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A  weekend bombing highlights the dangers facing American troops, but also points outs why the War on Terror has been a daily war for other countries before 9/11.  As some have said, "...well least the Americans understand now..."  But do we?  Fortunately no Americans were hurt over the weekend,  but really what is the danger and how long has it been brewing there?
 

The Media Trots out the Philippines And Vietnam Comparison - Again

Acerbic tongue and all, Chris Mathews on MSNBC's Hardball jumps down the throat of his guest, then takes a parting shot with "That's the kind of thinking that got us into Vietnam..."  The subject?  Training Filipino with American forces on the ground in the Philippines.

MILNET has already taken the time to make that analysis, Chris, and if you cared to read just our intro piece you'd know the similarities are only surface deep.  But then the surface of the issue is all you need.  We've noticed the tendency of your show to allow you time for vicious sound bites and the fast talking, knife like tongue lashing as you "probe" and then talk over the answers.  Some maybe fooled by the hot box approach of hardball.  Fortunately not everyone falls for it.

In any case, for the benefit of those who want more than a sarcastic sound bite, we thought it time to review the terrorist situation in the Philippines, we haven't done so in any detail since August.
 

Recent Activity

On April 21, 2002, a man called in to warn of Al-Qaida based bombings.  Several hours later, a town known as General Santos, a total of 3 bombings occurred on Mindanao in front of a department store, a set of offices near a radio station and a bus terminal.  14 people were killed in the department store explosion as well as dozens wounded in all three locations.

The caller identified himself as a member of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, which others have identified as having Al Qaida links.  In response to the bombings, the Police force for the Mindanao region found several unexploded bombs planted under trucks.

The city is some 140 miles North of Basilan Island and 600 miles south of Manila on the northern most Philippines island of Mindanao.  Basilan is where U.S. troops are assisting the Army of the Philippines as they try to root out Abu Sayyaf.  Key in the operation are three hostages held for 11 months, a couple and a nurse on a missionary mission to the Philippines.

Incidentally and perhaps not too coincidentally, General Santos is where father Rohman Al-Ghozi pleaded guilty to possession of explosives and led police to a huge cache of more explosives earlier this year.

On October 17, 2001 an Italian priest was kidnapped by Muslim separatists and finally returned in April, 2002 (A.P.).

Recent news reports (multiple sources) of kidnap ransoms being offered to secure release of three hostages surfaced in April of 2002.

Also in April, a Reuters  news story (printed in LA Times) claimed that there was evidence that ransoms taken in the past have been funneled to Al-Qaida.

A March, 2002 Washington Post story outlined the use of children by terrorist organizations in the Philippines and sadly, the "life of adventure" a brace of young men claim they lived while in the bush with Abu Sayyaf.

Below is an updated summary of the Terrorist threat in the Philippines.
 

Terrorist Summary

The following terrorist groups are active in the Philippines and provide a majority of the tension:

