Word: mindanao
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...Philippines After two weeks of fierce fighting and bombings in Mindanao that left 200 dead, negotiations between the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the administration of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are in bad shape. Recent evidence linking the rebels to al-Qaeda has helped fuel a troubling escalation. The U.S., which last year assisted the Philippine army's efforts to eliminate Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on the southern island of Basilan, will soon send 1,700 troops back to the region, including 350 members of the special forces, to help finish the job. But this go-round they...
...Mindanao again proving so hospitable to foreign terrorists? The short answer is that the Philippine government is divided over how to tackle the MILF. Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and the army favor a military solution. But while operations like last week's take place periodically, Manila is simultaneously pursuing negotiations with the MILF leadership. For fear of derailing these talks?and despite additional pressure from the U.S., which has about 300 troops stationed in the Philippines to train the country's military in counterterrorism techniques?President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo refuses to have the MILF designated a terrorist group...
...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...
...Recent army reports have Muklis hiding out in the cloud-swathed mountain range that rises abruptly from the placid waters of Lake Lanao in central Mindanao. "Getting into that area is very, very difficult," says Colonel Ernesto Boac, commander of the army brigade based in Marawi. Standing in front of a topographical wall map, he points to the densely wrinkled contours along the provincial border south of the lake. "It's difficult getting human intelligence out of there, and we're not picking up radio transmissions. It's a black hole." Not just for the Philip-pines, but increasingly...
...proper diplomatic conduct by attending and even helping to organize rallies against the U.S., and meeting with a wide variety of individuals openly hostile to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration. But was he really involved in the wave of terrorist bombings on the southern island of Mindanao that the government blames on Abu Sayyaf, the Islamic guerrilla group that, in its early days, had links to al-Qaeda? Or, as skeptics suggest, is the Philippine intelligence community performing a shadow dance of Colin Powell's efforts in the U.N. to convince the world that Iraq and al-Qaeda...