Filipino Wife Of Bangladeshi Terror Suspect Denies Allegations Vs. Husband

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 3, 2008) – The Filipino wife of an arrested Bangladeshi national denied Wednesday government allegations the foreigner was a terrorist.

Security forces arrested Muhammad Alpariz on Tuesday in the village of Tapayan in Sultan Mastura town in Shariff Kabunsuan, one of six provinces of the Muslim autonomous region, police and military said.

But Filipino Sulaika Rafiquellah said her husband was not Muhammad Alpariz, but Mohammad Rafiquellah. She said her 48-year old husband is not a terrorist and not a member of either the al-Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiya.

Police commandos, backed by army troops, swooped on the foreigner’s hideout and found improvised explosives, authorities said.

The woman insisted her husband is a Bangladeshi after Philippine television reports, including Al-Jazeera, reported the man to be a Pakistani terrorist.

In a television interview, Rafiquellah said her husband had been framed up by authorities.

“He is a farmer, a mechanic and has a cell phone repair shop in Sultan Mastura town,” she said.

She also appealed to authorities to release the foreigner, insisting he is innocent of all charges against him. Rafiquellah is facing charges of illegal possession of explosives.

Security officials did not say if the foreigner has links with either the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels or the smaller, but the most violent group called the Abu Sayyaf which authorities claimed had connections with the al-Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiya.

His arrest coincided with sporadic fighting between the MILF and military forces in the southern Philippines. The MLF is the country's largest Muslim rebel group fighting for self-determination in Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)

Bangladeshi al-Qaeda bomb expert arrested in the Philippines

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 2, 2008) – Philippine authorities arrested a Bangladeshi al-Qaeda bomb expert after soldiers and police commandos raided his hideout in Mindanao, where security forces are battling Moro rebels.

Security forces arrested Muhammad Alpariz in the village called Tapayan in Sultan Mastura in Shariff Kabunsuan, one of six provinces of the Muslim autonomous region, police sources told the Mindanao Examiner.

Sources said only Chief Supt. Felizardo Serapio, Jr., head of one of two newly created Directorates for Integrated Police Operations in Mindanao, is authorized to speak about Alpariz’s arrest.

Regional police officials also declined to give details about the arrest of the foreigner, but said the operation that led to the capture of Alpariz involved “many soldiers and policemen.”

No other details were made available about the foreigner, but sources from the army said troops recovered from Alpariz’s hideout improvised explosives assembled from mortar bombs and blasting caps, including cellular phones and an alarm clock.

Television giant GMA 7, which quoted unnamed sources, reported that Alpariz is a bomb expert and a member of the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiya.

It said Alpariz was arrested at about 3 p.m. at his rented shop in Tapayan village.

“Alpariz is described by authorities as an expert in making improvised explosive devices,” it reported.

It said security forces recovered four improvised 60mm and 81mm mortar shells, a 1.5-volt battery, an alarm clock, a cellular phone, a computer set, two boosters for mortar, two electric blasting caps and detonating cords.

Alpariz was immediately brought to Davao City where he is being interrogated.

It was not immediately known if Alpariz was working alone or whether he had links with either the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels or the smaller, but the most violent group called the Abu Sayyaf which authorities claimed had connections with the al-Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiya.

Alpariz’s capture coincided with sporadic fighting between the MILF and military forces in the southern Philippines. The MLF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group fighting for self-determination in Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)

Prepare For Long Struggle For Freedom, MILF Tells Rebels

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Hunt Is On For Al-Qaeda Operatives In South RP

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The Future of the 'War on Terror': Fox News

WASHINGTON - This week, the Pentagon released official figures on how dramatically the security situation has improved in Iraq.

Terrorist attacks, secular violence, roadside bombings, Iraqi civilian deaths and U.S. casualties are all down. The announcement received scant notice from the so-called mainstream media.

About the only news from the global war on radical Islamic terror to receive less attention this week was the erroneously headlined story on The Associated Press wire: "Army captain from Fort Lewis, WA, drowns in the Philippines."

The item immediately captured my attention for two reasons: First, the struggle against Islamic terror in the Philippines is the topic of this week's episode of "War Stories" on FOX News Channel (Saturday at 9 p.m. EDT/6 p.m. PDT). Second, but of greater import, while shooting this documentary, we lived in the field with U.S. and Filipino special operations troops working to eliminate the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah -- terrorist groups closely affiliated with al-Qaida. As I read the article, I selfishly hoped that the soldier who had perished so far from home was not one of those we had come to know so well.

