“We may not get him today or tomorrow – but we will get him.”
These were the exact words used by the FBI agent when he told me the United States was bent on extraditing Mark Jimenez, aka Mario Crespo, to face charges involving tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions. The late businessman fled to the Philippines following an arrest warrant issued by a South Florida district court judge in April 1999, became adviser to President Erap Estrada, and eventually got himself elected Congressman of Manila. In December 2002, Jimenez was extradited to the United States, convicted by a US court in November 2003 and served a two-year sentence before getting deported to the Philippines in 2005.
Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was able to escape from Mexican jails several times before he was recaptured and eventually extradited to the US in 2017 to face crimes that include drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal possession of firearms and homicide. Today, he is serving his sentence in a super maximum-security prison facility in Colorado that is also known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”
After spending close to a trillion dollars in hunting him down for close to 10 years, al-Qaeda founder and 9/11 terrorist attacks mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed inside a secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in May 2011 by US Special Forces.
Displaying “shock and awe” tactics, a team of US Navy SEALs stormed the walled fortress and finished off one of the world’s most wanted terrorists in a 40-minute operation codenamed “Neptune Spear,” referring to the special warfare insignia also known as the “SEAL trident.” Details following the successful mission indicated that it only took nine minutes to take down Bin Laden – the man responsible for the killing of 3,000 people.
The highly classified operation was the result of years of intelligence work and careful planning, with the Navy SEALs going through intense training in a compound that replicated the layout of Bin Laden’s safehouse in Abbottabad. Aware that the US is using sophisticated surveillance technology, the al-Qaeda leader avoided using cellphones and other communications gadgets, relying instead on a courier whose identity was eventually discovered by US intelligence officials.
Eight years after the downfall of Osama bin Laden, the US once again displayed its formidable might during the October 26 raid in Idlib, Syria by members of the US Delta Force that resulted in the death of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who had a $25 million bounty on his head. Al Baghdadi became the world’s most wanted terrorist in 2014 after being named as caliph of an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria. His reign of terror was marked by atrocities like mass murders of ethnic Iraqis, beheadings and brutal executions, burning of enemies as well as rape and sex slavery.
One of the victims of al-Baghdadi’s brutality was a young American aid worker named Kayla Mueller who went to Turkey in 2012 and then to Syria as a humanitarian volunteer. She was kidnapped by ISIS in August 2013 just as she was leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Kayla was imprisoned with other women who were turned into sex slaves by ISIS.
Accounts from her parents say she was tortured and kept in chains, repeatedly raped by al-Baghdadi who considered her as his personal property. Despite her ordeal, Kayla remained strong, refusing to become a bargaining chip by the vicious extremist. In one of the letters she wrote during her captivity, she told her parents: “I do not want the negotiations for my release to be your duty,” having come to terms with her situation. In 2015, the ISIS claimed Kayla was killed during an air strike by a Jordanian fighter pilot – something which the Jordanian government had denied.
Many Americans found it fitting that the operation launched by the Delta Force to get al-Baghdadi was codenamed “Kayla Mueller.” Kayla’s parents were “deeply touched” that President Trump had not forgotten their daughter’s ordeal, and praised the president for his decisiveness. “We’re glad that the evil person is gone,” Carl and Marsha Mueller said, expressing gratitude to President Trump and the commando team that launched the successful operation.
Sources disclosed that members of the Delta team trained in Erbil, Iraq on how to breach the booby-trapped entrance by blowing up a hole on the side of the compound. Apache attack helicopters as well as CH-47 Chinook helicopters carried the Delta Force team and the K-9 (military dog) units.
Shortly after the death of al-Baghdadi who detonated an explosive vest after he got cornered into a tunnel while running away from the US military K-9, President Trump announced the death of ISIS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, widely believed as a potential successor to al-Baghdadi.
One critical aspect however was the collaboration of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Kurds, with Iraq, Turkey and Russia also cooperating – all of which led to the success of the two-hour mission which was hailed by many leaders as a major victory in the fight against extremism.
For as long as the United States continues to use its might and power in ridding the world of terrorists and malefactors like al-Baghdadi, countries like the Philippines and its people will always support the United States. God bless America!
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