Will the Abu Sayyaf retaliate? They would have attacked anyway

Of course the Abu Sayyaf terrorists will attack – anywhere they can, anyhow they can.

They were planning to do so anyway, long before the Bagong Diwa "shootout", and that rat Abu "Solaiman" alias Jainal Anteli Sali Jr., who had been bragging he was behind the Makati bus bombing, was, from the night of the Valentine’s Day carnage, boasting about their next strike.

And so, all those outraged threats from radical Muslims that a new wave of depredations would be launched in retaliation for the "massacre" of their brethren in the BJMP jail in Taguig are a lot of chest-thumping nonsense. The ASG already had, in their timetable, a series of planned attacks.

The advantage is now on our side, however: having been stung to the quick and embarrassed by the Bagong Diwa near-escape and its bloody aftermath, our policemen – and military, too – are now more than ever on the alert to thwart these assaults, or at least hit back at the terrorists blow for blow.

At least I hope so.

In this country, all it takes is for some sentry to doze off, one felonious idiot in uniform to be bribed into collaboration, or some treacherous infiltrator to be in place where terrorists mount an incursion or a raid.

There are enough greedy traitors in our midst to give us pause – and too many loopholes which permit saboteurs and terrorists to penetrate even areas we deem secure.

For instance, the untold story of the fighting in Sulu (and, for that matter, elsewhere in Mindanao) is that when our soldiers and marines overran Abu Sayyaf or Misuari Breakaway Group positions, they often found the insurgents better armed than they were, and too frequently for comfort, even captured weapons which, from their serial numbers, could be traced as coming from our own armed forces armory.

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In fact, I was surprised when it was announced, in the wake of a recently-exposed weapons procurement scandal, that the corrupt Logistics Command of the AFP had been abolished by the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Gen. Efren L. Abu.

Gee whiz, I had to exclaim to myself: all this time I thought the LogCom had already been abolished by Abu’s predecessor, former Chief of Staff Gen. Narciso L. Abaya, now head of the Bases Conversion & Development Authority.

As 32nd Chief of Staff, Narcing Abaya – a West Pointer ’71 – had been announcing he was dismantling the Logistics Command and transferring procurement powers and responsibilities to the unit commanders in the field. So much for press statements. It took the revelation of another multi-million buck "scam" to precipitate, hopefully at long last, the LogCom’s much-overdue demise.

I remember the first "coup" staged by the RAM, which in those days called themselves the "Reform the Armed Forces Movement" until they decided to go stylish and re-invent themselves as the Rebolusyonaryong Alyansa Makabansa, which sounds terrifically more patriotic.

One of the RAM’s complaints was that the Logistics Command was crooked, and had foisted on our soldiers sub-standard weapons, and ammunition that didn’t work or had "expired," the kiss-of-death when a soldier in combat needs every bullet to fight off the enemy, or merely to survive.

But the LogCom went merrily marching on. I guess too many officers were gorging themselves by sucking at its profitable teats. Now, we can’t even get that guy, the now notorious comptroller, Gen. Carlos Garcia, to squeal on who else got rich in the military establishment.

Incidentally, I think it was very strange – and a case of bad timing – for our Congressional Commission on Appointments to have "bypassed" Chief of Staff Abu on the flimsy allegation that he was responsible for the "detention" of former Intelligence Officer Oscar Mapalo. Abu is an officer with a fine record of combat and command, not a Gauleiter or a local version of Torquemada, the medieval Spanish Inquisitor.

To attempt to humiliate and sideline General Abu at a time when our military is engaged in a fight to the finish in Sulu, and we’re on national "red alert" against renewed terrorist assault, throws our high command into uncertainty and confusion.

I believe the President and Commander-in-Chief ought to re-appoint Abu, pronto, if necessary. Sus, Abu is retirable anyway on his next birthday on June 24 – yep, 14 weeks from now. For his years of devotion to duty and his sterling record in both combat and intelligence, our Congressmen should have given him the honor, at least, of a dignified exit.

But who cares about such things in the COA, which has been described by some as a "chamber of horrors"?

In these difficult times, we need men like Abu most – in particular since he is a close personal friend and former "classmate" in the Command and General Staff course in Ft. Leavenworth (Kansas) in 1991, of now Indonesian President (General) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Since the Jemaah Islamiyah is based in Indonesia, and operates actively in Central Mindanao, we need every bit of cooperation we can get from Abu’s classmate, SBY, alias President "Bambang", in tracking the JI terrorists down, frustrating their moves, and collaring their agents.

