PLAYFULNESS, PLAY WITH A CHILD, CHILDREN ARE YOUR GREATEST TEACHERS :0)

MANY USED TO SAY ITS NOT THE MIDDLE EAST YOU NEED TO BE AFRAID OF, ITS THE ASIANS. I USED TO THINK THEY WERE TALKING OUT THEIR ARSE...........WRONG!!!!!!!!!

A MASSIVE car bomb was detonated outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta yesterday, killing at least 11 people, including children, and wounding hundreds just weeks from the federal election and days before the third anniversary of the September 11 US terrorist attacks.Indonesian authorities immediately named the radical Muslim terrorist group responsible for the Bali attack as the likely perpetrators of the deadly blast that shattered embassy windows, mangled the perimeter fence and killed local security guards and commuters.
No Australian staff were killed but a number were injured in the blast, which left a 3m-deep crater just metres from the embassy's front gate.
John Howard and Mark Latham last night both suspended the election campaign for the next two days, with the Prime Minister vowing Australia would never be influenced by terrorists, and insisting the attack would not change Australia's military role in Iraq. "The day any country surrenders decisions on those things to the dictates of barbarism and terrorism is the day a country loses control over its future."
The Opposition Leader said: "The terrorists responsible for this attack are evil and barbaric and must be dealt with as harshly as possible."
Indonesian police chief Dai Bachtiar said last night the attack bore the hallmarks of the al-Q'aida-linked Jemaah Islamiah group and its key bomb experts, Malaysians Azahari Hussein and Nordin Top. Both men are believed to have masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and last year's attack on Jakarta's Marriott Hotel.
"Our suspicion is that it was by the same group, especially the bomb maker, Dr Azahari. This is what we can conclude from the modus operandi and our investigation," General Bachtiar said.
The mid-morning attack came just days after the US officially warned that Islamic extremists blamed for other attacks in Indonesia could strike again.
Cutting short a visit to Brunei, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri visited the bomb site last night, meeting Australia's ambassador to Jakarta, David Ritchie. "I ask the people of Indonesia to stay calm and alert," Ms Megawati said. "I express my condolences and condemn this action."
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer yesterday dashed to the capital to meet Ms Megawati and senior Indonesian officials and inspect the scene of the bombing.
Mr Downer was joined by ASIO boss Dennis Richardson, Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty, Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd and federal police bomb experts.
Mr Downer said the 10.15am blast was clearly a terrorist attack aimed at Australia.
"Naturally enough our suspicions turn to Jemaah Islamiah. We didn't have any information of a specific attack on the Australian embassy at this time, though there have been, over a long period of time, concerns that this could happen."
Terrorist expert Rohan Gunaratna last night warned that because no Australians were killed it was "very likely" JI would mount a second attack on an Australian target.
"Australia can expect more of this. It could be in Indonesia, in another overseas country or at home. It is difficult to say whether it will come before the end of the federal election campaign but it is possible," he told The Australian.
The blast occurred just metres from the embassy, destroying the front gate and badly damaging the building's facade and lobby, killing security guards and a gardener.
The force of the blast blew out windows in office blocks near the embassy on Jalan Rasuna Said, injuring dozens of bystanders with glass fragments and debris.
Mr Keelty, whose bomb experts and post-blast analysts were being flown to Jakarta, said it was a car bomb, but "it's not confirmed at this stage whether it was a suicide bomb".
"It's a very complex crime scene ... it will take some time to gather all the evidence."
Australian academic Harold Crouch, who was in the embassy at the time, said he felt the building shudder when the bomb went off.
"The car was just blown to bits. It was a substantial bomb," Dr Crouch said.
Jailed radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is accused of being JI's titular head, condemned the embassy attack but predicted he would be blamed for it.
"I'm very upset. I'm against all bombings like this," Bashir said, according to his lawyer Mahendradata, who visited the cleric in jail shortly after the bombing.
Suspect Azahari is believed to be protected by a small circle of JI members and may have timed the attack in response to Indonesia's decision this month to file terror charges against Bashir.
The Indonesian Government is drafting charges against Bashir on suspicion of ordering last year's suicide bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, which killed 12 people.
Azahari and Nordin are believed to have made the Marriott bomb with dynamite and ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser that can be transformed into an explosive mix.
The two men narrowly escaped a police dragnet October 31 in Bandung city in Indonesia's West Java province. Azahari, a British-trained engineer and former university lecturer, and Nordin fled Malaysia to escape a nationwide crackdown against Islamic militants after the September 11 attacks in the US.
Azahari had close relations with Indonesian cleric Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, who was considered JI's operations chief and a key player in the Bali attacks before his arrest in Thailand last year.
For many of the families scarred by the Bali bombings two years ago, yesterday's blast reminded them of the October 12 blasts two years ago. "It just makes me feel cold all over," said Kier Yeo, who lost her 20-year-old son Gerard in Bali.
"You just wonder if it's ever going to end," said Mrs Yeo. "It just keeps getting worse and worse."
An FBI team was inspecting the damage yesterday, and additional Australian Federal Police officers were flying to Jakarta to help with forensics.
Australians have been warned to defer all non-essential travel to Indonesia, with visitors to Indonesia being advised by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to consider leaving if they were concerned for their safety. Australian embassies around the world have also been placed on high alert.
Visiting the scene of the blast yesterday Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirayuda, condemned the attack and pledged a joint effort to fight terrorism. "This shows that terrorism is our enemy. This should make our people aware that we have a problem of this nature. "We strongly condemn this action. Together we fight the war against terrorism. We both have a strong commitment. Thus we must work together," Mr Wirayuda said.
The attack on the Jakarta embassy has punched a large hole in the federal election campaign, with both Mr Howard and Mr Latham taking time out to focus on the attack and the Prime Minister offering up his VIP jet to enable Mr Downer to travel to Jakarta.
It will also bring a sharper focus to Indonesia's presidential election next week which pits Mrs Megawati against former army general Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
General Bachtiar said there were similarities between the Marriott and Bali bombings and yesterday's attack on the embassy.
"This is low explosive, but from the big tremors it's clear that it was a car bomb," he said. Small car parts had been found, he said, and a tyre had been thrown into the air and landed at the gate.
The police chief did not say whether the blast was the work of a suicide bomber, following the pattern of the Marriott blast, and the Bali bombings, which killed 88 Australians.
There was speculation yesterday that the attack may have been linked to a meeting last week between convicted Bali bomber Ali Imron and a senior Indonesian police investigator in a Jakarta cafe.

IF IT IS FOUND TO BE LINKED TO THAT MEETING, I HOPE TO GOD ITS ACTED UPON. THANKGOD FOR "BOMBPROOFING" AT LEAST WE AS AUSSIES USED OUR HEADS ON THIS AND DIVERTED WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN SOMETHING EVEN MORE SERIOUS.
THANKS TO THE AGE