Word: sayyaf
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Hunting terrorists on Basilan Island is a punishing game of hide-and-seek, as any Philippine soldier can tell you. The 5,000 Philippine troops on Basilan are looking for the last 80 or so heavily armed members of the Muslim rebel gang known as Abu Sayyaf (meaning "Bearer of the Sword"), who are on the run with three hostages in tow somewhere inside a 30-sq.-mi. patch. Stalking the rebels in jungle so dense that no light shines through the canopy of foliage, along jagged ridges often shrouded in fog, is like fighting in a dark closet with...
...Mindanao to hunt shoulder to shoulder with the frustrated Philippine soldiers who have been scouring the area for the past eight months. In theory, the 650 U.S. G.I.s, including 160 special forces, are being sent to teach the local troops better ways to search out and destroy Abu Sayyaf, a group that officials say has had ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. In practice, armed with sophisticated munitions and authorized to fire only in self-defense, the Americans seem likely to do everything short of direct combat attacks to help rid the Philippines of this scourge...
With al-Qaeda cells lurking in at least 50 countries around the world, why bring the battle to the Philippines? Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters last week that Abu Sayyaf is linked to al-Qaeda, "no question," but most officials in Manila consider it more a band of local thugs than a worldwide terrorism threat. Still, the group's brutal record of kidnapping--and beheading--foreigners as well as Filipinos (close to 100 murdered since 1991) makes it a legitimate target. The fact that Abu Sayyaf still holds hostage U.S. missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham, said Rumsfeld, only "adds...
...underlying purposes of this operation may go beyond the fate of Abu Sayyaf. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has shrewdly used the terrorism threat to dip into Washington's honey jar, coming away with $100 million in military aid and substantial additions to her depleted arsenal. Her country has largely been cut off from military assistance since Manila kicked the U.S. out of its two major South Asian bases in 1991. The Bush Administration was eager to regain a military foothold there. Last November, when Arroyo visited Washington, the President offered to send U.S. combat troops to join...
Sending in G.I.s to help disband Abu Sayyaf would deprive these cells of a useful bit of real estate. But it wouldn't eradicate the international danger they pose. Rooting them out is a job for the undercover boys. The FBI has beefed up its Manila office because, says an official, "the threat level is going up." It is worried that Asians might step in as suicide bombers now that airport security is targeting Arabs. And the 650 incoming G.I.s could provide nice cover for other covert operatives, such as CIA paramilitaries. "As we've said all along, what...