A GROUP OF U.C. BERKELEY PROFESSORS CLAIMS THAT THE BALI BOMBING WAS THE WORK OF THE UNITED STATES:

The United States may have had an active role in carrying out last week’s bombing of an international nightclub, members of a panel said at a campus round-table discussion Friday.

“The information received is that several groups are being looked at more closely,” said Jeffrey Hadler, a UC Berkeley professor of South and Southeast Asian studies. “The most important thing is to wait for the investigation.”

But the United States may have been directly involved in the bombing in order to further its war on terrorism, he added.

President Bush alleged Oct. 14 that Al Qaeda terrorists were behind the bombing because Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, Hadler said.

The allegation also furthers Bush’s call for war in Iraq, he said.

“Al Qaeda has turned into this incredibly convenient phantom,” he said.

Sylvia Tiwon, a professor of Indonesian at UC Berkeley, said Al Qaeda is too small to have perpetrated the bombing.

The Angry Clam remarks: “Just like only Mossad could have pulled off 9/11, right?”

UPDATE: Hadler, apparently, now says that he was misquoted by the Daily Cal.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Daily Cal has admitted the error.