Abu Bakar Bashir, spiritual leader of the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, has been cleared by the Indonesian Supreme Court of any involvement in the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people.

Australians are rightly outraged over the verdict and, interestingly, the head of Labor Party is attacking Prime Minister John Howard and suggesting some of the blame lay at the feet of the U.S. Government:

Labor leader Kevin Rudd questioned why Indonesian authorities were not given access to Bali bombing mastermind Hambali as part of their investigations.

He said Hambali, now being held by the US in Guantanamo Bay, could have provided vital evidence to convict Bashir.

Mr Rudd asked what Mr Howard had done to have Hambali found accountable.

"What representation did Australians make to the Americans to enable the Indonesians to get access to Hambali and why were those representations rejected?"

UPDATE: Here's an interview with Bashir from September. Here are some snippets of what the cleric told Al-Jazeera (all emphasis added):

The Muslims understand that my goals are righteous, that I want to uphold sharia law. I'm not trying to convert them into Muslims, but I'm just trying to uphold sharia law for all human beings...

I'm just telling people what our prophet Mohammad said about Islam, you have to understand that these things are not coming from my thoughts. I'm delivering what Islam is according to Mohammad and his friends...

So there is no other way. If human beings want to have good things, then they have to return to Islam, because that's the concept from God. And what George Bush has been telling people, is the concepts of Jews and criminals and that will destroy human beings...

Please give my message to the leaders in the West, Tony Blair, George Bush tell them to stop fighting Islam. Islam will win, definitely. You can kill Muslims, but Islam cannot be killed. You will be destroyed if you fight Islam. Advise them to convert to Islam, so they will be saved. That's my message.

It occurs to me that the more naive among us might read Bashir's words and conclude that what he's saying is no different than what a Christian evangelical might say: "convert so you will be saved." But while Christians might threaten non-believers with the specter of judgement before God and a rather uncomfortable eternal afterlife, Bashir's threats are less spiritual than they are terrestrial: convert, live under sharia, or die.

Lest there be any confusion about that fact, remember that according to Australian intelligence authorities Bashir - the man who claims he is "delivering what Islam is according to Mohammad" - was "clearly was a key figure" in the bombings that led to the slaughter of more than 200 innocents four years ago.