Word: ransoms
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Responsibility for the attack was immediately claimed by representatives of Abu Sayyaf, a group of Islamic separatists chiefly known for kidnapping for ransom in the southern Philippines. But just as rapidly, officials in Manila scoffed off the claim; President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo dismissed it as coming from "pranksters." Despite promises of a swift investigation into the attack, concrete conclusions about the cause of the explosion have yet to appear...
...That conclusion will confirm the fears of regional intelligence officials and terrorism experts that Abu Sayyaf has evolved into a much more ferocious band. A new leadership has abandoned the kidnapping that brought in millions of dollars in ransom. Now, the group is returning to its Islamic roots and is using the familiar weapons of terror?bombing and assassination?in an attempt to achieve an independent Muslim republic in the southern Philippines. Abu Sayyaf already claims to be connected to al-Qaeda. And although regional intelligence officials downplay that assertion, they are worried that Abu Sayyaf could become what...
...funding for the group through one of the Islamic charities he operated in the Philippines at the time. But after the death of Abu Sayyaf's founder Abdurajak Janjalani in a firefight with police in August 1998, its religious and political goals were dropped in favor of kidnapping for ransom. The group was paid millions of dollars by the governments of Malaysia, Libya, Germany and France to release hostages seized from a Malaysian diving resort in April 2000. In 2001, Abu Sayyaf kidnapped three Americans and 17 Filipinos from a resort in the Philippines; two of the American hostages...
...occasions when information got out, says that official, the results were counterproductive. Earlier this year, for instance, an antiglobalization group calling itself AZF contacted the Interior Ministry, demanding ransom to remove bombs that AZF claimed to have planted under rail lines. Two bombs were found, one where the AZF said it would be. Security forces were hoping to smoke the group out of hiding, but not long after word of the threat leaked to the media, AZF vanished entirely, promising to be back. Even when a plot has been foiled and the planners have been captured, the French favor...
...cars move at an agonizingly slow pace through improvised checkpoints and blocked-off streets. "My family says the profit is not enough, the suffering of the journey too great," says Radhy, who travels in the anonymity of a rattletrap city taxi because kidnappers often target doctors who can afford ransom payments. "But if I do not go, a lot of people will get no care...