Sayyaf terror man linked to kidnap-slay of 2 Americans falls

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 19, 2010) – Philippine authorities arrested a wanted Abu Sayyaf militant accused of kidnapping three US citizens and 17 Filipino tourists at a posh resort nine years ago.

Security officials said Jumadali Arad was arrested late Thursday afternoon while trying to board a passenger ship bound for Zamboanga City.

Arad was among those who raided the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province near central Philippines in 2001 and kidnapped US missionary couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, and California man Guillermo Sobero and the Filipinos, and brought them to Basilan province, south of Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines.

Guillermo Sobero was beheaded in 2001 in Basilan while Martin Burnham was shot and killed in 2002 during a US-led military rescue operation in Mindanao. Gracia Burnham was also shot and wounded during the rescue operation.

“The arrest of Arad is part of the military’s continuing operation against terrorism,” said Army First Lieutenant Steffani Cacho, a regional military spokeswoman.

The Abu Sayyaf, which means “bearer of the sword, has been linked to many kidnappings of foreigners and terrorism in the southern Philippines and was linked by authorities to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden and the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya. (Mindanao Examiner)

Sayyaf Leader Captured In Southern Philippines

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 05, 2008) – Security forces captured a sub-leader of the Abu Sayyaf group implicated in the 2001 kidnapping of three US citizens in the Philippines, officials said on Friday.

Officials said government agents, backed by soldiers and policemen, captured Tuatin Anahalul alias Abu Basilan in a raid on an Abu Sayyaf hideout Thursday afternoon on the island of Margo sa Tubig in Zamboanga del Sur province.

“The terrorist leader is still being interrogated. He is one of those involved in the Dos Palmas kidnapping and Lamitan siege,” Army Major Eugene Batara, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command, told the Mindanao Examiner.

Batara was referring to the Abu Sayyaf raid on the posh Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province in central Philippines where militants snatched Kansas missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and Californian Guillermo Sobero and 17 Filipino holidaymakers and brought them by boat to Basilan island.

And the Abu Sayyaf raid on Lamitan town in Basilan where the militants took over a private hospital and held more than 100 people and escaping four days later after battling government soldiers.

He said informants tipped off the military about the presence of Anahalul, who is long wanted by authorities.

“Civilian informants provided vital intelligence about the subject and his capture is a good start this year in our anti-terrorism campaign. We will not relent in our operation to track down and arrest terrorists and this is the order of General Nelson Allaga,” Batara said.

Allaga is the chief of the Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga City. Last month, security forces also raided an Abu Sayyaf hideout in Zamboanga City and captured two militants also implicated in the Dos Palmas kidnapping.

In November, government soldiers nabbed Abu Sayyaf militant, Teteng Mandangan, said to be involved also in the same kidnappings in the southern Tawi-Tawi province.

The Abu Sayyaf beheaded Sobero in Basilan province a month after the kidnapping while Martin Burnham was shot and killed the next year in a US-led military rescue operation in nearby Zamboanga del Norte province.

Gracia Burnham was rescued by Filipino troops, but she was also wounded. Some of the Filipino hostages were also killed and wounded by the Abu Sayyaf during their captivity.

The Burnham couple was celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary party on May 27, 2001 at Dos Palmas when the Abu Sayyaf attacked the resort.

Since her rescue, Gracia Burnham has written two books, 'In the Presence of My Enemies' and 'To Fly Again' and now works as a popular church speaker. (Mindanao Examiner)

RP Troops Capture Sayyaf Man Linked To Dos Palmas Raid

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 27, 2007) – Philippine soldiers captured a suspected Abu Sayyaf militant, linked to the kidnapping of three US citizens, on a town in the southern Tawi-Tawi province, the military said.

Teteng Mandangan was captured in Bonggao town last week, but his arrest was only announced by the military on Monday after a week-long interrogation.

Mandangan has been implicated in the 2001 kidnapping of California man Guillermo Sobero and Kansas missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham along with 17 other Filipino holiday-makers at the posh Dos Palmas resort in the central Philippine province of Palawan.

