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Sunday, 19 July 2009

Indonesian Attack Targeted Businessmen in Executive Lounge

The Australian, today, considers that mining executives holding a meeting in the JWMarriott Lounge of the Marriott hotel were targeted by the suicide bomber in Jakarta in the attack which happened Friday 17th July. The attacker could have headed for a coffee shop in the hotel, but didn't.

One of the men inside the room, the former head of Rio Tinto's Indonesian operations and member of the Australian-Indonesian Business Council, Noke Kiroyan, had no doubt the Marriott bomber had directly targeted the 19 businessmen who had gathered.

"That meeting was specifically for a single purpose," Mr Kiroyan said. "I would say the guy didn't turn left to the Sailendra coffee shop but turned right to the JW Marriott lounge, which is exclusively used by our group for these discussions."

A US embassy source confirmed Mr Kiroyan's view that the businessmen were targeted.

A hotel source said a security guard had challenged the bomber before he entered the lounge but was told: "I've got to deliver something to my boss."

The US embassy source said the Marriott, and the other hotel that was attacked, the Ritz-Carlton, had been designated as high security for visiting diplomats and anyone associated with Western embassies...

'I would think that someone had enough information to go down there and walk the halls.'

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