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AFP - The Philippines on Saturday announced the imposition of martial law in a southern province to quell a rebellion by a powerful clan accused of being behind the massacre of 57 people. President Gloria Arroyo placed Maguindanao province under military control late on Friday in an effort to contain heavily armed militias belonging to the provincial governor and other members of his Muslim clan, authorities said. "There's a rebellion in the area," Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said. "It was practically an overthrow of government." Arroyo's controversial move is the first time martial law has been declared in the Philippines...

The online free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, informs that noted Philippine publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer was murdered on November 24, 2000 by members of the police force. According to Wikipedia, “Bubby Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, were abducted in Makati, the business district of Manila. They were later killed, and their vehicle dumped. In 2001, a number of arrests were made. One of the accused, police colonel Glenn Dumlao, named Cesar Mancao and Michael Ray Aquino as the organisers of the murders. Mancao and Aquino both fled the country. Dumlao later disappeared.” “The ultimate reasons for Dacer’s murder remain a...

Excerpt - NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - A former White House official who took top secret documents from U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's office and gave them to opposition figures in the Philippines was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in prison. Philippine-born Leandro Aragoncillo, a U.S. citizen and former Marine, pleaded guilty last year to taking the documents that included details on threats against U.S. government interests and military personnel in the Philippines. Aragoncillo worked on the security detail assigned to the vice president from 1999 to 2002, where he held a top security clearance. He later took a...

Aragoncillo admits spying for Arroyo foes Estrada, Lacson named co-plotters vs President NEWARK, New Jersey—A Filipino-American intelligence analyst admitted Thursday that for five years he passed top secret information gleaned from White House and Federal Bureau of Investigation computers to conspirators he said were trying to overthrow President Macapagal-Arroyo. Leandro Aragoncillo, 47, a naturalized US citizen who was born in the Philippines, pleaded guilty to a four-count indictment. The conspirators used code words to refer to various people, including calling Ms Arroyo "The Penguin," Aragoncillo admitted. Aragoncillo, shackled at the feet and wearing green jail garb, himself did not...

A former Marine security attaché who worked in the White House in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations pleaded guilty in federal court to passing top-secret information and documents to political opponents of the current Philippine government. ...Chester Keller, the federal public defender representing Mr. Aragoncillo, said his client never intended to harm the American people and sought only to help the Philippine people.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Federal prosecutors identified former Philippine President Joseph Estrada and two other Philippine officials as alleged participants in a spy plot involving a former FBI analyst. According to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, Estrada, Sen. Panfilio Lacson and former Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella worked with Leandro Aragoncillo, the former analyst suspected of passing secret intelligence to officials in the Philippines. Prosecutors said the men might have wanted the information to try to overthrow President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Estrada, who was toppled amid massive street protests in 2001, denied the allegations during a telephone interview Wednesday...

Ousted President Joseph Estrada said Tuesday he was notified by an American court that US authorities bugged his telephone conversations with a former FBI analyst who was charged with illegally revealing US government secrets. Estrada has previously acknowledged receiving American government assessments of Philippine political events from Leandro Aragoncillo, who has been accused of illegally downloading confidential US information and passing them to other people while working as an FBI intelligence analyst. Estrada told The Associated Press that he received a notice from a New Jersey court, which informed him that some of his telephone conversations with Aragoncillo were...

Mark Jimenez released from US Federal prison Former Manila congressman Mark Jimenez has been released from a federal prison in Pennsylvania in the United States, ABS-CBN North America Bureau reported Wednesday. Public information officer Mike Furman confirmed that Jimenez was released by the Federal Correctional Institution in Allenwood, Pennsylvania on December 13, 8 a.m. (9 p.m. in Manila). Jimenez (also known as Mario Crespo) was immediately turned over to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency under the Department of Homeland Security. He said Jimenez is now "a detainee in the custody of ICE." The ICE media...

Heard through the grapevine - Former congressman Mark Jimenez was forced to spend a few more weeks in the US penitentiary after he was found to have distributed "farewell gifts" to prison guards as well as fellow inmates.

AT LEAST two members of the House of Representatives are seeking "custody" of former Manila Representative Mark Jimenez from the United States amid reports his release from a federal prison and subsequent deportation to the Philippines had been delayed because of an "infraction" he allegedly committed while serving his 20-month jail term. Jimenez, whose real name is Mario Crespo, was originally scheduled for deportation last Tuesday but was not aboard the plane that was supposed to have flown him to Manila. Jimenez was jailed in Pennsylvania after being convicted of tax fraud and illegal campaign contributions. A local television...