It turns out that 27-year-old Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, was not one of the brave Americans we lived alongside in the fetid jungle. According to a U.S. Army news release, he was on his first deployment and drowned in a training accident not far from where we were embedded with members of Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines.

The terse announcement, typical of those when special operations personnel are killed in the line of duty, noted that Curreri joined the Army in 2004 and that he "grew up in suburban Baltimore and swam and played water polo in high school before attending University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He was a four-year letterman on the USC swim team and captain of the team in his senior year."

Now in case you or any of the Democratic candidates, who discussed UFOs in this week's nationally televised debate, missed it, here are the salient parts of this story: Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri is now a deceased American hero. He was smart; he had to be to get into USC.

He was a gifted athlete -- the captain of his college swim team. With our nation already at war, he volunteered to serve in the Special Forces. And when he died, he was serving our country in the southern Philippines helping their fight against radical Islam.

Unfortunately, given the unwillingness of the mainstream media to print or broadcast anything positive about the men and women in our armed forces, most of us never hear or read about bright, brave young Americans such as Curreri. Nor will those who count on the major networks and newspapers for information be able to grasp how we are going to win a global war against the Islamic radicals who are dying to kill us.

That's why FOX News Channel sent our "War Stories" team to the southern Philippines -- so that we could chronicle a dramatic but little-known success story. Even critics of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan agree that the campaign in the southern Philippine archipelago could well become the model for how to win the war against Islamic terror.

Everyone we talked to, from Washington to Manila, recognizes there are enormous differences between what we have documented for "War Stories" in 10 trips to Southwest Asia and what we saw happening in the Sulu Archipelago.

Most visibly, there are nearly 170,000 American troops in Iraq and nearly 25,000 in Afghanistan. Though the actual number is classified, there are fewer than 1,000 U.S. Special Forces soldiers, Navy SEALs, Marines and airmen in Col. Dave Maxwell's Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines.

And equally important, President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines serves as the head of state for the kind of established, functioning democracy that people in Iraq and Afghanistan can only hope for.

This week, millions of Filipinos turned out to vote in municipal elections, despite threats by Islamic militants to disrupt the balloting.

When I asked President Arroyo about political controversy over the U.S. military mission, she emphasized the long-standing relationship between the American and Filipino people: "We have been together through the second world war. We've been together through the war in Korea, through the war in Vietnam, and now we're together in the war against terrorism."

That's the same kind of response we got from every Filipino officer and enlisted soldier, sailor, airman and Marine with whom we talked. And all of that is thanks to bright, brave Americans such as Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri of the U.S. Special Forces. I'm sorry that he couldn't be here to see the episode starring his comrades in arms, who showed us the future of the "war on terror." (Oliver North)

Inside the Ring: The Washington Times

Pacific terrorism

U.S. special operations forces in the Pacific have made significant progress in the past year battling the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in the Philippines.

"Abu Sayyaf ... has been mitigated very successfully by the government of the Philippines and their security forces," said a senior officer of the Special Operations Command-Pacific, known as SOC-PAC, which is supporting operations against the Islamist group.

"In the past year, several of their key leaders have been killed."
The officer said during a background briefing in Honolulu, where the SOC-PAC has its headquarters, that the remaining Abu Sayyaf members are divided and fighting among themselves over who will replace leaders who have been killed.

Additionally, electronic "chatter" picked up from the group about plans for attacks against Filipino and U.S. targets revealed that "it's just that, chatter," the officer said, noting that in the past such chatter has led to actual attacks.

"So their ability to turn chatter into action has been substantially mitigated in the past year," the officer said.

The officer would not say that the group has been defeated, but another sign of its growing weakness as an Islamist terrorist force is that many members of Abu Sayyaf are turning themselves in to Philippines authorities.

"This is a great success for the Philippine government," he said, noting that many were disarmed, debriefed and reintegrated back into society. Some received cash rewards for giving up their Abu Sayyaf membership.

The success against Abu Sayyaf is an indirect result of U.S. special forces troops — Army, Air Force and Navy commandos — who helped train and assist Filipino security forces. A key element of the assistance has been the provision of military equipment and intelligence.

A second major U.S. special operations effort in the Pacific is support to the Indonesian government in battling another al Qaeda-linked group, Jemaah Islamiyah, that operates throughout Southeast Asia.

Jemaah Islamiyah "is a little tougher target because Indonesia, unlike Philippines, is a Muslim country," the officer said.

"In Indonesia the difficulty is that the government is playing hardball against this group but at the same time is catering to the ideological bent of the society," the officer said, noting that a lot of "empathy" for the group exists in Indonesia, making countering it more difficult.

