http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6269701.stm
Last Updated: Wednesday, 17 January 2007, 08:27 GMT
"Philippines militant 'shot dead'"
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Abu Sulaiman, also known as Jainal Antal Sali, was fatally wounded in a clash with soldiers on the southern island of Jolo, the army's chief said.
Sulaiman had a $5m bounty placed on his head by the US, in part for the 2001 abduction of a group of tourists on the island of Palawan.
The kidnapping resulted in the deaths of two Americans and several others.
Sulaiman is also believed to have been involved in the bombing of a passenger ferry in the central Philippines in 2004, which killed at least 100 people."
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Abu Sayyaf is thought to have links with both al-Qaeda and the regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah, and has been blamed for a number of kidnappings and bombings in the region.
Late last month, the military said the head of the group, Khaddafy Janjalani, might have been killed in September, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Like Sulaiman, Khaddafy Janjalani - the younger brother of Abu Sayyaf founder Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani - is also on a US wanted list."
PERSECUTION.ORG
http://www.persecution.org
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http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07010077.htm
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
"Christmas in India proved to be a time of continued persecution for many Christians"
By Nanci Ricks, Executive Director of the Dalit Freedom Network
Special to ASSIST News Service
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http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07010079.htm
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
"Iraq: Terrorists, Gangs Target Christians"
OPEN DOORS USA
Jerry Dykstra, Media Relations Director
* Abu Sayyaf, Baathist Iraq, and Al Qaeda : 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. ------ "Saddam's Philippines Terror Connection," by Stephen F. Hayes, Weekly Standard , 03/18/2006
Abu Sayyaf was also connected to Libya :
... [Iraqi Ambassador Salah] Samarmad's dispatch appears to be the final installment in a series of internal Iraqi regime memos from March through June 2001. (The U.S. government translated some of these documents in full and summarized others.) The memos contain a lengthy discussion among Iraqi officials--from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Iraqi Intelligence Service--about the wisdom of using a Libyan intelligence front [the Qaddafi Charity Establishment] as a way to channel Iraqi support for Abu Sayyaf without the risks of dealing directly with the group. (The Libyan regime had intervened in an Abu Sayyaf kidnapping in 2000, securing the release of several hostages by paying several million dollars in ransom. Some observers saw this as an effort by Muammar Qaddafi to improve his image; others saw it as an effort to provide support to Abu Sayyaf by paying the ransom demanded by the group. Both were probably right.)------ "Saddam's Philippines Terror Connection," by Stephen F. Hayes, Weekly Standard, 03/18/2006
An analysis of Iraqi embassy phone records by Philippine authorities showed that Hussein [second secretary of the Iraqi embassy in Manila, Hisham Hussein] had been in regular contact with Abu Sayyaf leaders both before and after the attack that killed SFC Jackson. Andrea Domingo, immigration commissioner for the Philippines, said Hussein ran an "established network" of terrorists in the country. Hussein had also met with members of the New People's Army, a Communist opposition group on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist groups, in his office at the embassy. According to a Philippine government official, the Philippine National Police uncovered documents in a New People's Army compound that indicate the Iraqi embassy had provided funding for the group. Hisham Hussein and two other Iraqi embassy employees were ordered out of the Philippines on February 14, 2003..------ "Saddam's Philippines Terror Connection," by Stephen F. Hayes, Weekly Standard, 03/18/2006
Yesterday's article also said the good guys found 17 bunkers and "bomb making tools". Good news all the way around. Thanks Cindy.