for the second time in as many years, officials said Friday. No explanation was immediately given.

Sidney Jones, the project director for the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, was refused entry to the country Thursday on return from a short trip to Taiwan.

"I don't understand," she said from Singapore on Friday. "If there was a problem, you would have thought they would have called me in or raised the question while I was in Jakarta, giving me some ability to respond."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin confirmed Jones had been barred but gave no reason.

The Brussel-based International Crisis Group opened an office in Indonesia in 2000 and has issued detailed and well-researched reports on separatist conflicts in Indonesia and the activities of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah.

Semper Fi