The Abu Sayyaf beheaded Sobero in Basilan island a month after the kidnapping while Martin Burnham was shot and killed the next year in a US-led military rescue operation in nearby Zamboanga del Norte province.

Gracia Burnham was rescued by Filipino troops, but she was also wounded. Some of the Filipino hostages were also killed and wounded by the Abu Sayyaf during their captivity.

The Burnham couple was celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary party on May 27, 2001 at Dos Palmas when the Abu Sayyaf attacked the resort.

Since her rescue, Gracia Burnham has written two books, 'In the Presence of My Enemies' and 'To Fly Again' and now works a popular church speaker. (Mindanao Examiner)

Gracia Burham, Ex-Sayyaf Hostage To Speak In Lisburn: Ulster Star

AN AMERICAN ex-missionary whose husband was killed while both were hostages for a year in the Phillipines will speak at two events in Lisburn this weekend.

Gracia Burnham, who herself was wounded during a firefight between the Phillipine military and the Abu Sayyaf Group in which her husband Martin was killed, will tell her unique story at Lisburn Baptist Church at 8 pm on Friday night and at Lisburn Cathedral on Sunday morning (November 25) at 11 am.

The event is organised by Friends in Action, a charity that works in Africa to assist missionaries and the people they work with.
Gracia who has three children - Jeff, Mindy and Zach - worked with her husband for 17 years as a missionary.

They served with New Tribes Mission in the Philippines where Martin was a jungle pilot delivering mail, supplies and offering encouragement to other missionaries. He also helped to transport sick and injured patients to medical facilities.

Gracia served in various roles supporting the aviation programme and also home-schooled their children, all of whom were born in the Philippines. It was during their 18th wedding anniversary party on May 27, 2001 at Dos Palmas Resort off Palawan Island, that the Burnhams were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf Group. They also seized guests and took them to Basilan Island, an ASG stronghold.

During their 376 days of captivity other hostages were killed, while some were set free and from November 2001 the Burnhams and one other were the last remaining hostages.

They faced near starvation, constant exhaustion, frequent gun battles, murder and intense soul-searching about a God who sometimes seemed to have forgotten them.

Then on June 7 2002, in a firefight between the Philippine military and the Abu Sayyaf Group, Martin was killed and although Gracia was wounded she and the rest of her family were finally freed.

Since she was set free Gracia has written two books, 'In the Presence of My Enemies' and 'To Fly Again' and now works a popular church speaker. Her oldest son Jeff is now married and studies missionary aviation at Liberty University. Mindy, Zach and Gracia live in Rose Hill, Kansas.

For more information, please contact Friends in Action on 028 9266 8194

Soldiers of Misfortune: Children as Weapons

A child warrior of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front during a combat training in the southern Philippinbes. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service/Mark Navales)

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 02 Jun) - For 377 days, Gracia Burnham, an American missionary, was held captive by Abu Sayyaf, a Filipino group associated with Al Qaeda.
During that time, she experienced horrors we can’t even imagine. She also gained an insight to one of the world’s most pressing issues.

I’m not talking about Islamic extremism, although Burnham obviously has some hard-earned insights into that phenomenon. I’m talking about the use of child soldiers.

After being kidnapped, Gracia and her husband Martin, whose story is told in the June 4th issue of the New Republic, were starved and force-marched through the jungle. Along the way they saw other hostages beheaded and raped. Finally, she saw her husband Martin die after a botched rescue attempt.

One of Burnham’s principal tormentors was a 14-year-old Abu Sayyaf soldier named Ahmed.

Burnham admits to loathing him for “hoarding food when she had none, throwing stones at her while she bathed—fully clothed—in the river, and pushing her along the trail saying ‘faster, faster.’”

And yet Burnham prayed for a way to love Ahmed. She got her chance after he was wounded in a firefight and soiled himself. When she saw that he was embarrassed, she thought of her own son and felt love for Ahmed. She washed Ahmed’s clothes in the river before he was taken into the jungle on a stretcher, bound, gagged and “stark raving mad.” To this day, she has no idea what happened to him.

