Iraqi diplomat linked to Philippine bombing

Tuesday, February 11, 2003 at 09:15 JST
MANILA — Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople on Monday confronted an Iraqi diplomat over an intelligence report linking another Iraqi diplomat to a bombing in the southern Philippines last October that killed a U.S. serviceman and at least two Filipinos.

Ople told reporters after his meeting with Iraqi Embassy charge d'affaires Samir Bolus that he informed him of the "serious" allegations made in an National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) report that he received last week.

Bolus denied the allegations but promised to instruct the diplomat in question, embassy second secretary Husham Zed Hussain, to avoid any actions that may undermine bilateral relations.

According to Ople, the NICA report said Hussain is suspected of having ties with members of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group that has been engaged in kidnapping and acts of terrorism in the southern Philippines.

The U.S. and Philippine governments have linked the Abu Sayyaf with the al-Qaida terrorist network, and Washington has designated it as a foreign terrorist organization.

In December, Philippine authorities arrested suspected Abu Sayyaf operatives alleged to have carried out the Oct. 2, 2002 bombing at a karaoke bar near a military base in Zamboanga City on the southern main island of Mindanao, in which one U.S. soldier was killed and another was seriously wounded.

Ople said the NICA found through tracing telephone records that Abu Sayyaf members called the second secretary immediately after the Zamboanga bombing.

"I am not allowed to discuss these, but these allegations are serious and therefore I had to bring this to the attention of the Iraqi Embassy," he said.

Ople said he has informed Bolus that the Philippine government will be monitoring the activities of the embassy staff.

Earlier in the day, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes told reporters that Philippine authorities are trying to verify intelligence reports that Iraq may be funding street protests against the United States in Manila.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez, along with intelligence officials who have requested anonymity, have said Iraqi diplomats appear to have been directly involved in instigating protests and fanning anti-U.S. sentiment in the capital.

Local militants have mounted small and sometimes violent protests against the U.S., which is seen as pushing for a war on Iraq over Baghdad's alleged noncompliance with demands to disclose information on its weapons of mass destruction.

The government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been criticized sharply by nationalists and militants opposed to her hawkish stance in support of the U.S. position on Iraq. (Kyodo News)

Iraqi envoy: No Abu link, don’t muzzle me

By ESTRELLA TORRES
TODAY Reporter

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople confronted Iraqi officials in Manila with a Philippine intelligence report linking an embassy official with the Abu Sayyaf, days after the same official was taken to task for attending antiwar rallies organized by critics of the United States’ aggressive stance against Iraq.

Quoting intelligence reports, Ople raised this matter in his meeting with Iraqi Chargé d’Affaires Samir Bolus at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Monday.

“I informed Minister Bolus about Philippine intelligence reports showing a link between the second secretary of Iraq, Consul Husbam Hussain, and some members of the Abu Sayyaf, who were linked to the bombing in Zamboanga City, where a US serviceman was killed and some 200 others were wounded, and his visible attendance in rallies and demonstrations,” said Ople in a press briefing.

He said Bolus denied the allegations and he [Bolus] agreed to instruct Hussain to stop attending rallies. At the same time, Bolus told Philippine officials he can’t be stopped from talking about Iraq’s position, considering the barrage of accusations it has been getting, especially from the US.

“If he [referring to Hussain] exceeded the normal permissible bounds of behavior, he should be subjected to disciplinary action,” said Ople.

However, he said the department is not supposed to be investigating the alleged misbehavior of Hussain, saying, “I prefer to give him a warning.”

Ople said the intelligence report was provided by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and was the subject of the meeting last week by the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security.

“The intelligence report on the links of the Abu Sayyaf and the second secretary of the Iraq Embassy in the Philippines came about when NICA traced cell-phone directories that [established the] link between the Iraqi second secretary and the Abu Sayyaf group that engineered the bombing in the area of Malagutay in Zamboanga City,” said Ople.

He explained that an Abu Sayyaf member made the call to Hussain right after the bombing in Zamboanga City, which occurred in October last year.

