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Thursday, October 07, 2004
US envoy admits 'espionage' charge
By Stella A. Estremera
DAVAO CITY -- Paying more attention to small countries which are "vulnerable and exploited" by terrorist groups is the primary concern of Washington and the greatest lesson it learned after the 2001 attacks on the US.
And if this could be interpreted as espionage, then the United States is guilty, US Ambassador to the Philippines Francis J. Ricciardone told journalists during breakfast with them Wednesday at the Marco Polo Hotel.
"Is that espionage? I think, in a way. It's how you define it. I guess it's learning secrets or stealing secrets," said Ricciardone.
"Knowledge is part of it. Knowledge in a positive way," he said.
Nevertheless, Ricciardone said he does not think that Davao City has secrets worth spying on.
"What secret in Davao do we want to steal? How you grow the best durian in the world?" Ricciardone asked in Tuesday's breakfast with media editors.
"Everything we want to know about Davao is out there," he said.
The US government has been accused by militants of establishing a spy center with the launching of the US Virtual Consulate Davao's website portal Wednesday.
Whether they are accused of spying or not, Ricciardone said their main concern is to pay close attention to countries that are not their regular first-world allies to make the alternatives offered by terrorist organizations less appealing.
This is the most important lesson the US learned after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
"Nine-Eleven was a kind of wake-up call for us," he said.
Just before the 9-11 attack, he said, Philippines was reeling from terrorist attacks.
There was the Christmas season bombing of the Metro Rail in Manila, the hostage-taking spree by the Abu Sayyaf in Sipadan and in Dos Palmas Resort in Palawan, among others.
"This country has already been afflicted by terrorism and we, quite honestly, haven't been paying much attention. We weren't helping," he said.
The following year, terrorism hit them in a grand scale.
"Since 9-11, we pay more attention not just to big countries where we traditionally have important relationships but to countries that are critical in terms of international security, not because they have big armies but because one way or another they've been vulnerable and exploited by terrorist groups and that's where the Philippines comes in," he added.
The 9-11 attack, he said, made the US realize that there is more to international relationships than just being allies and friends.
"We found out there is something really vital here and that we are both suffering form a global phenomenon, a global network of fanatic terrorism and a perversion of one of the world's great faiths," he said.
Before 9-11, the US was no longer putting much money in aid to developing countries.
At that time, he said, US assistance to the Philippines was ebbing.
There wasn't even a US ambassador in the Philippines between July 2000 and February 2002.
"Our aid program was zeroing out, our military program was zeroing out, and after 9-11 all that changed. We were hitting bottom and after 9-11 we started taking off again," he said.
The ambassador equates the war against terrorism to a war against social problems and poverty for development and not just engaging the enemies in a gun battle.
But for so long, the US was not paying attention.
Even its people do not care.
"I think most countries really wish Americans understood them better. And as American and as a diplomat I'm not proud of that, I'm not proud of how ignorant Americans are about the rest of the world, how little Americans care," he said.
He believes Americans have the moral obligation to be wise about the world considering that any decision the US and its people as a whole makes affects the whole world.
By being wise about the world, decision can be "based on real appreciation of how the world is", he said.
The best way to do this, he said, is to promote everything, from tourism to educational and business exchanges, travel and the Internet, and all forms of communication and interaction.
"I think Americans ought to know about the indigenous peoples of Mindanao, how they live, what their problems are. Americans ought to know about Islam. What it really is, what it really isn't all over the world especially in Southeast Asia," he said.
"Is that espionage? If it is, I'm for it."
(October 7, 2004 issue)
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