The news of a bomb blast in eastern Indonesia that killed 19 people could mean that we thwarted an attack elsewhere; the U.S. embassy in Jakarta:

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Two bomb blasts ripped through a crowded market in a Christian town in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, killing 19 people in an attack likely to raise fears sectarian bloodshed could again break out in the region.

Police said the attacks occurred in the lakeside town of Tentena, on the eastern island of Sulawesi, part of an area where three years of Muslim-Christian clashes killed 2,000 people until a peace deal was agreed in late 2001.

Just yesterday, a security warning prompted the closing of our embassy in the Indonesian capitol and consulates elsewhere:

The US closed all of its diplomatic facilities in Indonesia today until further notice, citing an unspecified security threat.

The decision comes a week after Australia urged its citizens to avoid traveling to Indonesia because of a warning by police in Jakarta about possible suicide bombings, particularly at embassies, international schools, office buildings and shopping malls.

In an e-mailed statement, US officials said the American embassy in Jakarta would be closed along with the consulates in Surabaya, Medan and the island of Bali. Other American government offices would also be shuttered.

Could one of the terrorists original targets have been the embassy? While the violence in Indonesia is sectarian in nature as Christians battle Muslims, the radical islamists have targeted westerners in the past:

Attacks against Western targets and blamed on Jemaah Islamiah include blasts at Bali nightclubs in October 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, and one last September outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed 10.

When the history of the War on Terror is written a hundred years from now, historians will rely on information that today is highly classified. Only the terrorists and a select few in our intelligence community know for sure how many attacks have been thwarted. Last year, Representative Katherine Harris (R-FL) made headlines when she claimed that the US government had prevented over 100 terrorist attacks around the world:

On Monday, August 2, speaking at a rally for President Bush in Venice, Florida, Harris told the crowd that the administration had thwarted over 100 terrorist plots. She also claimed that “a plot existed to blow up the power grid in Carmel, Indiana,” the Associated Press reported.

The “Carmel” plot was denied by officials in that small, Indiana town. And to this day its not clear whether Harris was lying, exaggerating, or telling the truth. In the press frenzy that followed her remarks, she seemed genuinely sorry she had revealed something she shouldn’t have. Whether that “something” was information from a classified briefing or rumormongering by some government hack won’t be known for a long time.

These kind of dubious remarks have fueled the impression by some the terrorist threat is at best overblown or at worst, an nefarious plot by the Bush Administration to curtail civil liberties.

However, it seems probable that at least a dozen or more attacks have been thwarted in Europe:

Since 11 September 2001, at least 15 major terrorist attacks have been prevented in Europe, according to a Norwegian research institute.

In an interview with Radio Netherlands, a spokesman for the institute claims that all these attacks would have caused many casualties had they not been foiled.

And then there was the very real, very scary planned chemical attack in Jordan that was foiled at the last moment:

Officials close to the investigation told The Associated Press that several terror suspects arrested in Jordan last month have confessed the plots were hatched by Jordanian militant Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi (search), thought to be a close associate of Al Qaeda boss Usama bin Laden.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the terrorist cell was planning to attack Jordan’s secret service — the General Intelligence Department — with a chemical bomb that would have killed as many as 20,000 people and caused large-scale destruction within a half-mile radius

So the war goes on. A silent, secret war with the highest possible stakes imaginable. It seems very possible that the sharing of intelligence by the Indonesian government with their American counterparts may have saved American lives today. The Bush Administration, as usual, doesn’t receive enough credit for this achievement in the War on Terror; intelligence swapping with dozens of countries around the world. But this may be the most important aspect in the ongoing battle with Islamic extremists.

And the hell of it is, we’ll never know of their successes. Only their failures.

Cross Posted at Blogger New Network