LAST MAY IN THE PHILIPPINES, a terrorist group with links to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network abducted 20 people from a hotel resort on Palawan island. Three of them were Americans. In June, one of the Americans, Guillermo Sobero of California, was blindfolded and led away with his hands tied. According to captured rebel Bashir Balahim, Sobero was crying and begging for his life. His last words were, “No, no, please, I beg of you.” With that, another rebel wielded a machete and chopped his head off. Sobero’s remains were found last month. Last week, seven Filipino hostages were released, but the two remaining Americans, Kansas missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham, are still being held. The terrorist group is called Abu Sayyaf (“bearer of the sword” in Arabic), and for the past few months it has been at war with the Philippine government. Abu Sayyaf’s goal is the creation of an independent Muslim state on the country’s southernmost islands. The government has refused to negotiate but has found itself outgunned and outmaneuvered. So last month, 26 American counterterrorism specialists and army officers visited the Philippines to evaluate the crisis. The assessment team stayed for only a week, and offered advice on how to deal with Abu Sayyaf. More than advice may be needed. Abu Sayyaf first gained international attention in April 2000 by kidnapping 21 hostages, including 10 Western tourists, from a Malaysian diving resort. The hostages languished for nearly five months, until a Libyan intermediary paid the terrorists $25 million in ransom as a “gesture of goodwill.” The money was reportedly invested in weapons and high-speed gunboats. On May 27, with more firepower than ever, the Muslim rebels stormed the resort on Palawan. The Philippine government dispatched 5,000 soldiers to hunt them down on Basilan island, deep in the south. Hundreds of rebels were killed, but the hostages have yet to be rescued. Retaliation for the horrific murder of the American hostage has, perhaps understandably, not yet made it to the top of anyone’s to-do list in Washington. President Bush, who meets with Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo this week, has promised to increase military aid to the Philippines from $2 million to $19 million per year. And Abu Sayyaf’s assets have been frozen. “We stand in solidarity with the Philippines” said Bush recently. “This is a global battle.” But there’s still no talk of an American military role in going after Abu Sayyaf. When one reporter asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld what exactly the assessment team was doing in the Philippines, Rumsfeld was vague: “I think . . . the way to characterize it is that we were asked by the Philippine government . . . to have some American military people offer some advice and assessment as to the kind of problem that the Philippines have been faced with, and it’s a serious problem for them. And as you point out, it’s not an isolated cell, it’s . . . connected to terrorists across the world. And I think that’s probably the best way to characterize it.” THE PHILIPPINES has indeed asked for American help. Use of air space as well as the former U.S. bases at Clark Air Field and Subic Bay has been granted, though it’s not clear these will be used. “It’s not being contemplated right now,” a senior Bush administration official told me. When asked if we ought to send in the Marines to rescue the Americans, the official was not encouraging: “Right now, we are focused on training the Philippine army. They want to be trained. Imagine the shame of their not being able to go in and get their own hostages. . . . Plus, there could be a firefight–there are a lot of Muslim rebels there, and Americans could be killed.” Filipino Muslims, known as Moros, make up 5 percent of the predominantly Roman Catholic country. When the United States granted independence to the Philippines in 1946, the Moros, concentrated in the southern islands, hoped for autonomy. Instead, they were incorporated into the new republic. By the late 1960s, their Islamic separatist movement, spearheaded by the Moro National Liberation Front, had grown violent. But in 1986, the MNLF entered into peace talks with the new Aquino government. Not all the Muslims were happy with this. In 1991, one hardline faction split off–the Abu Sayyaf. Its founder was an Islamic preacher, Abdurajak Janjalani. During the 1980s, Janjalani joined the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. Around 1990, he returned home to Basilan and began spreading the Islamofascist creed. The following year, Abu Sayyaf made its first violent attack on a military checkpoint. In the decade since, it has engaged in kidnappings (including of children and clergy), bombings, and assassinations. In January 1995, Philippine authorities uncovered a plot to kill Pope John Paul II during his visit to that country. The plot had ties to Abu Sayyaf. One of the suspected terrorists was Abdul Hakim Murad, who also admitted his involvement in a plot to blow up a dozen American airliners. One of Murad’s roommates was Ramzi Yousef–the terrorist who had helped plan the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 (and who is now serving a life term in a U.S. prison). When officials traced Murad’s terrorist links back even further, they came upon Muhammad Jamal Khalifa–the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden. In the late 1980s, Khalifa came to the Philippines and befriended Janjalani. The stated purpose of his visit was to set up Islamic charities, including orphanages, clinics, and schools. But officials believe his real mission was to arm the Abu Sayyaf. By 1995, Khalifa had left the Philippines. Three years later, his friend Janjalani was killed in a firefight with the army. Philippine officials believe the bin Laden connection may have ended at that point, as Abu Sayyaf in the aftermath of Janjalani’s death splintered into factions, each vying to kidnap foreigners for lucrative ransoms. And within each group, it is difficult to discern the leadership. One hostage from the Malaysian diving resort told NBC’s “Dateline” that his captors were all taking drugs. “You could smell it sometimes. They were young people, and they were heavily armed. They had fights among themselves.” Said another hostage, “They actually shot at each other. And there was absolutely no control.” Which is why President Arroyo calls the existing Abu Sayyaf “a money-crazed gang of criminals.” Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist and Arab News senior editor Rasheed Abou-Alsamh told me that “the little sympathy Abu Sayyaf seemed to have within the Filipino Muslim community has evaporated in the past year and a half, especially after they executed so many of their victims.” At the same time, the Philippine army has stepped up its campaign. The number of Abu Sayyaf rebels has dwindled to roughly 450 armed men (at one point, the group supposedly had 2,000 members). The tide may be turning against the Abu Sayyaf, but they still pose a threat to Americans abroad and to the stability of the Philippine government. Their two American hostages, the Burnhams, were described by the Filipino hostages released last week as “not just skinny, but bony.” For them, the end of the al Qaeda outpost in the Philippines can’t come too soon. Victorino Matus is an assistant managing editor at The Weekly Standard. November 26, 2001 – Volume 7, Number 11
