Jordanian arrested for Zambo bombing

Government agents arrested Monday night a Jordanian businessman-educator who is being linked by the intelligence community to the Oct. 2 bombing in Zamboanga City that killed an American soldier and two Filipino civilians.

Agents of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and the Bureau of Immigration said Mohammad Amin Al-Ghaffari did not put up a fight when agents collared him at 10:30 p.m. Monday in a restaurant in Greenhills, San Juan.

In Zamboanga City, four civilians who were held overnight for questioning on suspicion of having links with the Abu Sayyaf were released by the military upon the intervention of a former governor of Tawi-Tawi late yesterday afternoon.

Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina turned over the four civilians to former Tawi-Tawi governor Al Tillah, who visited them and sought their release, claiming they were his relatives and were innocent.

Intelligence agents told The STAR that Al-Ghaffari, 36, of Maharlika Village in Taguig, is suspected of being a key planner of the karaoke bar bombing in Barangay Malagutay in Zamboanga City last Wednesday.

The blast killed Sgt. Mark Jackson of the US Green Berets and Filipino civilians Marlon Tuballa and Bernard Limba and wounded more than 20 others, one of them another US serviceman.

Intelligence sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they have established Al-Ghaffari’s links with suspicious foreigners, mostly Indonesians, who are believed to be members of the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

"Initially, he was placed under surveillance after we established that he was in constant contact with members of Jemaah Islamiyah, mostly Indonesians, in the country, Abu Sayyaf bandits and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)," one of the intelligence agents told The STAR.

The sources said they are still gathering evidence that would link Al-Ghaffari to the latest Zamboanga bombing but refused to elaborate.

However, the sources said they have established that Al-Ghaffari, who is married to a Filipina, has several business ventures in Metro Manila and Mindanao, including madrasahs, or Islamic schools.

Carolina, meanwhile, said those who were released yesterday after being picked up 3 a.m. Monday were identified as Mochong Stong, 42; his daughter Fatima Marada Atong, 19; Frasil Atong, and nephew Mick Lauhare, a pharmacy graduate.

The four were picked up by a military intelligence unit in the coastal village of Mampang, some seven kilometers east of the city proper.

"To clear the air because it was reported earlier that the four were missing. I would like to announce they were invited. They were not arrested," Carolina clarified, adding the four gave inputs on the possible perpetrators of the Malagutay bombing incident.

Islamic educator?

Al-Ghaffari is a director of the Islamic Wisdom Worldwide Mission Inc. (IWWMI), a foundation supposedly funded, through the JI, by the al-Qaeda terrorist network, the sources said.

"We (also) found out that he is the head of the Rajah Solaiman Revolutionary Committee that established the raided Anda (town in Pangasinan) madrasah school," the source added.

The Anda madrasah, where the authorities found firearms, blasting caps and other bomb-making components in May, is only one of several madrasahs established by IWWMI throughout the country, the sources added.

After the raid on the Anda madrasah, the authorities also raided another madrasah in San Vicente, Tarlac where more firearms and explosives were found.

Al-Ghaffari was also chairman of another organization called, Integrated Filipino-Arab Friendship Society, which has allegedly funded anti-American and anti-Israeli activities nationwide through the another group, called Marekeka, which is identified with the MILF, the sources said.

Immigration raps

But Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo clarified that Al-Ghaffari’s arrest had nothing to do with his alleged links to terrorists or the latest Zamboanga bombing and stressed the Jordanian was being detained at an undisclosed location for immigration law violations.

"As far as we are concerned, we took him into custody for violating our immigration laws. As for his alleged terrorist links, I am leaving that to our military and police authorities to investigate," Domingo said.

However, the Associated Press quoted Domingo as saying that Al-Ghaffari’s brother is a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and that he is a good friend of Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden who is also married to a Filipina.

Domingo said Al-Ghaffari arrived in the Philippines on a student visa on Nov. 15, 1985 and was blacklisted in 1995 at the request of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

He was later given a temporary resident’s visa in 1995 after he married a Filipina but that visa, Domingo said, expired on June 27 after the BI rejected his application for an extension because be failed to appear for an interview.

Domingo said Al-Ghaffari was blacklisted four months before his temporary resident’s visa was approved, making his visa subject to cancellation.

Domingo said Al-Ghaffari also submitted in 1996 a PNP clearance purporting that he is a Filipino citizen born in Quezon City.

"This could mean that the false information he provided makes his visa void from the beginning as it was based on misrepresentation by the applicant," Domingo said.

Domino effect

The sources said Al Ghaffari’s arrest was the latest involving at least eight suspected terrorists who are allegedly among a group that is tasked with stepping up terrorist activities in Southeast Asia.

Government agents are now hot on the trail of two more Indonesians and two other foreigners who are believed to have trained Abu Sayyaf extremists on terror attacks and put up the latest Zamboanga bombing as a "test mission."

The sources refused to identify the foreigners but hinted that PNP anti-terrorism Task Force Sanlahi almost captured them in raid in General Santos City last month.

But the authorities did arrest Indonesian Uskar Makawata, who is believed to be one of the key planners of the General Santos City bombings in April, and three of his compatriots.

The other arrested Indonesians were identified as Jaka Antari, Julkri Lentembura and Rehman Lebahari, all from South Sulawesi in Indonesia, where the JI maintains training camp.

The three were later deported after authorities failed to establish their links to terrorist groups but Makawata is now detained along with seven other suspected Arab terrorists at the PNP jail facility at Camp Crame.

Meanwhile, Southcom chief Carolina said the military has identified at least two Abu Sayyaf bandits who are believed to have undergone terrorist training at an undisclosed place in Mindanao. - With reports from Rey Aqruiza, Roel Pareño, Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero, AFP