MARK JIMENEZ is coming home on his own sweet time, according to his friend, Surigao del Sur Representative Prospero Pichay. The ex-jailbird was expected back from the United States yesterday, but Pichay yesterday said he was probably still staying with family members in Florida. "He's resting, sleeping, enjoying his time [out of prison]," Pichay said of the controversial former representative of Manila. Jimenez (real name Mario Crespo) has just completed a 20-month jail sentence for making illegal campaign contributions and committing tax fraud in the United States. Along with other lawmakers, Pichay had earlier planned to meet Jimenez at...

CHICAGO, Illinois — The headline of another newspaper yesterday was a self-fulfilling prophesy: "No red carpet, no yellow ribbons for Mark Jimenez (MJ)." If the information of the US Bureau of Federal Prisons is to be believed, the much-anticipated return of the former Manila congressman on Tuesday, Nov. 22, will have to wait. His projected release is reset to Dec. 13, 2005. In a previous posting of Jimenez’s release by the US Bureau of Federal Prisons, his original "projected release was Nov. 5, 2005." This was exactly the day of the 20th month of his imprisonment in the Federal...

CONTRARY to expectations that he would be giving some prominent people sleepless nights, it would be a more religious, more media-shy Mark Jimenez who will be coming home on Tuesday after nearly two years in a US federal prison, friends said yesterday. "He would like to devote his time to God's words," one of the friends told the Inquirer. But that doesn't mean Jimenez would be all forgiving, the friend indicated. Except Nani "He has said he has already forgiven all those who have crossed him, except Nani," he said, referring to former Justice Secretary Hernando Perez whom Jimenez...

From Tempo.com.ph - US sends Mark Jimenez back home in November By JEAMMA E. SABATE Former Manila (6th District) Congressman Mark Jimenez will be deported in November to the Philippines from the United States after serving his sentence in a federal prison, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday. This was confirmed by lawyer Ricardo Diaz, chief of NBI Interpol Division, saying that Kevin R. Peters of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has advised the bureau of Jimenez's return to the country. Jimenez, 57, whose real name is Mario Crespo, is scheduled to be deported on November 21....

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said yesterday the panel may widen an ongoing inquiry to include a look at the case of an accused spy who had previously worked at the White House. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said in a telephone interview that the case of Leandro Aragoncillo, the former Marine who is charged with stealing secret documents while working as an FBI analyst at Fort Monmouth, likely will be joined with the committee's other probes. "We have a series of hearings ongoing with leaks and unauthorized disclosures of information, and obviously spying fits into that," Hoekstra said....

THE UNITED STATES is concerned classified documents allegedly stolen by Leandro Aragoncillo and Michael Ray Aquino may have ended up in the hands of communists, according to an official of the National Bureau of Investigation. Ricardo Diaz, chief of the NBI’s Interpol division, said at a recent meeting that US officials noted that known leftists were at the forefront of so-called destabilization efforts and mass actions in the country. “They said there was a possibility that the classified government information from the White House and FBI [the Federal Bureau of Investigation] are now in the hands of the local...

Break silence, US urged Solons want brains of spy case named THREE senior administration lawmakers urged the United States government yesterday to break its silence on the espionage case of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and immediately identify the brains so they could be charged before Philippine courts. Representatives Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City), Marcelino Libanan (Eastern Samar) and Monico Puentevella (Bacolod) made the call as Malacanang reiterated its fear that the spying scandal could impair the Philippines' relations with the United States. The case involves the alleged theft of secret FBI files dealing with the Philippines, some of which...

Just a heads up, Freepers. Folks on the radio just reported that Aragoncillo, the person busted as a spy at the White House (actually, it would be the building down the street) started his tenure under Vice President Al Gore in 2000. So if Richard Clark is so stunned by the vetting process, perhaps he should talks to Albert.

WASHINGTON - FBI agents examined computers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office and talked to former and current White House aides Thursday as they investigated an FBI intelligence analyst accused of passing classified information to Filipino officials. Meantime, former Philippine President Joseph Estrada acknowledged receiving an internal U.S. government report on the Philippines from the analyst, Leandro Aragoncillo, but played down the importance of the information, comparing it to material aired in his country's media. The FBI is looking at whether Aragoncillo, a former Marine, took classified information about the Philippines from the White House when he worked for Vice...

Thursday, September 29, 2005 Jimenez eyes Atienza’s post By Maricel V. Cruz, Reporter CONTROVERSIAL former representative Mark Jimenez of Manila is planning to run as mayor for Manila when he returns to the country in November after serving out his two-year community service in the United States owing to criminal charges. A congressman on Thursday gave this information to The Manila Times, but added that Jimenez may choose not to return to the country. The source, who refused to be identified, said the businessman’s “family and relatives” are convincing Jimenez to stay in the Bahamas for good. The former...