Another bunch of terrorists recently arrived, by last report, from Indonesia – among them a brother of slain Makati LRT bomber (December 30, 2000) Fahthur al-Ghozi.

When our soldiers have to grapple not just with Abu Sayyaf and JI enemies, but with politicians, both Christian and Muslim, too, sanamagan, then we’re all at risk.

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Speaking of the threat of more depredations voiced by the murderous Abu Sayyaf chieftain Abu "Solaiman," his role in the organization has been confirmed by "Boy Negro," alias Gappal Bannah Asali, 24, who "confessed" the other day and pleaded guilty in connection with the terrible Makati bus bombing.

Gappal, who comes from Taluksangay Talabanan, Zamboanga City (born there on March 8, 1982), was recruited for the ASG by Solaiman sometime in 2003 and trained in June last year in explosives in the mountains of Marawi.

In November 2004, Gappal had been instructed by his "control officer," a certain Abu Khalil to take custody of eight kilos of TNT, one biscuit container full of black powder, two .45 caliber automatics with seven magazines of live ammo., one NOKIA cellphone – which was later utilized as the "trigger" – 10 detonators, and assorted explosive materials.

On February 13, the day before the bombing, Abu Khalil directed Boy Negro (Gappal) to produce the explosives which he had stashed away in Maharlika Village, Taguig. On February 14, Boy Negro and his confederates had executed the bus-bombing mission.

What kind of hardliner is Abu Solaiman, the fellow who had claimed "responsibility" for the deed for the Abu Sayyaf?

In her 2003 book, "In the Presence of My Enemies" (Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois), former hostage Gracia Burnham quotes the Abu Sayyaf, including Solaiman, as telling their captives why they were "so well supplied with weaponry."

No, the al-Qaeda, she narrated as having been informed, weren’t shipping weapons and ammunition to them by night. In her own words:

"No, no – nothing so exotic as that. The Abu Sayyaf told us their source was none other than the Philippine Army itself. More than once I heard Solaiman on the sat-phone calling Zamboanga, talking to a lady named Ma’am Blanco. He would give her all his specifications for guns, bullets, you name it."

"‘Who are you ordering from?’ we asked him one day.

"‘Oh, the army,’ he replied. ‘We pay a lot more than it should cost, of course. So somebody’s making a lot of money. But at least we get what we need.’"

"I was amazed. The fact that such firepower could quite possibly wind up killing one’s fellow soldiers seemed not to matter at all." (This one is page 150 of her book).

Further down, Burnham described how Solaiman insisted on Islam "as a religion of justice."

"We are trying to get justice for everything bad that has ever happened to us,’ he explained. He recited all the atrocities against Muslims, starting back before the Crusades and explained how they were seeking retribution."

Solaiman went on to rage against Philippine armed forces having seized what was Muslim land in Mindanao, and "AFP atrocities against Islam."

Burnham quoted: "He claimed there was a radar station on a high hill in the Zamboanga Peninsula, accessible only by helicopter, where AFP officers held Muslim women captive for their personal pleasure. (I couldn’t help wondering how this, if it was true, differed from Reina’s present condition with Janjalani)."

"All of this, said Solaiman, was the justification for jihad."

The girl Gracia Burnham mentioned in her sad narrative, Reina, was a nurse in her 20’s captured by the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers in Lamitan, Basilan, taken along with them when they "broke" out of military encirclement, then taken by ASG Chieftain Khadafi Abubakar Janjalani (alias Abu "Moktar") for his own pleasure, later "married" by him – then released after four months of captivity owing to her pregnancy.

If that wasn’t rape, what was it?

Solaiman and Janjalani are both at large.

Were the ASGs tender towards their captives? They were cruel indeed. Gracia’s husband, Martin, who with her had been a missionary here for 17 years, was nightly tied or chained to a tree, and subjected to both hardship and indignity until he was killed on June 7, 2002, during the somewhat clumsy military rescue raid.

In the last chapter of her volume, Gracia said much too gently of the fanatics who had enslaved them, and brought her beloved husband to his date with death: "The extremist mind-set, as I experienced at close range for a full year (of captivity), is not an easy thing to manage."

In this perilous hour, we will have to understand that there’s no way we can reason with the Abu Sayyaf thugs or their supporters – or in her almost too-forgiving words, "manage" their mind-set.

We can only fight them, with everything we‘ve got. They hate us, not for ourselves alone, but for every grievance real or imagined dating back to before the medieval Crusades! Susmariosep. How can we ever appease them for what those... ancient Crusaders did?

In such a case, it’s only the old lex talionis which can prevail: a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. It’s sad, but it’s the reality of the war we’re forced to wage.