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Note: The following text is a quote: Philippines: Jihad against school principals This just in from our "This Is Why You're Poor" Department. Allah promised paradise to those who "slay and are slain" in the cause of jihad (Qur'an 9:111), but shooting your own society in the foot is also quite popular as a consequence. "Islamic rebels behead Philippine teacher: police," from Agence France-Presse, November 8: ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- The severed head of a school principal who was abducted by Islamic militants in the troubled southern Philippines was dumped in a petrol station on Monday, authorities said. The head of...

Al-Qaeda-linked militants have killed two farmers, one of whom they kidnapped during an attack on a Christian village in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday.

Manila: The Philippines has put rights activists, including a former US attorney-general and members of church groups on an immigration blacklist, a rights group said on Friday. At least 504 people from 50 countries were included in the blacklist labelled "Al Qaida/Taliban Link" imposed between July and August, Human Rights Watch said. Ramsey Clark, a former US attorney general, is among those banned from entry. The list also includes left-wing activists from Europe, Australia and the United States. A senior immigration official confirmed that the blacklist existed, adding only that most of the names on it were "leftists". Human Rights...

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group. The...

Security forces on Saturday captured a Philippine Muslim extremist group's leader, who is also wanted by the United States for attacks against Americans, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced. In a statement on government television, Arroyo congratulated police and soldiers for nabbing Radulan Sahiron, describing him as "a very notorious leader" of the Abu Sayyaf. The group has been blamed for many deadly bombings and the kidnapping of Western tourists, including missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham from the U.S. state of Kansas. Philippine National Police chief Arturo Lomibao said that Sahiron _ the Abu Sayyaf's chief of staff _ was...

Soldiers killed six members of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group in a clash on Saturday on the southern Philippine island of Jolo. "At least six Abu Sayyaf terrorists were killed by soldiers and we recovered the bodies and their weapons," said Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, head of an anti-terror task force on the island. Two Marines were also wounded in the clash, Brigadier General Aleo said. An undetermined number of Abu Sayyaf were also wounded in the battle, said Colonel Juancho Sabban, head of the Marine force on the island. A Marine reconnaissance force crept up on...

US warns of 'multiple' terror attacks in the Philippines WASHINGTON -- Al Qaeda-linked groups and the radical arm of the biggest Muslim rebel organization in the Philippines are planning to stage "multiple" attacks through the archipelago, the United States warned Wednesday. The warning was issued by the State Department, which advised Americans to "consider carefully the risks of travel to the Philippines." The travel warning said: "Terrorist groups, including Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Group, and radical elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are planning multiple attacks throughout the Philippines." The Abu Sayyaf is a kidnap-for-ransom gang based...

Abu Sayyaf bomb threat unsettles Filipino churches AFP , MANILA Sunday, Mar 20, 2005 Churches in the Philippines tightened security yesterday after a warning was received that al-Qaeda-aligned extremists were planning bomb attacks in revenge for the killing of their leaders in a prison uprising, officials said. Additional staff, including security guards, had been posted at major churches to check on suspicious people, said Monsignor Hernando Coronel, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. Coronel said churches would have only one exit and entry point so that people could be checked, in response to the warning issued by...

MANILA, Philippines Mar 14, 2005 — Muslim-extremist inmates accused of committing some of the Philippines' worst terrorist attacks agreed to surrender Monday after a botched jailbreak left five people dead, including three guards, but the deal broke down when the inmates demanded food, authorities said. Early Tuesday, authorities threatened to storm the prison unless the inmates quickly surrender. "We have directed the ground commander to make the announcement that we are giving them 15 minutes to surrender their firearms or we will take the option of arresting the perpetrators of the crime," Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes told reporters. Crack troops,...

MANILA, Philippines — Police surrounded the facility at Manila's Camp Bagong Diwa, where authorities have detained 129 suspected members of the Al Qaeda-linked (search) Abu Sayyaf group, including several leaders.

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines: One of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members linked to the deadly Bali bombing in 2002 is believed to have been killed in an air strike on al-Qaeda-linked groups in the southern Philippines, a military official said on Saturday. The JI member, Dulmatin and another Indonesian, Mohammad Ali Abdul Rahiman, also known as Mauyha, were among those killed when aircraft targeted a meeting in the southern island of Mindanao on Thursday, said Colonel Gerry Jalandoni. Jalandoni, who commands forces in the area, said intelligence operatives reported that two of three Indonesian JI members who were in the area of...

