Thursday, December 14, 2006 Terrorists not tracked down
SECURITY forces tried to disrupt plots by al-Qaida-linked militants to stage attacks but failed to track them, setting off an alarm that influenced a decision to postpone the meetings of Southeast Asian and East Asian leaders, officials said yesterday.
The plots may have included a possible car bomb attack in a key city in Cebu to embarrass the Philippine Government during the, a security official told The Associated Press.
The Philippine Government has been forced to defend its decision to postpone the summits to January next year, citing a looming typhoon. The meetings had been scheduled for this week.
The Cambodian prime minister said a possible attack also played a role, while Japanese economic minister Akira Amari said the Philippines’ handling of the situation had undermined its credibility.
“We respect the views of other officials in the region, but the Philippines did the right thing in taking no chances with the safety of the leaders,” said Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye.
“We all know the fickle nature of typhoons and there was no sense at all to act in a reckless and wanton manner,” Bunye said in a statement.
Ambassador Victoriano Lecaros, spokesman for the summits’ organizing committee, denied that terrorism threats played a role in the decision.
“I was in the room when that decision was taken,” Lecaros said. “People were agonizing over weather reports, not security reports…. There was no terror, whatever, it was just the weather report.
“Terrorists are threatening everywhere. Those are acts of people that can be countered by security people. What you cannot counter is an act of nature.”
The postponement drew adverse reactions from some sectors, including Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who called it a “bad call.”
Osmeña also said they were not consulted, and that “Mr. Know-It-All just decided.”
In response, Philippine Ambassador to the Asean Marciano Paynor Jr. told Sun.Star Cebu that he respects Osmeña’s views.
“For the record, the local government was consulted, as were all delegations. The decision was not made by me alone,” Paynor said.
“I am the bearer of bad news and I expected to be shot regardless of the decision. But I stand by our recommendation and have the support of most foreign delegation,” he added.
Typhoon Seniang swept through the Visayas over the weekend, leaving at least 17 dead and another 17 missing. But Cebu, which forecasters said was unlikely to take a direct hit, only got rain and some gusty winds.
In separate advisories last Thursday, the United States, Britain, Japan and Australia warned terrorists might be in the final stages of plotting attacks.
Some Abu Sayyaf rebels, along with Indonesian members of the Jemaah Islamiyah group, were believed to have traveled from their strongholds on the southern islands of Jolo and Basilan to carry out the attacks, going through Zamboanga city, said three security officials, who had knowledge of the operations and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Philippine intelligence agents carried out about 10 covert operations, including raids on suspected safe houses, in Zamboanga last month but failed to find the militants, the officials said.
The attacks allegedly were ordered by Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafy Janjalani and top Indonesian terror suspect Dulmatin, targets of a months-long US-backed offensive on Jolo, they said.
The plots were partly gleaned from intercepted rebel communications and four CDs seized from a captured Abu Sayyaf encampment on Jolo in August. When experts decoded the CDs’ contents, which contained Arabic passages, security officials concluded the militants might be planning a major attack in an unspecified city, possibly Cebu, in December, one official said.
In the absence of concrete evidence, officials have given conflicting assessments of the threats.
The three security officials separately said the terror threats were a factor in the government’s decision to postpone the high-profile meetings.
But National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said he was not consulted by Arroyo regarding the postponement, indicating security was not a factor in her decision.
Gonzales acknowledged there was “raw information” about plots by al-Qaida-linked militants against the meetings but said they were not substantiated and security officials doubted the militants’ capability to stage a major attack.
“Everything considered, I still give credence to the weather as the cause of the postponement,” he told the AP.
The postponement also came amid fresh rumors of another coup plot against Arroyo that might have been linked with planned anti-government protests in Manila at about the same time as the summits.
But Lecaros said the negative statements issued by Japanese Economic Minister Amari on the postponement of Asean summit is not an official stand of the Japanese Government, said Lecaros.
Lecaros said the Japanese Government is even preparing to join the summit in January.
But he declined to say whether Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will attend the summit, saying the announcement should be left to the Japanese Government.
Japan earlier expressed problems with the proposed Jan. 8 to 13 schedule because Abe has trips to Europe and Africa on those dates.
Amari said on his blog Tuesday that Manila’s explanation wasn’t convincing enough.
“Considering the size of the typhoon and the fact that it would have passed by Sunday morning, the reason for the postponement is extremely puzzling,” Amari wrote, mentioning news reports that the move was triggered by terrorism concerns.
Amari added that the postponement “ruined the credibility of the Philippine government,” saying the whole idea of hosting the meetings at a resort island was ill-conceived.
“Just the idea of gathering the leaders of 16 countries on tourist-infested Cebu island poses an extreme security risk,” Amari wrote.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen also said earlier that the postponement was due to the threats of terrorist attack. ROV/JPM/(AP)
