RP, US teams raid hotel for terrorists; pilot held

Philippine and American authorities raided yesterday a hotel in Manila following intelligence reports that three men with Omani passports who briefly stayed there took extensive video footage of the nearby US Embassy.

Investigators also questioned a Saudia Airlines pilot suspected of having links with the terrorists who launched the most lethal attack on US soil Tuesday.

In Cebu City, Immigration officials turned back nine Malaysians on suspicions they could have undergone terrorist training in Pakistan.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said the government was informed by the US Embassy that the name of one of the three Omanis questioned earlier by the police appeared in the passenger manifest of one of the hijacked planes used in the suicide attacks in New York and Washington, DC.

The US officials did not say on which of the hijacked planes the Omani was booked.

Police Deputy Director General Hermogenes Ebdane and National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said joint agents from the US and the Philippines raided the Bayview Hotel on Roxas Boulevard where the three men with Omani passports stayed.

The suspects, who took video footage of the US Embassy just across the boulevard, were identified as Khaled Abdulla Mohammed Al-Sheihhi, Ahmed Darwis Al Sheihhi and Bader Darwis Mohammed Al-Sheihhi, aged 26 to 29.

Investigations showed that they separately arrived in Manila from Bangkok, Thailand from Sept. 1 to 7. They simultaneously checked in at the Bayview Hotel on Sept. 7, then left the next day.

A check of the tapes showed Manila landmarks and kalesa (horse-drawn carriage) plying busy Roxas Boulevard. The foreigners were subsequently allowed to go.

Meanwhile, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said the Saudi Airlines pilot was a last minute addition to the crew of Flight SV 862 from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Manila on Thursday.

The pilot, identified as Mohammed Bokhari, was scheduled to fly to Riyadh yesterday afternoon, but his plane was held for about two hours on orders of Golez and Justice Secretary Hernando Perez so he could be interrogated.

Domingo said the name of the original pilot, identified only as Captain Alyammi, was erased from the manifest and replaced with that of Bokhari.

The immigration chief said Bokhari has three other pilot-brothers, one of them arrested in Florida in connection with Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.

Bokhari was reportedly turned over to the foreign intelligence unit of the Philippine National Police for further investigation.

On the other hand, Casimiro Madarang, immigration chief in Cebu City, said the nine Malaysians recently stayed in Pakistan for an average of five months which he said was enough time to undergo terrorist training. They were barred from entering the country as potential security threats.

The Malaysians flew into Cebu from Bangkok

Tuesday’s attacks in New York and Washington D.C. came close to the anniversary of the Sept. 5, 1996 conviction of Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center (WTC) that left six people dead.

Yousef’s arrest in Pakistan came on the heels of the apprehension of his roommate in Manila in January 1995 following a fire that broke out in the Malate apartment they shared.

A US Congressional Research Service report issued on Monday cited the Philippines as one of 34 countries where followers of suspected international terrorist leader Osama bin Laden have cells.

US authorities tagged Bin Laden as the brains behind the attacks on the WTC in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

Hijacked commercial airliners slammed into the WTC twin towers and the Pentagon in quick succession.

The towers collapsed, burying under mountains of debris tens of thousands of office workers and tenants of the building, along with policemen and firefighters who responded to the fire that engulfed the buildings following the smashup.

Plot to capture US-bound PAL flight bared

Muslim fundamentalists identified with Bin Laden had plotted to hijack a Philippine Airlines plane bound to the US.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) general manager Edgardo Manda said the hijacking was supposed to be staged shortly after the attacks in Washington and New York.

Discovery of the plot prompted Philippine authorities to raise the level of security at the NAIA, especially at the departure areas for US-bound aircraft.

Manda described the intelligence report as "A-1," adding it has been shared with the management of PAL, Northwest Airlines and Continental Micronesia which fly daily to the US.

Immigration authorities also arrested on Thursday an Iranian national who allegedly tried to pass himself off as a Filipino.

The suspect was identified as Sadeg Salim, who was denied entry to Manila in April last year.

Authorities confiscated from Sadeg, who reportedly used a forged Philippine passport, a location map of the American Embassy in Manila and of Cagayan de Oro City.

Sadeg admitted that he paid $3,000 for his fake passport to a forger based in Switzerland.

The Iranian closely resembled that of a suspected terrorist whose picture was submitted by the International Police to the Bureau of Immigration.

In another move, Manda advised overseas-bound passengers to be at the NAIA at least three hours before their scheduled flight because of rigid security measures set in place.

NAIA officials anticipate heavy traffic of departing passengers bound for the US when flights resume on Monday or Tuesday. "Everything will be in chaos so we will be doing something to immediately address the problem," Manda said.

For her part, Domingo directed immigration personnel to closely monitor arrivals particularly those from radical Muslim countries.

Domingo noted that a huge number of arrivals from the Middle East have direct connecting flights to Mindanao, indicating they were not legitimate tourists.

She also asked the DFA to instruct its embassies and consulates in the Middle East to conduct rigid interviews on applicants for Philippine visas to prevent the entry to Manila of international terrorists.

Two US Federal Aviation Administration agents have arrived in Manila to monitor the implementation of international safety standards at the NAIA and other international airports in the country.

Golez said the Philippines is a likely target of "sympathy strikes" by Bin Laden supporters, or "copy-cat strikes" by other terror groups to replicate the attacks in New York and Washington.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva said security in the country has been "tripled" to head off possible terrorist attacks. Villanueva said he has mobilized the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to track down local supporters of Bin Laden.

"I would look at it with concern because of the confirmed tie-up between the Abu Sayyaf and the international terrorist group (led by Bin Laden)," Villanueva said.

He said they were keenly monitoring movements of the Abu Sayyaf rebels who might also launch their own terrorist attacks.

"They have done worse because they have chopped off the heads of innocent civilians," Villanueva said.

In another development, police forces of ASEAN-member countries have joined hands in averting terrorist attacks.

Ebdane, newly designated chief of the National Anti-Crime commission, said close coordination with the intelligence units of ASEAN countries was forged to track down suspected international terrorists who could be part of the group that staged the attacks in the US.

Ebdane said heightened intelligence build-up was focused on the three Omani nationals taken in for questioning by the Western Police District following the raid at Bayview Hotel.

"We received reports as early as two months ago that there was a campaign against US and Israel interests outside the US (mainland). So we were vigilant," Ebdane said.

In Tokyo, President Arroyo said the Philippines will join other countries worldwide in combating terrorism.

The President also expressed full support to a resolution by the United Nations Security Council condemning the US attacks.

"This means the Philippines will provide appropriate assistance to the US consistent with our capabilities and in accordance with the spirit of our security relationship and our bilateral Mutual Defense Treaty," Mrs. Arroyo said.

She approved the deployment of "air marshals" who would board PAL international flights to ensure safe travel.

Golez said the initial batch of air marshals from the Aviation Security Group was dispatched yesterday. — With reports from Paolo Romero, Aurea Calica, Rey Arquiza, Marichu Villanueva, Christina Mendez, Jaime Laude, Edith Regalado, Ding Cervantes, Ric Sapnu