Bombing in Indonesia has a local interest for me

The Bombing in Indonesia today is more than just a news story for me. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law and my less than 2 year old neice live and work there. I am not going to give their names or what they do there because this post could be read by anyone in the world. Maybe I'm paranoid, but hey, you never know.

As soon as I heard about it this morning, my wife and I started to worry. But they e-mailed us this morning to let us know they were all right. Here is what they had to say.

We (and everyone we know) are fine. The bomb was located near the Australian Embassy and seems to have mainly effected the two buildings near the embassy and the locals that work security at the embassy and of course those working in those buildings (almost mainly Indonesians).

No doubt it was the handywork of the same group that orchestrated the Bali and Marriott bombs. Although the head of said organization is serving time, he was spotted by the media last week in a local Starbucks having mochaccino with the local head of police. The police acknowledged it was him and claim that was some sort of interrogation technique. I suppose the dialog went something like this... "Tell us the truth or we will force you to drink more coffee from the infidels..." Sorry, its all just a part of life here in Jakarta. (And yes, we have Starbucks and yes it's still $5 for a bloody cup of foo-foo coffee.)

We have no word from the US Embassy about any plans to evacuate. We'll keep you posted, but I wouldn't expect it.

Thank God for the Internet and the ablility to get word from them so quickly.