Ermita says Jemaah money trail in RP uncovered

A money trail involving $25,000 for terrorists in the Philippines has been traced by authorities to top terrorist Osama bin Laden through a labyrinth of remittances following the arrest of a suspected paymaster of the terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

Authorities believe that the $25,000 was wired by Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network to the Jemaah Islamiyah in Malaysia before being remitted to the Philippines. The funds were intended for terrorist attacks and training, officials said.

Filipino-Muslim Jordan Mamso Abdullah, 46, was arrested last April 3 in his hideout in Cotabato City on the strength of a warrant issued by Judge Antonio Lubao of the General Santos regional trial court. However, Abdullah’s arrest was made public only yesterday, four days before the presidential elections on Monday.

A handcuffed Abdullah was presented to reporters by Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City yesterday.

Ermita said the money trail is being operated in Southeast Asia through a JI "logistical cell"allegedly funded by an Indonesian militant identified as Zul-kifli, now detained in Malaysia. "We have a significant amount of problem of international terrorism in the country because it was being funded from the outside," he said. "There is a significant presence of international terrorists here through the Jemaah Islamiyah. About 40 foreign terrorists are operating deep in Central Mindanao."

He said Abdullah gave "valuable information" on the Jemaah Islamiyah’s presence in the Philipppines, and its financial transactions with Al-Qaeda. "His arrest established clear links between the Jemaah Islamiyah and unnamed Filipino terrorist personalities in Mindanao," he said.

Ebdane said US authorities helped the Philippine government uncover the financial network. "They also provided information from the debriefing and interrogation of Hambali and Mohammed," Ermita said.

Senior Superintendent Romeo Ricardo, who heads a police anti-terror unit, said Zulkifli asked Abdullah, who worked as a moneychanger, to convert the $25,000 into pesos.

Last July, the money was deposited in Abdullah’s bank account, and some was later transferred to Zulkipli’s account.

Ricardo said some of the money was also given to a Jemaah Islamiyah bomb expert identified only as Marwan. "The money was brought by an unidentified courier from Kuala Lumpur to Cebu City, where he was met by Zulkifli," he said.

Ricardo said some of the money was also used for Abdullah’s foreign currency exchange business, also in Cotabato City. Another chunk was used to buy a safehouse in Cotabato City, where Zulkifli stayed, he added.

Police officials have asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council to freeze the suspected terror funds remaining in the bank accounts of Zulkipli and Abdullah. The Philippines is also seeking permission from Malaysia to interrogate Zulkifli.

Military and police intelligence officials have intensified anti-terror operations in Cotabato City since last year to monitor and capture suspected JI terrorists.

One of those arrested last year, Indonesian Taufiq Rifqi, is believed to have also handled finances for the JI in the country. The funds was also traced to Riduan Isamuddin, former Jemaah Islamiyah operations chief, also known as Hambali, now under custody of US forces who captured him in Thailand last year.

Abdullah also is believed to have had dealings with Taufek Rifqi, an Indonesian JI militant arrested by troops in Cotabato City in October last year.

Police are hot on the trail of five top Jemaah Islamiyah members who have trained with the Moro Islamic and Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao, sources told The Star yesterday.

They are:

• Abu Fatih, alias Abdullah Ansori and Ibnu Thogib, head of the Mantiqi II, and a brother of Abdul Rochim, a teacher at Ngruki, who trained in Mindanao.

• Mohamad Qital, reportedly the head of Wakalah East Java for Jemaah Islamiyah, an Afghan veteran who was also monitored to have become a firearms instructor in one of the suspected MILF lairs in Mindanao.

• Muhajir, alias Idris, younger brother of slain Indonesian Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi and an instructor of the so-called Camp Hudaibiyah, a JI camp in Mindanao. Idris was also involved in Christmas Eve bombings in Mojokerto. The elder Al-Ghozi was killed in an encounter with the military in an outlying town in North Cotobato las Oct. 12, three months after bolting jail at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

• Mustakim, a member of the Central Command, who had headed and trained several recruits at Camp Hudaibiyah, a Jemaah Islamiyah military academy in Mindanao, sometime between 1997 and 2000.

• Dr. Azahari Husin, alias Adam from MantiqiI, and a Mindanao-trained terrorist involved in the Christmas Eve and Bali bombings in Indonesia. — with AFP reports