Al Qaeda's Filipino Branch Office
MATUS, VICTORINO
Al Qaeda's Filipino Branch Office What's to be done about the American hostages in the Philippines? BY VICTORINO MATUS LAST MAY IN THE PHILIPPINES, a terrorist group with links to Osama bin...
...Filipino Muslims, known as Moros, make up 5 percent of the predominantly Roman Catholic country...
...BY VICTORINO MATUS LAST MAY IN THE PHILIPPINES, a terrorist group with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network abducted 20 people from a hotel resort on Palawan island...
...The government has refused to negotiate but has found itself outgunned and outmaneuvered...
...Philippine officials believe the bin Laden connection may have ended at that point, as Abu Sayyaf in the aftermath of Jan-jalani's death splintered into factions, each vying to kidnap foreigners for lucrative ransoms...
...In June, one of the Americans, Guillermo Sobero of California, was blindfolded and led away with his hands tied...
...Three of them were Americans...
...With that, another rebel wielded a machete and chopped his head off...
...Which is why President Arroyo calls the existing Abu Sayyaf "a money-crazed gang of criminals...
...Retaliation for the horrific murder of the American hostage has, perhaps understandably, not yet made it to the top of anyone's to-do list in Washington...
...It's not being contemplated right now," a senior Bush administration official told me...
...By 1995, Khalifa had left the Philippines...
...The terrorist group is called Abu Sayyaf ("bearer of the sword" in Arabic), and for the past few months it has been at war with the Philippine government...
...Use of air space as well as the former U.S...
...Its founder was an Islamic preacher, Abdurajak Janjalani...
...And I think that's probably the best way to characterize it...
...They want to be trained...
...Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist and Arab News senior editor Rasheed Abou-Alsamh told me that "the little sympathy Abu Sayyaf seemed to have within the Filipino Muslim community has evaporated in the past year and a half, especially after they executed so many of their victims...
...In the decade since, it has engaged in kidnappings (including of children and clergy), bombings, and assassinations...
...When asked if we ought to send in the Marines to rescue the Americans, the official was not encouraging: "Right now, we are focused on training the Philippine army...
...When officials traced Murad's terrorist links back even further, they came upon Muhammad Jamal Khalifa— the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden...
...In 1991, one hardline faction split off—the Abu Sayyaf...
...One of the suspected terrorists was Abdul Hakim Murad, who also admitted his involvement in a plot to blow up a dozen American airliners...
...We stand in solidarity with the Philippines" said Bush recently...
...They had fights among themselves...
...They were young people, and they were heavily armed...
...In the late 1980s, Khalifa came to the Philippines and befriended Jan-jalani...
...The stated purpose of his visit was to set up Islamic charities, including orphanages, clinics, and schools...
...One of Murad's roommates was Ramzi Yousef—the terrorist who had helped plan the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 (and who is now serving a life term in a U.S...
...So last month, 26 American counterterror-ism specialists and army officers visited the Philippines to evaluate the crisis...
...But in 1986, the MNLF entered into peace talks with the new Aquino government...
...Abu Sayyaf's goal is the Victorino Matus is an associate editor at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...The following year, Abu Sayyaf made its first violent attack on a military checkpoint...
...he returned home to Basilan and began spreading the Islamofascist creed...
...And there was absolutely no control...
...Hundreds of rebels were killed, but the hostages have yet to be rescued...
...During the 1980s, Janjalani joined the muja-hedeen in Afghanistan...
...One hostage from the Malaysian diving resort told NBC's Dateline that his captors were all taking drugs...
...At the same time, the Philippine army has stepped up its campaign...
...The money was reportedly invested in weapons and high-speed gunboats...
...On May 27, with more firepower than ever, the Muslim rebels stormed the resort on Palawan...
...The number of Abu Sayyaf rebels has dwindled to roughly 450 armed men (at one point, the group supposedly had 2,000 members...
...You could smell it sometimes...
...Plus, there could be a firefight—there are a lot of Muslim rebels there, and Americans could be killed...
...The Philippine government dispatched 5,000 soldiers to hunt them down on Basilan island, deep in the south...
...By the late 1960s, their Islamic separatist movement, spearheaded by the Moro National Liberation Front, had grown violent...
...For them, the end of the al Qaeda outpost in the Philippines can't come too soon...
...bases at Clark Air Field and Subic Bay has been granted, though it's not clear these will be used...
...The tide may be turning against the Abu Sayyaf, but they still pose a threat to Americans abroad and to the stability of the Philippine government...
...And Abu Sayyaf's assets have been frozen...
...More than advice may be needed...
...Said another hostage, "They actually shot at each other...
...According to captured rebel Bashir Balahim, sobero was crying and begging for his life...
...creation of an independent Muslim state on the country's southernmost islands...
...Not all the Muslims were happy with this...
...In January 1995, Philippine authorities uncovered a plot to kill Pope John Paul II during his visit to that country...
...And as you point out, it's not an isolated cell, it's . . . connected to terrorists across the world...
...The plot had ties to Abu Sayyaf...
...President Bush, who meets with Philippine president Gloria Macapa-gal Arroyo this week, has promised to increase military aid to the Philippines from $2 million to $19 million per year...
...sobero's remains were found last month...
...Last week, seven Filipino hostages were released, but the two remaining Americans, Kansas missionaries Martin and Gracia Burn-ham, are still being held...
...The hostages languished for nearly five months, until a Libyan intermediary paid the terrorists $25 million in ransom as a "gesture of goodwill...
...Imagine the shame of their not being able to go in and get their own hostages...
...Their two American hostages, the Burnhams, were described by the Filipino hostages released last week as "not just skinny, but bony...
...When one reporter asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld what exactly the assessment team was doing in the Philippines, Rumsfeld was vague: "I think . . . the way to characterize it is that we were asked by the Philippine government . . . to have some American military people offer some advice and assessment as to the kind of problem that the Philippines have been faced with, and it's a serious problem for them...
...Around 1990, When officials traced Murad's links back, they came upon Muhammad Jamal Khalifa—the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden...
...The Philippines has indeed asked for American help...
...Abu Sayyaf first gained international attention in April 2000 by kidnapping 21 hostages, including 10 Western tourists, from a Malaysian diving resort...
...Three years later, his friend Janjalani was killed in a fire-fight with the army...
...Instead, they were incorporated into the new republic...
...And within each group, it is difficult to discern the leadership...
...prison...
...But there's still no talk of an American military role in going after Abu Sayyaf...
...When the United States granted independence to the Philippines in 1946, the Moros, concentrated in the southern islands, hoped for autonomy...
...The assessment team stayed for only a week, and offered advice on how to deal with Abu Sayyaf...
...His last words were, "No, no, please, I beg of you...
...But officials believe his real mission was to arm the Abu Sayyaf...
...This is a global battle...
Vol. 7 • November 2001 • No. 11
