Australia and Indonesia find themselves in the bombsites of al Qaeda's regional affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah (J.I.). The Australian Embassy was struck in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, killing at least nine and wounding hundreds. Jemaah Islamiyah has taken credit for this craven attack.

"We decided to settle accounts with Australia, one of the worst enemies of God and Islam ... and a mujahedeen brother succeeded in carrying out a martyr operation with a car bomb against the Australian embassy."

Jemaah Islamiyah has been very active against Australia and Indonesia since 9-11. The attack on the resort in Bali in the fall of 2002 killed almost two hundred people, including about ninety Australians. The following summer, J.I. detonated a bomb at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, killing over a dozen and wounding hundreds.

In the wake of the deadly attacks, Indonesia rounded up Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the spiritual leader of J.I., as well as Jhoni Hendrawan (a.k.a. Idris). Idris confessed to his involvement in the Bali assault. The charges against Bashir and Idris were vacated as the laws used to try them were written after the Bali bombing, however Idris received a ten year sentence for involvement in the Marriott hotel attack. Ba'asyir has been detained yet again on unspecified charges.

The Leader of J.I., Riduan Isamuddin (a.k.a. Hambali) fled Indonesia after Bali and was captured a year later. Hambali was considered the most dangerous and well connected operative in South East Asia; he was often referred to as the Osama of the Pacific. He is currently in United State custody and the U.S. is reluctant to hand him over to Indonesian authorities for fear he will encounter the same "justice" as Ba'asyir and Idris. As Jakarta's own intelligence chief is decrying the state of the judicial system in Indonesia, it is wise to keep Hambali from entering Indonesian courts.

The attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta may be more than just a simple target of opportunity. Al Qaeda has shown a penchant for using terror strikes to make a point. The Bali attack was an attempt to split Australia from the United States (failed), the Madrid attack was an attempt to influences Spain's elections and cleave Spain from the coalition in Iraq (successful). Both Australia and Indonesia are in their election cycle, and the attacks a likely an attempt to achieve results favorable to al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah. These terror organizations would like nothing more than reduced military and security cooperation between Australia and Indonesia, as well as the defeat of Australia's pro-American Prime Minister John Howard.

The war is fought daily, the past two weeks show its intensity can increase without notice. The violence in Najaf and Fallujah, suicide bombings in Beersheba, the bombing of two Russian airplanes and a Moscow train station, the massacre of schoolchildren in Beslan, the bombing in Jakarta, the destruction of al Qaeda hideouts in Pakistan, the release of a video by al Qaeda's second in command. While these may seem to be disparate events, they are all related actions in the Global War on Terrorism against the enemy of Islamofascism.