Apart from being loved by his victim, Ahmed’s story is typical. On any given day, there are an estimated 250,000 children, some as young as eight, being used by “state-run armies, paramilitaries and guerilla groups around the world.” They’re employed as soldiers, porters, sex slaves and even human mine detectors.

In Uganda alone, 25,000 to 30,000 children have been abducted by an especially brutal group calling itself “The Lord’s Resistance Army.” Children are brutalized and then made to brutalize and kill others, including their own siblings.

Other countries where child soldiers are being used include Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Burundi, to name but a few. However the children are “recruited,” the result is the same: “their health and lives are endangered and their childhoods are sacrificed.”

If all of this comes as a surprise to you, you’re not alone. The war in Uganda, never mind who’s fighting it, has been called a “forgotten war.” That’s the first thing that needs to be changed. The church needs to draw attention to what, by any reasonable measure, is a humanitarian crisis. To help you understand the issue, we’ve got some resources at our website.

You may also want to learn about a recently-introduced bill called “The Child Soldiers Prevention Act.” Co-sponsored by Senator Brownback, it seeks to put into action what the Congress has already put into words: that the United States should “lead efforts . . . to end this abuse of human rights.”

Not surprisingly, Christians are among the bill’s principal sponsors and supporters. Because if Gracia Burnham could love Ahmed, the child soldier who tormented her, the rest of us surely can at least speak out on behalf of the many thousands like him.

In the Philippines, child warriors are rampant across the country's regions -- from northern Luzon to the Sulu Archipelgo in the south, rebels and terrorist groups and private armies of political warlords exploit these innocent children.

The use children to spy on military and police and often trained in combat to kill. The Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the New People's Army and the Abu Sayyaf and even the Jemaah Islamiya used children in the Philippines as combatants and little is being done by the government to prevent all these abuses. (Breakpoint.org with Chuck Colson,this commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley)

Jihadists In Paradise: The Untold Story

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)

Sayyaf Informant Gets Reward Money

A masked civilian holds his P150,000 reward from the Philippine military on Friday 20 Oct 2006 in Zamboanga City. The man helped troops in capturing an Abu Sayyaf militant Isnain Aminul in Basilan island in 2004. Aminul is tagged as one of one of those who kidnapped US missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and California man Guillermo Sobero, in Palawan island in 2001. (Mindanao Examiner/Uly Israel)

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Uly Israel / 20 Oct) - Southern Philippines military officials rewarded a civilian informant P150,000 for helping soldiers capture an Abu Sayyaf militant implicated in the kidnapping of three US citizens five years ago.

Philippine Army Brig. Gen. Francisco Callero handed the money to the masked informant inside the tightly guarded Western Mindanao Command headquarters in Zamboanga City. "This reward is part of the government program to encourage civilians to help us in the campaign against terrorism," he told the Mindanao Examiner.

The informant, wearing a sweat shirt and a pair of dark sunglasses, did not speak to reporters after receiving the money and was whisked away by soldiers. Callelero said the man led soldiers in capturing Isnain Aminul in Basilan island in 2004.

The military tagged Aminul as one of Abu Sayyaf gunmen who raided and kidnapped Kansas missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and California man Guillermo Sobero and 17 Filipino holiday-makers on the posh Dos Palmas resort in the central Philippine island of Palawan in 2001.

Guillermo Sobero was beheaded in 2001 in Basilan island while Martin Burnham was shot dead a year later during a US-led military rescue operation in the province of Zamboanga del Norte.

The Abu Sayyaf had carried high-profile kidnappings in the past, including a daring raid on the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan in 2000 where it seized 21 Asian and European holiday-makers.

Washington offered as much as $5 million bounty for known Abu Sayyaf leaders, including its chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani. President Gloria Arroyo also put up P100 million rewards for the capture of the group's leaders and their members dead or alive. (With a report from Darwin Wee)