What Indonesian press has to say

The leading Indonesian daily said the attacks showed the “arrogance” of a superpower state that has repeatedly shown itself to have taken up the role of policing the world.

Media Indonesia, in a front-page editorial entitled The Comedy from Washington, said that as the world’s only superpower, “the United States is in reality only showing a case of paranoia”.

“The might of this superpower is openly squandered because of an exaggerated fear,” it added.

Both Kompas and Media Indonesia suspected the attack had been designed to shiftattention at home from President Bill Clinton’s sex scandal with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. “It is ironic that President Clinton always condemns local terrorism while he cannot even rein in his own emotions and justify (his own) terrorism,” Kompas said. If the suspicion turns out to be true, “the world will be worried to see the leadership at the White House sacrifice a number of lives just for the sake of freeing himself from the tentacles of his sex scandal,” the daily said.

Media Indonesia also accused Clinton of having ordered the attacks while his position at the White House was threatened by the Lewinsky scandal. “Models of attention shifters such as this is an old comedy coming from Washington,” Media Indonesia said.

It also lashed out at Washington’s unrelenting efforts to dictate the world “about what is proper and what is not”.

It went on to cite various cases of US unilateral intervention in other countries, including Iraq, Libya and Panama, and itsdualistic policies regarding the Israel-Palestine issue.