http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/aug/30/yehey/top_stories/20050830top4.html
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Abu Sayyaf expects fresh funds
By Johnna Villaviray-Giolagon
THE al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf expects fresh funds from overseas to be brought
into the country by a Saudi posing as a humanitarian aid worker, according to
government reports and police officials.
The money the Arab is bringing in is for suicide bombings, possibly in Metro Manila,
even though suicide missions have failed here, according to a classified
government report issued in April.
The report was based on messages exchanged by an Indonesian, Dulmatin, and a
Jemaah Islamiah leader who escorts operatives for training in the Southern
Philippines. Dulmatin, or Pitono, is believed to be involved in the Bali bombings
that killed about 200 people; he is now in southern Maguindanao province under
the protection of the Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani.
A police official, speaking on condition on anonymity, said the Saudi is a frequent
visitor to the Philippines.
The Saudi, who the official would not identify, travels to the country at least twice
a year to inspect livelihood and other projects funded by his group, a legitimate
charitable institution.
“He inspects projects so he can go around Mindanao,” the official said.
Muslim charitable organizations have been used as a legal cover to allow
terrorists to enter and travel around the Philippines, particularly the southern
region of Mindanao, without coming under suspicion.
The strategy was perfected in the early 1990s by Mohammad al-Khaliffa, the
brother-in-law of the al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who put up several
charitable institutions that engaged in legitimate welfare activities like out-reach
programs to depressed Muslim communities, medical missions and scholarships for
Muslim youth.
A portion of the donations collected by these groups is then transferred to the
fundamentalist group of their choice to fund their bombing missions.
Another method of channeling funds is through the courier services that deliver
money orders door to door and is popular among overseas Filipino workers who
remit money to their families in the Philippines.
“But it’s not as easy [to receive funds from abroad] as before because we’ve
identified and frozen the bank accounts they use to receive the money,” the
official said.
The official acknowledged that the Saudi might have traveled to the Philippines
earlier this year. The report says the Saudi was in Indonesia around April.
“He’s legitimate. His organization is legitimate. But we can get him through the
paper trail,” the official said, adding that the police are coordinating with foreign
counterparts to bust the Saudi’s operations.
Biloxi fears hundreds dead after Katrina
BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - Hundreds may have been killed by Hurricane Katrina in the Mississippi Gulf Coast city of Biloxi after being trapped in their homes when a 30-foot (9 meter) storm surge came ashore, a spokesman for the city said on Tuesday.
"It's going to be in the hundreds," Vincent Creel told Reuters. "Camille was 200, and we're looking at a lot more than that," he said, referring to Hurricane Camille, which hit the area in 1969 and destroyed swaths of Mississippi and Louisiana.
http://olympics.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-08-30T181136Z_01_SCH065511_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-WEATHER-KATRINA-DEATHS-DC.XML