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
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Hey Swarthy, doesn't this remind you of the Japanese from Canada to S. America pre 7 December, 1941.
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.
Of course our left wingers in the future and PC blinded so called conservatives will claim that all of this action by the Philipine Government was racial.