JAMES PATTERSON
Dying declaration of bombing link
April 27, 2002
Elmina Abdul Angeles was on her deathbed, but she wanted the truth out about her late husband's role in the Philippine terrorist network responsible for numerous bombings and a plot to kill the pope.
Thankful for each new breath, she had summoned journalist Dorian Zumel Sicat to her bedside last month at Basilan Community Hospital in Isabela City, Basilan Province, Republic of the Philippines. She died shortly thereafter.
A transcript of the interview, spoken in the Cebuano language and translated by Sicat, provides new evidence linking the Oklahoma City bombing to Philippine-based terrorist groups, as alleged in a recent Judicial Watch lawsuit on behalf of 14 survivors.
"Good morning Mrs. Angeles," began the writer, presenting her with a gift of fruits and bread. Not up to eating, she politely nodded. "How are you feeling this morning?"
Her expression gave the answer before she mustered the strength to speak.
"Not very well." She motioned for one of her companions to fetch a drink of water. Sicat continued.
"You are not Edwin's first wife, is that true?"
"Yes, I am his third wife. For Muslim men, they can have even four wives, if each of the other ones approve."
The couple met in 1995 while he was incarcerated in the Provincial Jail in Isabela. She was working for the Philippines Information Agency.
Edwin was co-founder and field commander of the southern Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf Group, an Islamist fundamentalist organization suspected of bombings, assassinations and other terrorist activities.
When Edwin surrendered to Philippines police in 1995, local authorities dubbed him Number Two person in the Abu Sayyaf behind Ramzi Yousef. Edwin said Abu Sayyaf had 387 members and received funding "from those who believe in Islamic revivalism" in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.
A police raid of Yousef's Manila apartment uncovered a plan to assassinate Pope John Paul II during his visit there in 1995. Police discovered the group's plot to blow up about a dozen U.S. airliners over the Pacific as well. Yousef was convicted in 1998 as mastermind of 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.
Elmina Angeles used her last few hours to set the record straight about her husband, who she said was really a government agent sent to infiltrate the Abu Sayyaf. The Manila Times journalist asked Mrs. Angeles why Edwin had taken the risk.
"Yes, I want to tell you why. I want now to tell the truth about my husband. I will die soon. I want you to know the truth."
She said Edwin was ordered to help organize the Abu Sayyaf and report all developments. He was called a deep penetration agent. This was confirmed in court papers from the Philippine Department of National Defense.
"Did he ever tell you about his activities in the ASG before he met you?" Sicat asked.
"He told me everything," she said. "I do not believe he would hide anything from me when we were talking alone."
"Please do not be offended, but how do you know that?"
She smiled. "Not only because I was his wife, but because he knew that he would soon be killed. He wanted me to know everything so that if anything happened to him, I could tell others." After Edwin's cover was blown, he was murdered in January 1999.
Sicat pushed for an explanation on whether her husband had met with Arabs and Americans in 1994, as has been alleged.
"Does the name Ramzi Yousef mean anything to you, Mr. Sicat?" she asked. "He had met with them. And an American who he called Terry or the Farmer, and another American whom he did not name."
Sicat pressed further. "Was the American he named as Terry, Terry Nichols?" Nichols, convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing, had traveled to the Philippines several times between 1990 and 1994.
"He did not mention a surname. Only Terry."
"Did he tell you why and how many times they had met?"
"They met almost every day for one week. They met in an empty bodega (warehouse). They talked about bombings. They mentioned bombing government buildings in San Francisco, St. Louis, and Oklahoma. The Americans wanted instructions how to make and to explode bombs. They told me that (the late Abu Sayyaf co-founder Abdurajak Abubakar) Janjalani was very interested in paying them much money to explode buildings. The money was coming from Yousef and the other Arab."
Was the "Farmer" Terry who Mrs. Angeles says met with her husband and Yousef in 1994, the same one who helped blow up the Oklahoma City federal building on April 19, 1995?
It's one of the questions nagging at the House Government Reform Committee headed by Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., whose lawyers were in Oklahoma City this week investigating.
Patterson is a Star editorial writer. Contact him at 1-317-444-6174 or by e-mail at james.patterson@indystar.com.