Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia Disband Group in Surprise Announcement

Members of Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia
Members of Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia
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Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia Disband Group in Surprise Announcement

Members of Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia
Members of Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia

In a surprise move, senior members of the Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian militant network blamed for the deadly Bali bombings, announced they are disbanding the group, according to a report by a Jakarta-based think tank on Thursday.
The report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), confirmed the authenticity of a June 30 video statement by 16 Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders announcing they were dissolving the extremist network.
In the statement, captured on video and shared online, the leaders confirmed their commitment to the Indonesian state and law, and said all materials taught in JI-affiliated boarding schools would be in line with Islam.
“It is too early to say what the consequences are, but the men who signed the statement have enough respect and credibility within the organization to ensure widespread acceptance,” said Sidney Jones, who authored IPAC's preliminary analysis.
The al-Qaeda linked militant group is accused of orchestrating some of the deadliest attacks in Indonesia, including the 2002 bombing of Bali nightclubs that killed more than 200 people.
Indonesia's National Counter Terrorism Agency (BNPT) declined to comment on the development, but said it planned to soon hold a press conference.
The decision to disband the organization, said Jones, was likely driven by several factors, including the influence of intellectuals within the group who were less interested in violence, and a cost-benefit analysis on the best way to protect the group's biggest assets – its schools.
Intensive engagement with counter-terrorism officials also played a role, the report said.

“For the moment, the likely result is the flourishing of Jemaah Islamiyah-affiliated schools and the increasing involvement in public life of the men who signed the 30 June statement,” said IPAC. “What happens to the rest of the membership remains to be seen.”



Trump Victory Expected to Boost Musk's Mars Dream

US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are seen at the Firing Room Four after the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, May 30, 2020. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are seen at the Firing Room Four after the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, May 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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Trump Victory Expected to Boost Musk's Mars Dream

US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are seen at the Firing Room Four after the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, May 30, 2020. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are seen at the Firing Room Four after the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, May 30, 2020. (Reuters)

Elon Musk's dream of transporting humans to Mars will become a bigger national priority under the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, sources said, signaling big changes for NASA's moon program and a boost for Musk's SpaceX.

NASA's Artemis program, which aims to use SpaceX's Starship rocket to put humans on the moon as a proving ground for later Mars missions, is expected to focus more on the Red Planet under Trump and target uncrewed missions there this decade, according to four people familiar with Trump's burgeoning space policy agenda, according to Reuters.

Targeting Mars with spacecraft built for astronauts is not only more ambitious than focusing on the moon, but is also fraught with risk and potentially more expensive. Musk, who danced onstage at a Trump rally wearing an "Occupy Mars" T-shirt in October, spent $119 million on Trump's White House bid and has successfully elevated space policy at an unusual time in a presidential transition. In September, weeks after Musk endorsed Trump, the latter told reporters that the moon was a "launching pad" for his ultimate goal to reach Mars.

"At a minimum, we're going to get a more realistic Mars plan, you'll see Mars being set as an objective," said Doug Loverro, a space industry consultant who once led NASA's human exploration unit under Trump, who served as U.S. president from 2017 to 2021.

SpaceX, Musk and the Trump campaign did not immediately return requests for comment. A NASA spokeswoman said it "wouldn’t be appropriate to speculate on any changes with the new administration." Plans could still change, the sources added, as the Trump transition team takes shape in the coming weeks. Trump launched the Artemis program in 2019 during his first term and it was one of the few initiatives maintained under the administration of President Joe Biden. Trump space advisers want to revamp a program they will argue has languished in their absence, the sources said. Musk, who also owns electric-vehicle maker Tesla and brain-chip startup Neuralink, has made slashing government regulation and trimming down bureaucracy another core basis of his Trump support.

For space, the sources said, Musk's deregulation desires are likely to trigger changes at the Federal Aviation Administration's commercial space office, whose oversight of private rocket launches has frustrated Musk for slowing down SpaceX's Starship development.

The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NASA under Trump, the sources said, is likely to favor fixed-price space contracts that shift greater responsibility onto private companies and scale back over-budget programs that have strained the Artemis budget.

That could spell trouble for the only rocket NASA owns, the Space Launch System rocket (SLS), whose roughly $24 billion development since 2011 has been led by Boeing and Northrop Grumman. Cancelling the program, some say, would be difficult since it would cost thousands of jobs and leave the U.S. even more dependent on SpaceX.

Boeing and Northrop did not immediately return a request for comment.

Musk, whose predictions have sometimes proven overly ambitious, said in September that SpaceX will land Starship on Mars in 2026 and a crewed mission will follow in four years' time. Trump has said at campaign rallies that he has discussed these ideas with Musk.

Many industry experts see this timeline as improbable.

"Is it possible for Elon to put a Starship on the surface of Mars in a one-way mission by the end of Trump's term? Absolutely, he certainly could do that," said Scott Pace, the top space policy official during Trump's first term.

"Is that a manned mission on Mars? No," Pace added. "You have to walk before you run."