[iwar] [fc:Filipino.Muslim.Rebels.Tied.to.Afghan.War]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-09-25 21:59:41


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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Filipino.Muslim.Rebels.Tied.to.Afghan.War]
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Tuesday September 25 07:52 PM EDT

Filipino Muslim Rebels Tied to Afghan War

By John K. Cooley ABCNEWS.com

A Filipino Islamic rebel group reportedly has strong ties to Osama bin
Laden. 

Like many international terrorists, the Abu Sayyaf group has its origins
in the 1979-89 jihad or "holy war" to expel the Soviets from
Afghanistan. 

Influenced by Wahabism, an ultra-conservative form of Islam that dates
from mid-18th century and espoused by the Saudi royal family, the Abu
Sayyaf is known to have ties with many Muslim causes. 

Since the Sept.  11 terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, Filipino investigators have renewed their efforts to crack
down on the Abu Sayyaf and their links to the operations of indicted
terrorist Osama bin Laden. 

The Philippine military today announced it had arrested Mohammed Faisal
Dompol Ijajil, a suspected Abu Sayyaf supply chief with suspected links
to bin Laden. 

Speaking at a news conference in Manila, marine brigade commander
Colonel Renato Miranda told reporters Ijajil would be interrogated "on
all angles," including any links with bin Laden . 

Ijajil was arrested on the southern Filipino island of Basilan last week
as a suspect in a murder connected with the Abu Sayyaf, Miranda said. 

Deadly University

Abu Sayyaf was the last of the seven main Afghan guerrilla groups to be
formed, and organized late in the Afghan war with the Soviets— only
about three years before the Soviets withdrew. 

Abu Sayyaf, which means "father of the sword" in Arabic, was founded in
1986 by an Afghan professor named Abdul Rasul Abu Sayyaf. 

Some of the original veterans of the Afghan jihad, and their sons and
grandsons and those trained by them, have been operating with
destructive effect since the 1980s from Egypt and the Philippines to
Algeria and New York. 

As the Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in 1989, the
CIA's powerful Pakistani partner, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence
Directorate) found itself losing control of the Afghan fighting groups. 

Although the ISI continued to train and equip some for warfare against
India in Kashmir and Punjab provinces, Abu Sayyaf had also established a
"university," north of Peshawar, Pakistani , to train terrorists in the
methods taught by the CIA and ISI. 

Senior Pakistani police officials said it trained terrorists for the
Philippines, the Middle East, North Africa — and New York — and a senior
Pakistani officer acknowledges that 20,000 volunteers were trained in
the Peshawar "university" and that after the 1979-89 war ended, the
alumni "looked for other wars to fight."

Abu Sayyaf moved operations to the Philippines, ostensibly to support
the generations-long battle for an independent Muslim state in the
southern islands. 

Among their leaders were two brothers, named Qaddafi Aburazak and
Qaddafi Janjalani, supposedly given the same first names due to their
father's esteem for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has been mixing
in Philippine affairs since the 1970s. 

Other Afghan veterans ended up stimulating unrest, rebellion and civil
wars in Pakistan itself, India, Sudan , Egypt Algeria, Bosnia, Kosovo
and Albania.  Their proclaimed goal was to establish Islamic states,
according to the commands of God, around the world. 

Ramzi Ahmed Youssef, jailed for life for the bombing of the World Trade
Center in New York City in 1993, is believed to have frequented the Abu
Sayyaf school. 

Dangerous Alumni

Youssef's work with Abu Sayyaf became known in 1994 when, on Dec.11, a
bomb aboard a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Manila to Tokyo
killed a passenger and injured six others. 

The Abu Sayyaf group claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone
call. 

FBI, CIA and Filipino investigators discovered that Youssef was the
master planner of this and other unsuccessful attempts to bomb 11 other
airliners, all American, over the Pacific on the same day. 

Shortly after the bombing, Filipino security forces raided a Manila flat
used by Youssef and found strong evidence of a plot to kill visiting
Pope John Paul II when he visited in January 1995. 

Ties Come Closer Home

After a long international manhunt, Youssef was arrested in a safe house
belonging to bin Laden in Islamabad, Pakistan.  He was extradited to the
United States and later given a life sentence in a New York federal
court. 

ABCNEWS has learned that when Philippine intelligence foiled the plot to
assassinate the pope, a laptop containing plans for using U.S.  airlines
against American targets, particularly government buildings, was
captured. 

In recent times, Abu Sayyaf kidnapping sprees have included the
abduction of U.S.  citizen Jeffrey Schilling in August 2000 and of three
U.S.  citizens, including California native Guillermo Sobero and 17
Filipinos from a southern Philippine resort in May. 

Schilling was released in April 2001 while the Abu Sayyaf has repeatedly
claimed to have beheaded Sobero, although reports of the decapitation
have not been confirmed. 

ABCNEWS has learned that bin Laden was allegedly very displeased with
Abu Sayyaf rebels for releasing Schilling. 

According to the Filipino military, funds were funneled to Abu Sayyaf
rebels by a "front" charity group run by one of bin Laden's
brothers-in-law who is married to a Filipina. 

Filipino military sources said the money was used to build mosques and
schools in the south of the country. 

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