Pacific Command-based special operations commandos currently are working with local forces in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Pakistani commandos

Recently retired Pakistani Gen. Ehsan ul-Haq, the former No. 3 officer in the military, said Pakistan has increased both the numbers and quality of its commando forces in the war against Islamic extremists.

The Pakistan military's Special Services Group numbers more than 10,000 troops and is on the front line in fighting terrorists operating throughout the country, especially in remote border areas.

"These are very, very professional forces, elite and highly trained," Gen. Ehsan said during a meeting with reporters and editors of The Washington Times.

The general said the commandos are experts at what the British once called "frontier warfare."

The commandos were supported by training and equipment provided by the U.S., he said.

Al Qaeda in Iraq

The commander of international forces in Iraq said yesterday that significant progress has been made against al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq.

"It's clear that they no longer have significant sanctuaries and logistics capabilities to support numerous simultaneous attacks against large portions of the population," Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters via televideo conference.

Gen. Odierno said the group still has some capability to conduct deadly and "vicious" attacks against civilians in parts of Iraq.
But he noted that "the top levels of the leadership have been taken, either killed or captured."

"Some of them have been replaced, but those who replace them are not as good as those who were there before," Gen. Odierno said. "And we continue to see a slow degradation in al Qaeda's capability here in Iraq."

He said U.S., allied and Iraqi offensive security operations contributed to the success.

"But the real change has been that the populace rejects al Qaeda," Gen. Odierno said. "They no longer have the passive support of the community.

They've been rejected by their actions, and the people do not want to support them. In fact, what we find for the most part is that people will do anything to keep them out of their area, and they want to work closely with us to ensure that remains."

New Afghan tactics

Insurgents and terrorists in Afghanistan are entering the country without weapons and are being armed for attacks once inside the country, a U.S. Army commander in Afghanistan said this week.

Brig. Gen. Rodney Anderson, deputy commanding general of the Combined Joint Task Force-82, told reporters by teleconference Wednesday that insurgents infiltrate Afghanistan without weapons and "then conduct their attacks or link up with their equipment once inside the country."

Afghan border police have detected and detained some of these infiltrators, he said.

Suicide bombing attacks in Afghanistan have been carried out by a combination of foreign fighters as well as some Afghans, Gen. Anderson said.

CIA interrogations

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden revealed this week, in defending agency interrogations of terrorists, that more than 70 percent of the intelligence used in a recent national estimate came from questioning captured terrorists.

"The last six years have shown us that the best sources of information on terrorists and their plans are the terrorists themselves," Mr. Hayden said in a speech Tuesday in Chicago.

Calling the intelligence "simply irreplaceable," he also noted that the elicited information "is the sole reason we have rendition, detention and interrogation programs."

Fewer than 100 of the most hardened captured terrorists have been put through interrogation since 2002.

"Of those, less than a third have required any special methods of questioning," Mr. Hayden said.

The CIA director said the National Intelligence Estimate confirmed that the danger of another major al Qaeda attack against the U.S. is real. Al Qaeda aims "to execute a spectacular attack that would cause mass casualties, massive destruction and economic harm," he said.

Mr. Hayden noted that the estimate was less certain about one key element of al Qaeda plans: the presence of group operatives inside the U.S.

The CIA director's comments are a tacit admission that the agency continues to have a difficult time planting spies inside or close to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. (Bill Gertz)

RDX, Bagong Sandata Ng Terorismo Sa Pilipinas

MAKATI CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 20, 2007) – Nahaharap sa panibagong panganib ang bansa matapos ng madugong atake sa Glorieta Mall sa Makati City na kung saan ay 9 na katao ang nasawi at 129 iba pa ang sugatan.

RDX ang nakitang kemikal na ginamit sa pagpapasabog sa Glorieta, ayon sa pulisya.

Posibleng ito ang kauna-unahang kemikal na ginamit sa atake sa bansa, maliban sa ginamit ng al-Qaeda operative na si Ramzi Yousef ng pasabugin nito ang dalang kemikal sa loob ng PAL flight patungong Tokyo nuomng December 1994.

Sa bomba ni Yousef ay liquid nitroglycerin ang pangunahing sangkap nito at naipuslit sa PAL Flight 434 gamit ang maliit na bote ng contact lens cleaner.Ngunit mas matindi ang RDX – na ang ibiog sabihin ay Research Department composition X – na pangunahing sangkap sa mga pampasabog ng gamit ng mga international terrorists.

