Word: ghozi
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...terrorists that is supposed to be the hard part of the war on terror. As soon as a suspect is in custody, the tables are meant to turn as interrogators get tough on the terrorist. However, in the Philippines last week, as self-confessed Indonesian bombmaker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf kidnap-gang members strolled out of a supposedly high-security prison cell on July 14, we were reminded yet again that this war is only as effective as the most hapless institution drafted into the fight...
...Indeed, Metro Manila's Camp Crame prison may well be the least secure high-security facility in the world. According to police director Eduardo Matillano, al-Ghozi's cell was so badly constructed that the door could be bent open by hand. A former Abu Sayyaf member working as a janitor gave al-Ghozi details of the best escape route. Before dawn, when al-Ghozi slipped out of the cell and walked out of the prison, one contingent of guards assigned to the nominally high-security block had fallen asleep while another detail had been dispatched outside the prison...
...Manila's Today newspaper on July 17 responded in an editorial, declaring "the police forces of the Philippines are a joke." But no one in Asia is laughing about al-Ghozi being at large. The 32-year-old is the chief bombmaker for Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the regional grouping of Islamic radicals blamed for the devastating blasts in Bali last October as well as a slew of other explosions. According to academic Zachary Abuza, author of a new book about al-Qaeda in the region: "At a time when they've been lying low and licking their wounds because...
...last major campaign against the MILF in 2000, Salamat also gave an anguished call to would-be jihadis?and many welcomed his invitation. On Dec. 30, 2000, several bombs went off across Manila, killing 22 people and wounding more than 100. An Indonesian JI operative named Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi was eventually caught and convicted for possessing one ton of TNT. He confessed that his co-conspirator was Muklis, now viewed as the Philippines' most wanted terrorist...
...terrorist leading this schism, according to Gonzales and Philippine intelligence, is wanted-criminal Muklis, a former religious teacher from Marawi in central Mindanao who studied Islamic jurisprudence in Pakistan. In 1993, he and al-Ghozi crossed the border into Afghanistan, gaining expertise in explosives and demolitions. After returning to Mindanao, he headed the MILF's Special Operation Group at Camp Bushra. But Muklis always served as a point man for JI within the MILF. According to al-Ghozi's own testimony, Muklis was a principal player in the wave of bomb blasts that tore through Manila...