ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE (Mindanao Examiner / 17 Feb) – Finally, the untold story of how a top leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, who held hostage three U.S. citizens, was tracked down by the CIA and eventually killed.
The Pirates of the Caribbean team of Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer are teaming up once again to bring the “Jihadists in Paradise.”
“A kidnapping at a Philippine resort triggered a yearlong hunt for pirate terrorists and their American hostages. A behind-the-scenes tale of intrigue, spycraft, and betrayal,” wrote author, Mark Bowden, in his opening piece on his story Jihadists in Paradise posted on the Atlantic Monthly website.
Disney and Bruckheimer have bought the rights to make a movie based on Jihadists in Paradise, an article by Bowden from the March issue of Atlantic Monthly.
Bowden has a number of books and articles being developed into Hollywood films and box office hit “Black Hawk Down” is his biggest film to date. The deal will also see Bruckheimer re-team with Bowden, as the two worked together on Black Hawk Down.
A review of the Jihadists in Paradise details the emergence in the Philippines of the Abu Sayyaf and one of its leaders, Aldam Tilao alias Abu Sabaya.
Tilao, born on Basilan island and studied in Zamboanga City, put his group on the map by sneaking by boat into the posh Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province in the central Philippines and took 20 Filipino hostages, including California man Guillermo Sobero and Kansas missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham.
Tilao and his group beheaded Sobero and left his body eaten by wild animals in Basilan island and dragged the Burnham couple and other hostages across the jungles for a year and a half until he was eventually tracked down and killed after a long search by the CIA and Filipino military forces.
Martin Burnham was shot and killed and his wife wounded during the U.S.-led rescue operation.The Philippine military have repeatedly denied U.S. involvement in the rescue of the hostages.
A video of the operation taken by a U.S. spy plane was shown to senior Filipino military commanders who likened the black and white footage to a Hollywood espionage movie. The video was taken using a thermal camera.
The website of the Atlantic Monthly posted a purported CIA video of the operation in the southern Philippines on this URL: http://www.theatlantic.com/movies/bowden/surveillance-9.mhtml.
It showed 6 black figures, believed to be Tilao and his group, walking to a waiting speedboat -- guarded by another figure - under the cover of darkness.The Philippine military said Filipino soldiers onboard several boats attacked Tilao’s group while trying to escape a remote coastal village in Zamboanga del Norte province.
Tilao had admitted responsibility in the murder of a local radio reporter, Candelario “Jun” Cayona, who was repeatedly shot in the head and chest by a gunman while on his way to work in Zamboanga City in May 30, 2001. (Mindanao Examiner)
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