Wednesday, November 07, 2007 Maxey: Bombing for dollars, local terrorists' way By Ram Maxey Bar None
IT OUGHT to be very clear by now that Philippine-based terror groups like the Abu Sayyaf are planting bombs not only to kill people but also to show their foreign backers their money is being put to "good" use. The more bombs they explode, says a top Manila police chief, the more money the terrorists can ask from their overseas "investors."
No less than Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales says that these financiers are part of an international network set up by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). In fact, the recent wave of attempted bombings in Manila was all about raising money. Such bombings, supposed to be synchronized with attacks in the southern Philippines, are intended to spark additional funding from JI financiers abroad.
The chief's remarks came two days after his men foiled an attempt by local terrorists to place and detonate a bomb in a shopping mall in the Manila suburb of Taguig City. The improvised device included C4 plastic explosive packed around a 60mm mortar shell and was discovered in a house rented by Kaharudin Usman Talib under JI commander Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan.
Marwan and Filipino extremist Basit Usman, his associate, reportedly planned to place bombs at a number of selected targets in Manila, Davao City and General Santos.
Usman, a former commander in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), has gone rogue, according to the mainstream MILF. His aptly named Urban Bombing Squad (UBS) is one of MILF's so-called lost commands.
UBS is in competition with the al-Khobar extortion group, which has been blowing up buses and setting off bombs at bus terminals to extort money from the Yellow Bus Line.
Although JI and al-Khobar are basically into bombing to make money, the devices used by the two groups have a different signature, says Major Randolph Cabangbang, the spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command.
"Al-Khobar and JI are not the same group," says the major. Even though their methods are almost indistinguishable, the "JI bomb is more sophisticated"; Al-Khobar detonates bombs when its demands for money are not met; its bombs are meant to compel its target to pay up.
Enter the Glorietta 2 explosion last October 19 which killed 11 people and injured over a hundred others. The police theorized that a buildup of methane gas and diesel fumes triggered the blast. Glorietta 2 owner Ayala Land Inc. refutes the police theory, citing findings of foreign experts it had commissioned to investigate the incident. And there the mystery hangs. If so-called "experts" can't see eye-to-eye as to the real cause of the explosion, where does that leave us non-experts?
Lest that mystery leads our security forces on a wild goose chase, they should be reminded that the real danger to this country remains in the hands of homegrown terrorists who are supported by foreign-based organizations linked to the notorious al-Qaeda of Osama bin Laden. Marwan, Usman, Dulmatin, Omar Patek, etcetera are still on the loose and thinking up ways of creating more mayhem in this land of the morning. Lest we forget, these mad killers are for real.
