Posted on 03/10/2003 12:13:41 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
The death toll from the terrorist bomb attack in the Southern Philippines has risen to 21. The terrorist group Abu Sayyaf is being held responsible for the atrocity.
Hamsiraji Sali, a commander in an Abu Sayyaf terrorist group was hiding out on the southern island of Basilan, admitted that he is getting funds from Iraq. Sali bragged the money would be spent "on chemicals for bomb-making and for the movement of our people."
His boast led to the expulsion of Husham Hussein, an Iraqi diplomat, last week. Husham had been discovered contacting Abu Sayyaf by phone. Intelligence linked him to the 2 October bombing in the port of Zamboanga that killed an American serviceman.
It appears that Husham's expulsion was too late. Shortly after Sali spoke to reporters the most recent bomb attacks took place.
Abu Sayyaf is a particularly murderous group with longstanding links to al Qaeda's terrorist network. These links were established when Jamal Mohammad Khalifa, Osam bin Laden's brother-in-law, helped to set up Abu Sayyaf and provide funding. This connection made Abu Sayyaf an al Qaeda subsidiary.
Muslim terrorist groups have been waging war against Manila for decades, now that foreign funding has increased they have intensified their campaigns, with Sayyaf apparently taking the lead. However, it has suffered severe losses and most of its members have been forced to retreat to the island of Jolo in the far south of the country.
It is here that some 1,700 US troops, along with detachments from the Philippine Army, expect to engage them. It has been proposed that the island be sealed off while these forces sweep through and wipe out the terrorists.
Meanwhile, American and Philippine intelligence are following the money trail to Baghdad.
Astonishingly, the Murrah bombing and the first WTC attack share a connection. Yousef and Terry Nichols were in the Philippines simultaneously. Nichols's trips there are undisputed; his wife's relatives lived in Cebu City. Cebu is also the territory of the Islamic terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.
The Iraq Connection - Sep 09 2002
Iraqi-Abu Sayyaf Terror Link? Iraqi Diplomat Expelled from Manila - Feb 13 2003
Elmina Abdul, widow of one of the Abu Sayyaf co-founders, Edwin Angeles, died in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, March 30. Ten days before she died, she talked with this writer in confidence while lying on her deathbed at Basilan Community Hospital. I was the last, if not the only reporter, to ever talk with her...Angeles also told Elmina about Project Bojenko, an Iraqi-financed operation of terror that targeted several buildings in the US, the bombing of several US airliners, bombing US embassies overseas, and hitting other US interests.
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