Top US spy slips into town

America’s spy master John Negroponte arrived in Manila yesterday at the same time that the US Embassy suspended public services at its mission, citing a "plausible threat."

The former US ambassador to the Philippines, who is on an Asian tour, arrived on a US Air Force C-17A aircraft from Australia along with 18 American military officials.

US Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop said the building housing the public services section in the complex on Roxas Boulevard was temporarily closed due to a "plausible threat to the security of the embassy," adding "we got some information and we thought that the sources were credible enough to merit the closing of the services of the embassy."

Lussenhop declined to elaborate on the nature of the threat or who had provided the information.

"I would like to alert all Philippine and American citizens that due to plausible threat information, public services at the US Embassy are going to be temporarily closed to the public today," Lussenhop said.

"The threat we received we felt was plausible enough to merit closing temporarily services to the public."

Lussenhop said services temporarily made unavailable to the public included visa, consulate services, Social Security Administration, and the Veterans Affairs Regional Office.

Lussenhop said the decision to temporarily close down was made Monday evening.

"I couldn’t say 100 percent that public services will reopen tomorrow (meaning today). But we’ll reopen as soon as it’s appropriate," he said.

Asked by The STAR if the bomb threat was connected to Negroponte’s unannounced visit, Lussenhop replied, "I don’t believe it was connected to the visit."

Lussenhop said Negroponte, the US Director for National Intelligence, arrived for a meeting with his Philippine counterparts to discuss and further strengthen intelligence gathering and counterterrorism measures.

"They will talk about a broad range of intelligence and counterterrorism measures and he will be here for a couple of days," he said.

Lussenhop stressed Negroponte’s visit had been scheduled prior to the temporary closure of the embassy.

"It (the visit) was planned for sometime. I would not link it to the closure of the embassy," he added.

Lussenhop said it is not necessary to cancel Negroponte’s visit even as the US mission in Manila declared its services indefinitely closed.

Negroponte was given a briefing by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo in Washington last October on the political and security situation in the country.

The briefing came in the aftermath of the arrest of Filipino-American intelligence analyst Leandro Aragoncillo who was accused of passing classified information to former Philippine police colonel Michael Ray Aquino and several other still unnamed Filipino politicians.

Diplomatic sources said Romulo, who was scheduled to fly to Washington, was ordered to stay put and brief the US spy chief on the current political developments in the country.

Malacañang said President Arroyo and National Security officials were scheduled to meet Negroponte over dinner to discuss intelligence concerns and anti-terrorism efforts of both countries.

"The meeting would tackle matters of national security and the threat of terrorism, and of course, intelligence (matters)," a top Palace official said.

Call from ‘Evita’

After receiving the bomb threat Monday night, personnel from the Manila Police District immediately went inside the embassy compound to check it out.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Vidal Querol said a police bomb disposal squad had been sent to the embassy complex along Roxas Boulevard.

The police squad, which included bomb-sniffing dogs, checked the embassy, "but we did not find anything," said Manila Police District director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong. "We continue to monitor the area," he added.

Querol however could not say where the threat had originated, saying, "Maybe they got it from their own sources."

A guard was quoted in reports as saying a text message had been received on Monday night from someone named "Evita" threatening to blow up the embassy.

Security sources revealed the threat was made by telephone, and that Evita mentioned specific information about the embassy’s premises.

The embassy posted a statement on its website but did not elaborate on the threats. It said the embassy would resume all public operations, including visa operations, "when deemed appropriate."

The embassy urged Americans "to remain aware of the continued potential for terrorist attacks against Americans, US or other Western interests in the Philippines."

Although often mentioned as a potential terrorist target, the US Embassy in Manila has rarely closed its doors in the past.

Earlier this year, authorities said they thwarted a plot by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants to mount a 1,000-kilo truck bomb attack on the US embassy.

The embassies of Australia and Britain, key US allies in the "war on terror," were also eyed as targets, officials said.

Local Muslim militants with ties to the JI and al-Qaeda extremist networks have carried out bombings here in recent years. The absence of a comprehensive anti-terror law is seen as hampering efforts to crack down on them.

The Philippine government, fighting homegrown Muslim extremists and communist insurgencies as well as the JI, is a staunch security ally to Washington.

But anti-US sentiment in the Philippines has risen in recent weeks with six visiting US soldiers being investigated over allegations they raped a 22-year-old Filipina on Nov. 1 after joint military exercises in Subic.

"An attack on any US embassy in the world is every Islamic militant’s dream," an intelligence official said.

The official added that two leading foreign militants hiding in the jungles of central Mindanao are Indonesians tasked to carry out the attacks.

Citing information shared by Jakarta, the official said the men named Dulmatin and Umar Patek had asked a contact in central Java, Abdullah Sunata, to send Indonesian recruits to Mindanao to launch suicide bombings in the Philippines.

Dulmatin and Umar Patek, the main suspects in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed nearly 200 people, are high on a US terrorism blacklist. Washington has offered a reward of $10 million for the arrest of Dulmatin and $1 million for Umar Patek.

Sunata was arrested in June during a sweep by Indonesian police in Jakarta and on the island of Sulawesi.

Preparing for the offensive

A US-based terrorism expert Zachary Abuza said there was an exchange of e-mails by Umar Patek and Sunata in April about sending "suicide bombers to be used in the Philippines."

"The five people that were arrested trying to enter or get into Mindanao in December 2004 and June 2005 fit the bill for this request," Abuza said, adding two Indonesians — Ahmad and Abu Nida — were able to slip in to the Philippines.

"It appears as if Jemaah Islamiyah, the Abu Sayyaf group and some (rogue) members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are preparing for an offensive," he said.

The Abu Sayyaf is blamed for the worst terror attack in the country — the bombing of a ferry near Manila in February 2004 that killed more than 100 people.

The MILF, on the other hand, is in peace talks with the government but rogue members are believed to be working with the JI.

Police intelligence authorities said the JI had been plotting to hit the US Embassy in Manila since 2000.

This was after Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, came to the Philippines to plan attacks on the American, Israeli and British missions.

Hambali and other foreign militants abandoned the plan due to tight security around the embassies but continued to search for ways to hit the three targets, police said.

Hambali, an expert bomb-maker, was arrested in Thailand in 2003 and is now in US custody.

Last year, three Abu Sayyaf militants arrested in Manila told police they were sent to the capital to survey the US Embassy.

The US Embassy earlier said it was taking precaution after intelligence agencies disclosed a threat from the JI to detonate a 1,000-kilogram bomb.

"We take the security of the embassy very seriously," Lussenhop said, though he declined to say if the US mission will request additional outside security because of the "super bomb" threat.

"We never comment publicly about security matters but we are in close contact with the military and the police on matters concerning the security of the embassy," he said.

National Security Council deputy executive director Victor Mayo and National Intelligence Coordinating Council director Cesar Garcia revealed during a budget hearing at the House of Representatives last Nov. 22 that the Indonesian-based terrorist group is planning to carry out "suicide bombings" by planting so-called "super bombs" in key areas in Metro Manila.

Mayo and Garcia said the alleged bomb attacks will be carried out by foreign terrorists, many of them already in the country. — With Rainier Allan Ronda, Paolo Romero, Nestor Etolle, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jaime Laude, AP, AFP