ONE day, early in October 2002. It was still dawn when two men knocked on Amrozis door in a small village in Lamongan, East Java. The first man, wearing glasses, was named Alan. The other, with a thin body and thin moustache, was Dulmatin. In that simple house, the two men took their short break. In the afternoon, they went to Bali with Amrozis brother, Ali Imron, in a green utility van owned by Amrozi.

They then stayed at the Harum Hotel in De