HUNTED Philippine forces pound Abu Sayaf position MANILA - US-backed forces have launched a major assault to capture or kill an Abu Sayyaf leader wanted by Washington, sparking clashes that killed a Philippine marine and left an undetermined number of rebels dead, officials said yesterday. Caught: Captured Abu Sayyaf spritual adviser Abraham Jumdaini was paraded yesterday at the Philippine military headquarters in Zamboanga city. -- AFP The assaults, which began on Friday in the mountain jungles of Patikul on southern Jolo island, were aimed at neutralising Radulan Sahiron and a number of Abu Sayyaf commanders who reportedly had planned to...

Secret study links al-Qaida to Philippine terror camps Extremist group trained foreigners there for 7 years By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, PHILIPPINES - A secret government report says Muslim guerrillas in the southern Philippines have hosted terror training camps for militant groups from Indonesia and Malaysia for at least seven years - a period when Southeast Asia was plagued by bombings that have killed hundreds of people, like the Bali nightclub attack in 2002. The training lasted at least until 19 new members of Jemaah Islamiyah - the al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror group - finished in January, according to...

Authorities in the Philippines have arrested a suspected militant who allegedly arranged for funds from the Al Qaeda terror network to finance bombings in the Philippines. It follows the arrest of another militant last month who worked as the conduit for Al Qaeda funds to local terrorists. Defence Secretary Eduardo Ermita identified Khair Munduf as a middleman shifting funds from the Al Qaeda network to the local extremist group Abu Sayyaf. The suspect allegedly funnelled at least $US89,000 from Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia to the Abu Sayyaf. The Defence Secretary says the Abu Sayyaf used the money to buy...

MAY 10, 2004 Al-Qaeda 'converting Christians for militant work' Recruitment through charities helps affiliates tap their knowledge, access to Christian-dominated areas in Philippines By Luz Baguioro MANILA - Al-Qaeda's Philippine affiliates are recruiting Christians through a network of charities, including one founded by the brother-in-law of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, security officials said. The recruits are then pressured to convert to a militant form of Islam and are tapped for local information, contacts and access, said authorities. 'We have made a pretty disturbing discovery and that is the use of what they call 'Back to Islam' in the Philippines,'...

The always fascinating Dan Drezner has a bunch of good posts up.. sorry, we are going to skip to the red meat: On Page 127 [of his new "Against All Enemies"], Clarke notes that it's possible that al-Qaida operatives in the Philippines "taught Terry Nichols how to blow up the Oklahoma Federal Building." Intelligence places Nichols there on the same days as Ramzi Yousef, and "we do know that Nichols's bombs did not work before his Philippines stay and were deadly when he returned." This ties in to the theory that Clinton quashed investigations into a foreign connection to Terry...

Ka Roger’s raspy voice filters out of the morning radio program, casual and so commonplace that millions of Filipino listeners have come to regard it as part of the daily news rather than a disturbing presence of a guerrilla openly challenging a government. “There are two governments in this country, the revolutionary government and the reactionary government,” said Roger, nom de guerre of Gregorio Rosal, spokesman for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). “They can’t deny that we exist and we exercise government powers,” Rosal said. Nilo de la Cruz,...

PHILIPPINES: Islamic Terrorists Now the Top Threat October 24, 2003: The government announced that terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) had now become the chief threat in the country. MILF, NPA and Abu Sayyaf are considered on the way out (because of police and army pressure and internal dissention.) Unlike the older groups, which were in it for the money and long term political goals, JI is a terrorist operation out to make total war on non-Moslems. October 23, 2003: Recent arrests and captured documents revealed that Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and al Qaeda had dozens of members loose in the country....

ZAMBOANGA - Two female Christian preachers who have just escaped from the Abu Sayyaf band said yesterday they are afraid that the group would go after their families in revenge. One of the two recounted how she witnessed her husband being beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked by Washington and Manila to Al-Qaeda. Ms Cleofe Mantulo, 49, and Ms Emily Mantic, 28, were taken by the military to Zamboanga from the island of Jolo, where the Abu Sayyaf seized them along with two other women and two men, all Jehovah's Witnesses, in August. The two slipped away...

MANILA (Reuters) - Two out of four Filipina women held by Muslim rebels for nearly eight months escaped on Saturday as the guerrillas slept, worn down by relentless army pursuit, President Glorial Macapagal Arroyo said. The four women evangelists from the Jehovah's Witnesses were seized by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas along with two male preachers in August 2002. The two men were beheaded and the two other female evangelists remain in the hands of the rebels. "The confusion in the enemy camp enabled the two women to abscond," Arroyo told a news conference in northern Baguio city. "Day by day we...