Indonesia Backgrounder: How the Jemaah Islamiyah Terrorist Network Operates

How do multinational terrorist organizations maintain communication, plan violent attacks, and find people of similar thinking to grow their ranks? This background report from the International Crisis Group describes how Southeast Asia's fiercest terrorist organization – the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) – motivates, recruits, and carries out violent attacks. The investigators who authored the report identify three tiers of membership – Islamist radicals at the top, middle-level motivators who recruit from religious schools, and bottom-rung foot soldiers who actually carry out the violent orders from above. The report describes a shift in targets in Indonesia from Christian churches and ministers to Western tourists, as in the recent Bali attack. But with an apparent rift between the Indonesian head of the main organization and even more radical leadership in Malaysia, will JI splinter or re-organize its operations? – YaleGlobal