Al-Qaeda setting up bases in Central Luzon, Mindanao

The al-Qaeda terror network has established training camps in key areas in Luzon and Mindanao, intelligence sources confirmed to The STAR yesterday.

The sources said the camps, located in Bulacan and Maguindanao, were set up over the past few months by Arab and Indonesian extremists.

President Arroyo, on the other hand, said efforts of al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) to establish a stronghold in the country have been largely stymied.

"I think they have been stopped short in many of their efforts," the President said.

She said many arrests have been made, and that bilateral agreements with the United States and the Philippines’ neighboring countries have helped in the fight against terrorism.

"Nonetheless we need to continue to be vigilant" and to prevent poverty from creating fertile conditions for terror organizations to recruit, the President told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

Intelligence sources said training camps that were allegedly founded by several Arabs, all suspected al-Qaeda members, in Anda, Pangasinan and San Clemente, Tarlac had been moved to an unspecified area in Bulacan.

The training camp in Buluan, Maguindanao, on the other hand, was supposedly established by JI, which is said to be al-Qaeda’s arm in Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, intelligence agents prepared to interrogate arrested Jordanian businessman Mohammad Amin Al-Ghaffari who is being linked by the military to the Oct. 2 bombing in Zamboanga City that killed an American soldier and two Filipino civilians.

Al-Ghaffari is the latest suspected terrorist to be arrested after intelligence agents, supposedly assisted by American intelligence personnel, apprehended eight other foreigners, mostly Indonesians, who are believed to be involved in terrorist activities in the country.

At Malacañang, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez refused to confirm or deny the involvement of American intelligence agents in the ongoing anti-terrorist operations and said Al-Ghaffari’s case was still only at the immigration bureau’s level.

"It is difficult to make any comments about terrorists involving foreign nationals because of its diplomatic implications," Golez told The STAR, refusing to elaborate on "operational matters."

Also yesterday, the embassy of the Kingdom of Jordan dismissed as "exaggerated" reports that Al-Ghaffari was involved in terrorist activities.

"The story is exaggerated because there have been communications with the Philippine officials and they have only informed us that Mohammad Al-Ghaffari is caught for something related to his visa and nothing else," said non-resident Jordanian Ambassador Samir Naouri from Tokyo, Japan.

But intelligence agents claimed Al-Ghaffari established the camp in Maguindanao, under the auspices of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), where the Zamboanga bombing was planned in a meeting two weeks ago, the sources said.

Al-Ghaffari, who was arrested on Monday on immigration charges, is also believed to be the leader of the Rajah Solaiman Revolutionary Committee, which established the camps in Pangasinan and Tarlac.

The sources said Al-Ghaffari, a long-time resident who is married to a Filipino, has long been under surveillance by the intelligence community for "suspicious" business activities.

He is supposed to be a close friend of Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, who used to be a frequent visitor to the country and is also married to a Filipino, who is alleged to be a brother-in-law of al-Qaeda founder and Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

Khalifa established a foundation which, authorities believe, is responsible for sending several Filipino extremists to al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, one of whom was Abduradjak Janjalani, the slain founder of the Abu Sayyaf group.

Closer to Manila

An intelligence source in Central Luzon said these camps, where extremists were allegedly taught to make bombs, later had to move to Bulacan after police raided their camps in Pangasinan and Tarlac and arrested nine of their recruits in May.

The raid in San Clemente led to the arrest of a certain Dexter Mayuno, a Muslim convert from Makati City, and the killing of his companion Khalid Trinidad. In Pangasinan, those arrested were Dawud Santos, Pio de Vera, Marcelo Egil, Allan Borlagdatan, Redendo Delosa and Angelito Aris.

The Central Luzon source said Mayuno confessed that the camp in Pangasinan was funded from a group in Saudi Arabia which was represented by another Jordanian, identified as Nhedal Al-Dalain, who was recently deported from the country.

The source declined to elaborate on the circumstances of Al-Dalain’s deportation but he was supposed to have collected funds from al-Qaeda to finance the Islamic studies of some converts in Luzon who were later trained to make bombs.

Former Central Luzon police director Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya had claimed in May that the camps in Pangasinan and Tarlac were financed by the al-Qaeda and was organized by several Arabs, many of whom have been placed under arrest.

Berroya was also responsible for the arrest of another Jordanian, Yousef Al-Ghoul, 35, in Bataan last December for illegal possession of 281 sticks of dynamite.

Al-Ghoul, 35, who claims to be Jordanian national, was arrested after police found 281 sticks of dynamite stashed inside three bags in his apartment.

Also seized from Al-Ghoul’s Balanga City apartment were three Nokia 5110 cell phones, which are believed to have been used as bomb triggers, and Arabic documents, one of which was entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans."

Berroya had also claimed that the camps were supervised by the special operations group of the Bangsamoro Islamic Liberation Forces, the armed wing of the MILF.

The same special operations group, under MILF commanders Mukhis Yunos, Aleen Mimbantas and Abdul Asis, are also believed to be responsible for the Dec. 31, 2000 bombings in Metro Manila that killed 21 people and injured over a hundred others.

MILF again?

In fact, the sources claimed, the training camp in Buluan, Maguindanao was right inside territory "controlled" by the MILF and was established in cooperation with the JI.

Intelligence sources in Mindanao said JI members, mostly Indonesians, called a meeting on Sept. 19 with at least four MILF leaders and other "unfamiliar faces" to plan the latest Zamboanga City bombing.

The bombing was supposed to be in retaliation for the recent arrest in General Santos City of another Indonesian, Uskar Makawata, allegedly a JI member who planned the April 21 bombings in General Santos City.

The sources said two men, identified only as Salem and Ausan, were tasked to oversee the Oct. 2 bombing.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, for his part said, the bombing was perpetrated by two "Abu Sayyaf-related" terrorists who underwent "training" in bomb making.

"The bombing was a test mission of two Abu Sayyaf who underwent training on bomb making. These two personalities are ASG related and we are confirming the fact that training has been completed," said Carolina, who refused to elaborate.

Carolina, however, speculated that the bombing may have been committed by Abu Sayyaf terrorists in retaliation for the recent killing of suspected Abu Sayyaf member Sahilon Isnilon, brother of Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, who was gunned down inside a bus terminal in Zamboanga City where a bomb was later found. – With reports from Marichu Villanueva, Aurea Calica, Eva de Leon, Roel Pareño, John Unson, Benjie Villa