Inside the Manhunt

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During the interrogation a tearful Istie said that wives are obliged to support their husbands even if the men are involved in armed jihad; her children's future, too, "may be sacrificed for this means." According to the transcript, she told police that Dulmatin and Patek linked up with local separatist groups to evade capture.

Istie told police that one visitor who dropped by her home was MILF commander Mokasid Delna. That relationship is important, says Kit Collier, an Australian political scientist who recently compiled a report on combating terrorism in Southeast Asia for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank. "Delna was in the same Afghan training camps in 1991 as Umar Patek, making him a key ally," Collier says. Zamboanga police chief Col. Lurimer Detran has told the media that Salahudin Hassan, who carried out the bombing at Edwin Andrews Air Base, is a relative of Delna.

U.S. and Philippine military officials believe the MILF-controlled areas are key boltholes for the bombers. "It's someplace safe where they can do their business without having to worry about local informants, because there are some hefty rewards out," says Col. Bill Coultrup, head of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Task Force that is helping the Philippine military hunt terrorists. MILF spokesman Eid Kabulu says there are no formal links between his group and terrorists. However, he says, "there might be some individuals who these people are close to or have some relationship with and who they're in some way able to exploit."

Network of Violence
While breakaway elements of the MILF are accused of sheltering the bombers, so is Abu Sayyaf. One former member of that group told TIME the bombers are seen as heroes. "They know how to to preach, how to provide financial assistance, and they know how to make bombs," says the former terrorist over tea and sweets in his village home on Jolo. "They are valued." Philippine police confirm that Abu Sayyaf has embraced Dulmatin's bomb tutorials. Superintendent Leocardio Santiago, who heads the Special Action Force, says Dulmatin's bomb-making handiwork has been apparent in a number of terror attacks, including the one on the Zamboanga air base.

In Patikul, on Jolo island, General Juancho Sabban, who heads the country's anti-terrorism task force, gives a guided tour of a former Abu Sayyaf base close to one of his forward operating bases. "See how difficult it is to see the bunkers," he says, striding nimbly through the chest-high grass that covers the hillside. Hidden in the grass are the 2-m-deep spider holes from which Abu Sayyaf guerrillas popped up to kill six of his men during a 2006 firefight.

Here soldiers discovered compact discs and files relating to JI operations, including a JI spreadsheet carefully documenting the expenditure of €40,000 on food, motor boats and vans, and even cell-phone cards. "I think it was Umar Patek who was doing the group's accounts," says Sabban. ICG terror expert Collier thinks Patek is more than just a terrorist bean counter. "He commands Abu Sayyaf Group forces and he can be seen as an ASG commander in his own right," Collier says, "as well as a JI freelancer. Dulmatin and Patek are both still in communication with allies in Indonesia, and there have been attempts over the last few years to smuggle suicide bombers from Java to the Philippines."

Collier warns that if peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF breaks down, Dulmatin and Patek would be well placed to launch further terrorist attacks. "There's no doubt they are very canny operatives. Patek in particular is a combat veteran of impressive credentials, an Afghan veteran who has also been fighting — going back to the 1990s — alongside the MILF and the ASG."

While Patek and Dulmatin were establishing themselves in the Philippines, says Pastika, their two fellow fugitives relied on an extensive network of supporters and family in central Java, Indonesia, to escape and regroup. Of all the wanted men, Noordin Top is regarded as the most dangerous, accused by Indonesian police of orchestrating the bombings of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003, the Australian embassy in 2004 and the second Bali bombings in 2005. "He's very good at recruiting people and getting them to commit suicide, not at making bombs," says General Pastika. The ICG, in a 2006 report on Noordin's networks, told how he would "ripen" suicide bombers or "bridegrooms" for bombings.

In a videotape discovered by police in a 2005 raid on a JI safe house in central Java, a balaclava-clad man believed to be Noordin is heard ranting: "America, Australia, England and Italy are all our enemies. We especially remind Australia that you, [then Foreign Minister Alexander] Downer and [then Prime Minister John] Howard, are killing Australia, leading it into darkness and misfortune and mujahidin terror." In May 2004, despite being the subject of one of Indonesia's largest manhunts, Noordin managed to marry his second wife, Munfiatun Al-Fitri, who, according to the ICG report, had wanted to marry a "warrior for Islam." Munfiatun was captured in 2005 and served a short sentence in prison for harboring the fugitive.

Sydney Jones, who heads ICG's Indonesian office, says there are two main theories about Noordin's location. One is that he is living in central Java "under JI's enforced protection on the condition of non-activity, spending most of his time reading downloads from the Internet." The other theory, Jones says, is based on claims by the recently arrested JI commander Abu Husna that Noordin had been helped to escape to Malaysia. Indonesian police sources tell TIME the chances that Noordin has escaped from Indonesia are very slight. "Why? He's got very good networks here," says a former officer with the country's counterterrorism unit, Detachment 88, who asked not to be named.

Even less is known about the fourth fugitive, Zulkarnaen. Dubbed "the grandfather" by the Indonesian media because of his seniority, the 44-year-old has virtually vanished and does not appear to be linked to any recent terror plots, says Jones. Although the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center lists Zulkarnaen as one of al-Qaeda's "point men" in Southeast Asia, Jones doubts he is active in the JI leadership. "What's striking is that he doesn't come up in conversations or interrogations. It's as though he is a non-person."