• Abu Sayyaf Group ( ASG ) - The ASG is the smallest and most radical of the Islamic separatist groups operating in  the southern Philippines. Some ASG members have studied or worked in the Middle East and developed ties to Mujhadeen while fighting and training in Afghanistan. The group split from the Moro National Liberation Front in 1991 under the leadership of Abdurajik Abubakar Janjalani, who was killed in a clash with Philippine police on December 18, 1998.  Credo is to promote an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago, areas in the southern Philippines heavily populated by Muslims.  Funded by Islamic extremists in Asia and the Middle East.  In April of 1995, according to the U.S. State Department annual report,  Patterns of Global Terrorism (2000), Abu Sayyaf Group invaded the town of Ipil on Mindanao - their first major "action".
• Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) - Obscure but long lived group strangely missing from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations -- Recent activities include the kidnapping of tourists on a bus and held them at a complex in Zamboanga until November 28, 2001 when they exchanged the hostages for free passage to another province. The leader, Gov. Nur Misuari was later captured and held in Malaysia. Misuari has led the group for 20 years, seeking an Islamic nation in the southern region of the Philippines. A total of 55 people including 51 of the Moro rebels were killed in the initial attack on November 20, 2001. This fighting broke a truce signed by Misuari on August 8, 2001. However, MNLF was suspected of attacking and killing 3 Philippine soldiers on September 14, which was then followed by a raid on rebel homes where 4 supposed members were killed. The pact was pretty much given up on by October and it was only a matter of time before another large attack occurred. Now listed as one of the groups with ties to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaida, it is thought they could be the target of combined U.S. and Philippines Army attacks.  Funding is indigenous for the most part, and MNLF boasts they are the largest group in Philippines.  Clearly they do have popular support in pocket areas in the Philippines.
• Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) - At times indistinguishable from the MNLF (see above), determined to bring an Islamic rule to the Philippines.  Some reports show this to be the second largest group, however, this may be an error due to the intermix of members of the MNLF and MILF.  The number of members is said to be in the thousands by MSNBC.
• New People's Army ( NPA ) - The military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), with older ties to the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) , a communist party that merged with the Socialist Party of the Philippines before the War and was centered in urban Luzon.  The NPA is a Maoist group formed in December 1969 with the aim of overthrowing the government through protracted guerrilla warfare. Although primarily a rural-based guerrilla group, the NPA has an active urban infrastructure to conduct terrorism and uses city-based assassination squads called sparrow units. Derives most of its funding from contributions of supporters and so-called revolutionary taxes extorted from local businesses. The NPA primarily targets Philippine security forces, corrupt politicians, and drug traffickers. Opposes any U.S. military presence in the Philippines and attacked U.S. military interests before the U.S. base closures in 1992.
• Alex Boncayao Brigade ( ABB ) - Consisting of a group of 500 or so operatives, the ABB, is a breakaway urban hit squad of the Communist Party of the Philippines New People's Army, was formed in the mid-1980s.  In March 1997 the group announced it had formed an alliance with another armed group, the Revolutionary Proletarian Army.

There are also a number of groups outside the Philippines who also continue to pose a threat, either directly or through sharing of funds and materials.
 

• Jemaah Islamiah, Malayasian extremist group, thought to be well linked with the Al-Qaida terrorist network. Captain Yazid Suffat, a member of the group is thought to have been a sort of emissary to Al-Qaida, traveling and recruiting  throughout Southeast Asia (Newsweek). The group members met with Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhamzi who piloted the plane that struck the U.S. Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Sufaat also met with Zacarias Moussaouf, currently being held on suspicion of being a terrorist on the same mission as the 9/11 terrorists.  Moussaouf was given $35,000 and employment letters by Sufaa.  In April of 2002, the group was suspected of targeting Malayasia's second largest port, a detailed map with notations turning up in a raid on a cell of this group on April 18, 2002.
• al-Qaida- Usama Bin Laden's international offshoot of the Islamic Jihad organization, this group is active in the Philipines due to its current goal is to "reestablish the Muslim state" throughout the world. Works with allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems "non-Islamic" and remove Westerners from Muslim countries.  This includes supports for Moros and their efforts to form independent states, as well as funding Filipino communist rebels.

 

Sources:

• U.S. State Department, Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2002
• MSNBC Online, Philippines Bombing Kills 14 People  and other articles for background and verification.
• LA Times Archives, various articles for background and verification.
• Associated Press (through various news outlets including New York Times, LA Times, San Jose Mercury News, etc.)
• MILNET:  The Philippines and Vietnam:  A Comparison and Analysis
• MILNET:  Flashpoints
• MILNET:  International Terrorist Profiles
• Washington Post Online, various articles for background and verification
• Encylopædia Britannica Online, "Philippines", Encyclopædia Britannica  <http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=369258>  [Accessed April 21, 2002].

© Copyright, 2002, Michael Crawford, MILNET

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