“The intelligence reports are very detailed [but] I’m not allowed to disclose the details because it will compromise the assets of the intelligence community,” said Ople, stressing, “These allegations are serious and I have to ask the Iraqi chargé d’affaires about it.”

Ople also told Bolus that the military and the police will continue to monitor the activities of Iraqi Embassy officials in the Philippines.

Bolus denied that the Iraqi government is funding anti-US rallies and demonstrations in the Philippines, some of which are being led by Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr.

However, Bolus said the Philippines has no right to stop him from airing the Iraqi position on the US plan to attack it.

“I think I have the right to express my opinion, it’s not against the Philippines, its not against anyone. I am just expressing my [Iraq] government’s view,” said Bolus in an ambush interview after his meeting Monday with Ople.

Bolus said the Iraqi government has assured Ople that it will provide enough security to the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad.

Ople also said the embassy in Baghdad will remain open until further notice.

“I assured Mr. Bolus that our embassy remains open. We also discussed the situation in Iraq and reiterated our common position for a peaceful solution to the Iraqi issue. We both expressed the hope that it will never be necessary to suspend the operations of our embassy in Baghdad,” said Ople.

He said Bolus assured the Philippine government that the Iraqi Embassy is not involved in any of the activities attributed to it and its officials.

“Mr. Bolus told me that he will not allow this to happen. I told him that I will hold him and his officials responsible for any such acts which are incompatible with their functions as accredited diplomats, and I informed him that I will act accordingly,” said Ople.

The Philippines and Iraq are holding bilateral meetings on February during the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur from February 20 to 25.

The imminent war between the US and Iraq is expected to dominate discussions at the summit.

In Zamboanga City, military intelligence agents arrested over the weekend a member of the Abu Sayyaf who was allegedly planning to sow terror in that city.

Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, spokesman for the Armed Forces Southern Command, said the bandit was arrested around 1 p.m. Saturday in a house in barangay Calarian.

Lucero identified him as Hussein Abdulmanan, alias Aman. There is a P1-million reward for his arrest.

Lucero said Abdulmanan has admitted that he participated in the Dos Palmas kidnapping in May 2001. With B. Garcia Jr.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/abs_news_body.asp?section=National&oid=15664

In the run-up to Desert Storm, Iraq used South East Asia as the base of operations for terrorist activities related to the conflict, assembling hit teams with forged identities to carry out attacks on Western embassies. Their initial efforts were amateurish and unsuccessful. About a year after the conclusion of Desert Storm, two key terrorist organizers emerged in the Philippines: Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM). These individuals worked together closely and had similar backgrounds. Both have used multiple identities supported by forged documents. Both are ostensibly Kuwaitis. Supposedly, they are close relatives: KSM is said to be the brother of Yousef's mother, although their passport ages differ by only three years. Both were supposedly educated in the West in their late teens, KSM in the United States and his cousin in the United Kingdom. No living members of their family have emerged: according to government documents in Kuwait, the family emigrated to Pakistan during the Iraqi occupation. Yousef organized the 1993 conspiracy which attempted to topple the World Trade Center, arriving in the US on Iraqi passport, organizing a rag-tag band of Islamic misfits to carry out the operation, then leaving them to take the rap when the bombing misfired. Yousef fled to the Philippines, where he hooked up with his "uncle" and plotted Project Bojinka, an early prototype for 9-11. Yousef was later apprehended but KSM, although the subject of a sealed indictment since the 1990s, has never been found. He is said to have used 32 different identities. Hardly a model Muslim fundamentalist, KSM reportedly enjoys conspicuous consumption, womanizing and night life. KSM has been linked to every major Middle Eastern attack on US interests since the end of the Gulf War, and is the self-proclaimed organizer of 9-11. He was in the Philippines at or around the time Timothy McVeigh's co-conspiratator, Terry Nichols, visited that country on a sex tour, interestingly enough. Anyone who wishes to understand the nature of 9-11, would do well to start with the question: who is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.