The U.S.'s top homeland security official blasted Indonesia's decision to allow the early release of a radical Islamic cleric Washington suspects of a central role in al Qaeda's Southeast Asian activities. After a meeting with Indonesia's top security minister, held to try to improve cooperation against terrorism, U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, accused preacher Abu Bakar Baasyir of "intense and deep involvement" in the planning and execution of terrorist attacks. He added that the U.S. hopes that Mr. Baasyir can again be brought to justice "in a different way" sometime in the future. He did not elaborate.

The move to free Mr. Baasyir has renewed questions about Indonesia's commitment to its antiterrorism efforts, and comes amid growing frustration among foreign intelligence services over Indonesia's failure to pursue new information that strengthens the allegations against him.

Indonesian and western intelligence officials believe Mr. Baasyir, 65 years old, is the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist organization with links to al Qaeda that has been accused of carrying out a series of bombings in Southeast Asia over the past few years. But efforts to prosecute him in Indonesia have suffered repeated setbacks, causing foreign governments to complain that prosecutors are not trying hard to convict him because they fear a possible Muslim backlash in the world's largest Islamic nation.