Kalimitang inihahalo ito sa TNT at ginagamit rin sa C4 plastic explosives. RDX rin ang ginamit ng al-Qaeda at grupong Lashkar-e-Toiba sa madugong atake sa Bombay sa India nuong March 1993 na ikinamatay ng mahigit 300 katao at pagkasugat naman ng halos 1,500.

Gayun rin sa mga serye ng pambobombang naganap nuong July 2006 sa Mumbai Western Railway na ikinamatay ng 209 katao at pagkasugatan ng 700 iba pa.

Talamak sa India, Saudi Arabia at Afghanistan ang RDX dahil sa matinding puwersa nito sa paggawa ng bombang gamit ng terorista.

Malaki ang hinalang kagagawan ng mga al-Qaeda o Jemaah Islamiya ang pagsabog sa Glorieta, ngunit matindi rin ang bintang na posibleng pakana ito ng mga nasa pamahalaan o militar upang iligaw ang isyu ng bribery ng Malakanyang sa mga mambabatas at gobernador nitong linggo.

Ngunit itinanggi naman ito ng pamahalaan at sinabing hindi kayang gawin ng sinumang nasa gobyerno ang bintang.

Unang pinagsuspetsahan ang Moro Islamic Liberation Front sa atake ngunit walang RDX sa arsenal ng MILF, maliban sa mga mortar bombs. At gayun rin sa Abu Sayyaf na ang tanging gamit sa atake ay mortar bomb at TNT at ammonium nitrate.

Matindi ang bigat ng hinala sa al-Qaeda at Jemaah Islamiya dahil sa kakayahan nitong maglunsad ng malaking pambobomba ng tulad sa Bali resort sa Indonesia nuong 2002 at iba pang lugar sa Afghanistan. Ang RDX ang kalimitang gamit ng al-Qaeda sa kanilang pambobomba, ngunit mas nakakatakot umano ang paggamit nito bilang detonator sa isang nuclear bomb.

Posibleng mga Pilipino o Indonesian o kaya ay Malaysian na miyembro ng dalawang grupo ang nasa likod ng Glorieta bombing, ayon pa sa ilang mga intelligence analysts. (Mindanao Examiner)

Saudi Philanthropist Accused By Manila As Terrorist Is Killed

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 31 Jan) – A Saudi philanthropist accused by the Philippine authorities of channeling funds to Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines, has been killed inside his home in Madagascar, reports said Wednesday.

Jamal Khalifa, brother-in-law of al-Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden, was shot by gunmen who raided his home early on Wednesday in an apparent robbery, the al-Arabiya Arabic news network reported.

Khalifa helped established the International Islamic Relief Organization and the Al-Makdum University in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines in the 1990s, but abandoned them after Filipino authorities linked him to the terror group Abu Sayyaf and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

He arrived in the Philippines in 1991, and by 1993 was listed at immigration as "financier of terrorists." Khalifa was also reported to have married a Filipino woman in Zamboanga City, but fled the country after the military linked him to the MILF and Abu Sayyaf.

He was reported hiding in the Middle East and Africa until the news of his killing broke out. Khalifa at one time even offered to help Manila negotiate with Filipino Muslim rebels and end the fighting in Mindanao.

The Philippine military said Khalifa’s relief organization and his university were used as a front to launder money and channel funds to terrorists in the southern island of Mindanao. Khalifa had previously denied all charges by the Philippine authorities.

Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the MILF, admitted Wednesday that Khalifa, who mined and traded precious stones in Madagascar, came to Mindanao in the 1990s, not to finance the separatist Muslim rebel group or terrorists, but to build mosques and madrasah.

“I was shocked to hear that he was killed today. As far as I know, Jamal Khalifa was an Arab philanthropist, who helped built mosques and madrasah and health centers for poor Muslim community in Mindanao. He was a good man,” Kabalu told the Mindanao Examiner by phone from a rebel base in the Philippine south.

The rebel spokesman said Khalifa had visited the main MILF headquarters Camp Abubakar As-Siddique in Maguindanao province where he also helped finance the building of mosques and health centers.Khalifa was active in humanitarian missions in Mindanao, Kabalu said.

“What we knew about Jamal Khalifa was that he had helped thousands of Filipino Muslims and that even the Philippine government benefited from his being a philanthropist, from all those humanitarian projects” he said without further elaborating.

The rebel base was also home to thousands of Muslim supporters of the MILF until it was attacked and occupied by the Philippine military in April 2000 after peace talks with the Estrada administration failed.

Washington accused Bin Laden of masterminding the 9/11 attacks in the United States and listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization. (Mindanao Examiner)