Word: sabban
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Dates: during 2008-2008
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...Here soldiers discovered compact discs and files relating to JI operations, including a JI spreadsheet carefully documenting the expenditure of €40,000 on food, motor boats and vans, and even cell-phone cards. "I think it was Umar Patek who was doing the group's accounts," says Sabban. ICG terror expert Collier thinks Patek is more than just a terrorist bean counter. "He commands Abu Sayyaf Group forces and he can be seen as an ASG commander in his own right," Collier says, "as well as a JI freelancer. Dulmatin and Patek are both still in communication with allies...
...Patikul, on Jolo island, General Juancho Sabban, who heads the country's anti-terrorism task force, gives a guided tour of a former Abu Sayyaf base close to one of his forward operating bases. "See how difficult it is to see the bunkers," he says, striding nimbly through the chest-high grass that covers the hillside. Hidden in the grass are the 2-m-deep spider holes from which Abu Sayyaf guerrillas popped up to kill six of his men during a 2006 firefight...
...demonstrate the improving security situation on Jolo, Sabban takes visitors to his forward operating base in the former terrorist stronghold of Tugas, northwest of Jolo town. Accompanied by more than 50 soldiers in jeeps and armored vehicles, his convoy rumbles through small villages. Not long ago, the base's access road was a dirt track where Abu Sayyaf fighters came and went freely, using the dense rainforest as a retreat or as cover for ambushes; the main road through this part of the island was known as the Boulevard of Death. Now the road to the base is lined with...
...destroyed command structures and smashed morale and that Abu Sayyaf no longer publicly names its leaders for fear that they will be killed. The program has also cut off funding from al-Qaeda and other allies. "It was Janjalani who established connections with al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah," says Sabban. "Now that he is killed there is nobody to replace him [as a go-between]. That's why we believe the organization is so weak. If we push it more, maybe we can finally eliminate it." Abu Sayyaf members are now said to be so cash-strapped they have turned...
...race is on: if the defiance of men like Chief is to be encouraged, General Sabban and the country's armed forces must uproot the remnants of Abu Sayyaf, and do so before they lose their grip on the hearts and minds they've so lately...