Posted on 12/06/2001 1:47:48 PM PST by knak
COTABATO, Philippines: An Iraqi teacher was arrested in the southern Philippines on Friday on suspicion of having links to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist network, an official said.
Mohammad Sabri Selamah, 50, was arrested at his home in the village of Simoay near Sultan Kudarat town on Mindanao Island, local army spokesman Major Julieto Ando said.
A Manila court issued an arrest warrant against the suspect, who is "believed to have links with suspected international terrorist Osama Bin Laden," Ando told reporters.
The authorities seized explosives and tools for forging passports at his house, Ando said.
Selamah is the director of the Islamic Koranic Memorization Center, a school that teaches children about Islam's holy book. He arrived in the Philippines in 1998.
In Manila, police also raided a Manila apartment and arrested an unidentified man, believed to be from Jordan, who they suspected of being a terrorist.
Police found a handgun and detonating cords for explosives in the suspect's room, members of the justice department's anti-terrorist unit said shortly after the arrest.
They said the man claimed he was Jordanian.
The arrests came as President Gloria Arroyo announced in Manila that she had secured a commitment from the US government to help quash kidnap and Muslim insurgency groups in the south.
Arroyo is a staunch supporter of US President George W Bush's campaign against global terrorism.
Philippine military officials have said that Muslim guerrillas operating in the south, including the Abu Sayyaf, are known to have ties with Bin Laden, the world's most wanted man for the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. ( AFP )
"Selamah is the director of the Islamic Koranic Memorization Center, a school that teaches children about Islam's holy book. He arrived in the Philippines in 1998. "
If Nichols ever met with Selamah it would have been in 1994 -1995. At that time Selamah may have been passing through the Phillipines, or else the info in the story about 1998 could be incorrect( he may have been a resident much earlier). I will try to do some checking. Thanks for the heads up.
I'm sure these kids learned how peaceful Islam is...
TIMEasia.com: News -- Rumbles in the Jungle
... of Simuay Crossing on the Philippines' southern island of Mindanao, Mohammad Sabri
Selamah fit in just fine. He spoke three local dialects, had lived in ...
www.time.com/time/asia/news/magazine/ 0,9754,212723,00.html - 41k - Cached - Similar pages
US mission in Philippines too little?
... people in Manila in December 2000. Another foreigner who was arrested is Mohammad
Sabri Selamah, a Palestinian veteran of the Afghan jihad who had been a close ...
www.msnbc.com/news/720731.asp - 73k - Cached - Similar pages
CNN.com - Arrests link al Qaeda to Philippines - November 28, ...
... including blasting caps, time fuses and detonation cords from Mohammad Sabri Selamah,
35, a Palestinian carrying Iraqi documents; Ahmad Abd Bin Masria, 32, a ...
www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/ 11/28/phil.arrest/?related - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
CNN.com - Philippines holding suspected al Qaeda members - March ...
... Palestinian Mohammad Sabri Selamah came to the Philippines in 1986. Soon after, he
helped set up a local IRO chapter for Khalifa, according to the intelligence ...
www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/ 03/07/ret.philippines.al.qaeda/ - 17k - Cached - Similar pages
You need Windows Media Player to listen.
... to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist network, an official said. Mohammad Sabri
Selamah, 50, was arrested at his home in the village of Simoay near Sultan ...
www.radiopinoyusa.com/matanglawin/ml-12-04-2001.html - 8k - Cached - Similar pages
Two Palestinians, Jordanian arrested in Philippines
... said they seized pistols and bomb-making components from Mohammad Sabri Selamah,
35, a Palestinian carrying Iraqi documents. Also arrested were Ahmad Abd Bin ...
www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/ 11/28/philippines-arrests.htm - 37k - Cached - Similar pages
Columbia Newsblaster
... 2001). News on Moro National Liberation Front, Zamboanga,
Mohammad Sabri Selamah, Abu Sayyaf, Muslim. ...
www.cs.columbia.edu/nlp/newsblaster/archive/75.html - 13k - Cached - Similar pages
US "training exercise" in the Philippines sets stage for broader ...
... to the MILF. The magazine described one of the three, Mohammad Sabri Selamah, as
an associate of Mohammad Jamal Khalifa—“the Philippines point man for Osama ...
www.wsws.org/articles/2002/mar2002/phil-m15.shtml - 21k - Cached - Similar pages
Iraqi held in Sultan Kudarat on al-Qaeda suspicions - November 23 ...
... to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, an official said. Mohammad Sabri
Selamah, 50, was arrested at his home in the village of Simoay near Sultan ...
www.inq7.net/brk/2001/nov/23/brkoth_5-1.htm - 20k - Cached - Similar pages
Mohammad Sabri Selamah fit in just fine. He spoke three local dialects, had lived in Mindanao for almost a decade and was raising four kids with his Philippine Muslim wife. Selamah, a Palestinian carrying Iraqi travel documents, worked as the head teacher at a Koranic recitation center attached to a local orphanage.
The employer of OKC bombing suspects Abraham Ahmad, Al Hussaini and Khalid Mohammed’s (known terrorist wanted by the FBI) in OKC is a Jordanian close to Hamas and sympathetic to the Palestinians and appears to have matched up Nichols and McVeigh with Iraqi intell officers in Las Vegas and OKC City.
It is interesting to note the possible parallel here- Terry Nichols may have met with a Palestinian Salemah loyal to Hamas and BIn Ladens Abu Sayef terror group in the Phillipines connected to Iraq just as the employer was loyal to Hamas and the Palestinians and connected to the Iraqis. The employer in OKC could have been in touch with Salemah or those close to him at the same time he was in touch with McVeigh and the Iraqis intell people in the US.
I wonder if Salemah knew about or was part of the meeting with Nichols and Edwin Angeles of Abu Sayef in the Philippines with Iraqis in 1994? Ramzi Yousef connected to Iraq and Abu Sayef may have also worked with Nichols and with Salemah in the Philippines.
Salemah could be another Iraqi and BIn Laden link to the OKC bombing.
. "Iraq-AlQaeda Bombshell: Mag Documents New Links", March 17, 2002.
The article decribes a New Yorker magazine report by Jeff Goldberg detailing close cooperation betweeen Iraq's Mukhabarat intelligence service and AlQaeda for ten years.
I have been off on other things since 10-5.
I am still very interested in this.
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