AL-QAEDA: TURNING THE TERRORISTS PART 1 OF 3
Nasir Abas was a high ranking terrorist, one of the most wanted men in South East Asia as commander of the radical Islamist group Jemaah Islamiah, which is linked to Al Qaeda.
Nasir Abas trained the Bali Bombers - he's even related to some of them - but now in an extraordinary turn of events he's training the very same police and intelligence officer who used to hunt him.
Some of them say that I'm a traitor because I joined with the police, but I don't care about that, Nasir tells reporter Peter Taylor.
For ten years Nasir was climbing the ranks of JI, becoming a senior instructor, both in Afghanistan and at secret bases in The Philippines. He taught his students how to kill, maim and bomb - battle skills for what he considered a jihad or holy war against foreign forces occupying Muslim lands.
But the Bali bombing which killed 202 innocent civilian tourists and local workers also blew away his certainties.
I still can't imagine what would happen if I was there sitting and eating a dinner and theres a bomb. I cannot imagine. I feel sad, I feel sympathy with what happened there, said Nasir Abas.
These days Nasir has a new mission in life to stop more civilians dying because of Osama Bin Ladens bidding. Taylor finds that unlike the iron fist tactics favoured by the United States of secret renditions and jailing suspects at Guantanamo Bay, some governments in South East Asia are trying a velvet glove approach, engaging muslim to muslim and showing respect for their enemies.
We shouldn't see these radical group as black and white.. that they are terrorists forever, said Ansyaad Mbai, Head of Counter Terrorism in Indonesia. In our experience no one can be the terrorist forever.
Nasir isn't the only example of this more subtle approach. Taylor reveals that in The Philippines groups of local fighters have also been turned and are now combating their former terrorist partners.
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